Sinking oil tanker threatens ecological disaster on coastline

A SINKING tanker with 70,000 tons of oil on board was drifting in Atlantic storms yesterday, threatening Spain’s coast Coast of Death with an ecological disaster.

A five mile long slick had leaked out of the tanker Prestige, which was listing sharply and in danger of splitting in two in the ocean about 30 miles west of the Galicia region.

Helicopters rescued 24 of the 27 crew members but tug boat crews, who had battled through 20ft waves and 50 knot winds all night, had failed to tow the 44,000 ton tanker further out to sea. The captain and two others remained on board.

The Bahamian registered Prestige had been heading for Gibraltar with fuel oil it had loaded in Latvia.

Rescued crewmen said they had felt a bump and thought the ship had hit something.

The plan was to tow the tanker out to water with a depth of 9,000 feet and allow it to sink.