Six lost at sea after freighter sinks in Alaskan waters
The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for six crewmembers after a rescue helicopter that was carrying them from their stranded freighter crashed in the Bering Sea, according to the Associated Press.
The helicopter went down Wednesday night and chances for survival in the frigid waters are remote. Twenty other crewmembers were successfully rescued from the freighter. Three Coast Guard personnel and one crewmember were picked up from the water by another helicopter participating in the rescue.
The Selendang Ayu, a 738-foot bulk Malaysian-flagged freighter owned by Singapore-based IMC Group, was carrying a shipment of grain when it began drifting Tuesday off the southwestern Aleutian Islands chain after its main engine quit working, according to the Coast Guard. Heavy seas hampered efforts by Coast Guard cutters to stabilize the freighter, which ran aground and began to break up Wednesday.
The freighter was carrying 440,000 tons of bunker fuel, which Coast Guard officials feared could spill in the environmentally sensitive waters.
The Selendang Ayu is a single-deck bulk carrier built in China in 1998, the AP said.
Six lost at sea after freighter sinks in Alaskan waters
