Hope fades for missing crew on capsized ship

After saving 12 people aboard a large freighter that abruptly capsized in a Norwegian inlet, rescuers mounted a desperate search early today for 16 others as hopes faded they would be found alive inside the overturned hull.

“We will keep searching as long as there is hope and beyond that,” Asbjoern Andersen, operations leader for the district police said.

“They are still searching for signs of life in the wreck.”

As hopes faded for finding more survivors inside the MS Rocknes, which was turned over and partly submerged in the frigid waters, experts placed containment booms around the wreck to prevent any of more than 500 tons of oil and diesel fuel aboard from spreading.

The freighter, with 29 crew and a Norwegian ship’s pilot aboard, capsized yesterday in a narrow inlet between the island of Bjoroey and Norway’s western coast, less than 200 yards from land, at about 4.30pm local time (3.30pm Irish time) just after it put out a distress call.

Witnesses said the 544ft freighter, loaded with rocks and headed for Germany, appeared to struggle before it flipped over. The cause of the accident wasn’t yet known.

Rescue officials said two people were killed in the incident, and another 16 remained missing.

Twelve people were rescued from the ship or the nearby waters.

After hours of effort, rescuers managed to cut a hole in the ship, and pulled out three crew members who had been heard pounding the inside of the ship’s hull last night.

“All of them were conscious, and talking,” said Trygve Hillestad, a police spokesman at the scene, adding they were taken out seven hours after the ship flipped over.

Early today, Anders Bang-Andersen, of the Rescue Coordination Centre, Southern Norway, said there had been no other signs of life emanating from the hull, which was enveloped in the subfreezing temperatures and darkness of the northern winter.

Rescuers welded the first hole shut to prevent water from entering and Mr Andersen said new holes would only be cut if rescuers heard evidence of life inside the wreckage.

At least 15 rescue ships and small boats responded quickly, most from a nearby Norwegian naval base. Helicopters buzzed over the scene in the darkness.

The survivors, including three from the Netherlands and five Filipinos, were taken to a hospital, and most were reported to have minor injuries.

Cecelia Wathne, also of the rescue centre, said the crew included 24 Filipinos, three citizens of the Netherlands, two Norwegians and one German.

The nationalities of the missing crew weren’t released.

Darkness and the extremely slippery surface of the ship’s hull, which was covered by patches of ice, complicated the rescue effort.

Atle Jebsen, of the Bergen-based ship’s owner Jebsen Management, said the freighter, built in 2001, was a bulk carrier that had been loaded with stone bound for Germany.

Arleen Asuncion, of Jebsen’s office in the Philippines, said families of all their nation’s crew had been informed of the wreck, and a centre was being set up to help them.

“There were 24 Filipinos on board and 16 are still missing,” Asuncion told AP.

Bjoroey is around 200 miles west of the capital, Oslo.