Tanker sinks in Arabian sea, one dies

Combined Maritime Force, Maritime Shipping and a Royal Navy helicopter and Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) ship have been involved in a search and rescue operation, in the Arabian Sea south of Oman, following sinking of the merchant tanker Rama 2.

On the morning of 26th June at 0237 UK time the vessel put out a “Mayday” call that was passed to the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) office in Dubai. The Rama 2 was reporting a heavy list to starboard with 14 crew members on board. Weather conditions were very difficult at that time.

Concurrently merchant vessels sailing in the area recovered some of the crew men in the water and the some others were rescued by the maritime forces. According to CMF, in spite of extensive searching, the last crew member could not be recovered, who was estimated to have been in the water for over 12 hours and was previously assessed to be lifeless.

Flight Commander and aircraft Observer Lieutenant Ash Morgan RN said: “This rescue was tricky due to the time we had to transit after the Lily-pad onto RFA Cardigan bay and then looking for a sole survivor in open water with very choppy conditions”.