Three Chinese sailors are dead and five are missing in the Yangtze River Estuary disaster

A Collision between a Chinese container ship and a foreign container ship occurred in the north Channel at the mouth of the Yangtze River late Sunday night, causing a Chinese container ship to take in water and sink. Sixteen Chinese crew members were in distress. Eight people have been rescued, three have died and another five are missing.

According to land media reports, at about 23:00 on December 13, the antika and Barbuda container ship “OCEANA”, which had the main engine failure, collided with the Chinese container ship “Xinqisheng 69” near the light buoy No. D15 in the North Channel of the Yangtze River mouth, causing the “Xinqisheng 69” to water and sink. The foreign cargo ship is currently in no danger.

The container ship “Xinqisheng 69” was 165m long and 23m wide and was carrying 650 containers with a crew of 16 Chinese.

In the early morning of December 14, the Official website of the Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration announced that 16 Chinese crew members were in distress in the accident, and an estimated 650 containers fell into the water. It asked passing ships to pay attention to search and rescue.

Shortly after the crash, eight people were rescued, three died and five others were missing. According to the rescued crew members, all 16 were wearing life jackets when they abandoned the ship, but the ship went into the water and flipped over too quickly to take lifeboats and plunged into the sea.

As of press time, five crew members are still missing, search and rescue work is continuing, the cause of the accident remains to be investigated.