national

Fisherman rescued in Pacific after tuna boat fire

6 Comments

An Indonesian fisherman was rescued Monday floating in the Pacific, 24 hours after his tuna fishing boat was seen engulfed by fire.

The man, identifying himself as Simon, was rescued by another fishing boat helping in the search for the Japanese-registered No. 8 Kaisei-maru, which was found in flames on Sunday, about 410 kilometers south of Kochi Prefecture in western Japan, the coastguard said.

Two Japanese and five Indonesian men were on board the vessel when it stopped responding to radio communications early that day, according to the coastguard.

"An Indonesian native, who is calling himself Simon, has been found and rescued" by a boat operating near No. 8 Kaisei-maru, a spokesman for the coastguard said.

"He is very weak, but conscious. He is not in a life-threatening condition," the spokesman said.

Three other men had been found, although all were said to be in cardiac arrest. The term is usually used in Japan by first responders before an accident victim is certified dead by a doctor.

A coast guard plane was transporting them to Japan, the spokesman added.

The coast guard originally received a report from a local fisheries radio station early Sunday that it could not contact the 19-tonne vessel.

More than four hours later, a plane spotted the burning ship, with television footage showing the bridge was in flames. It was unclear what caused the blaze.

Searchers returned to the area's waters Monday but could not locate the ship, which they said may have sunk.

The ship left the port of Kochi on February 20 and had planned to reach another port in nearby Wakayama Prefecture on Tuesday.

© (c) 2014 AFP

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

6 Comments
Login to comment

Hope there are survivors.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Likely are in a small boat waiting to be rescued. I'm hopping!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I'd like to know detail information of this happening. For instance, was it attacked?

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

I'd like to know detail information of this happening. For instance, was it attacked?

400km south of Kochi would put it near the Ryukyu Kingdom, militant members of the Kings guard probably sunk it thinking it was carrying Osprey parts......or maybe smuggling sweet potatoes..... come on Dude, the boat caught fire and sank, nothing more, nothing less.

j

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Seems this article is being edited as news comes in.

Glad Simon is okay. Most likely the cold water killed the others. (Prolonged immersion can give you a heart attack)

There seems to be a big difference in interest in this article compared to the divers in Bali the other day. Wrong gender and/or race?

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Good news with bad is better than no news. Hope Simon can shed more light on what happened.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites