Crew member of capsized tanker found dead and nine rescued

Omani authorities say nine members of a 16-strong Indian and Sri Lankan crew have been rescued, after going missing when their oil tanker capsized off the coast of Oman on Monday. One other has been found dead.

The Indian Navy announced that eight Indians and one Sri Lankan from the Prestige Falcon had been found by the warship INS Teg in the Arabian Sea on Wednesday.

Oman’s Maritime Security Centre later confirmed that nine crew members had been saved, but added that “tragically, one crew member was found deceased.”

India and Oman are continuing the search for the remaining crew in what the navy described as “challenging weather conditions”, including rough seas and high winds.

The Comoros-flagged Prestige Falcon, which had 13 Indians and three Sri Lankans on board, capsized about 25 nautical miles (46km) south-east of the Ras Madrakah peninsula.

An Indian official told the BBC that the tanker had been on its way to the port of Aden in Yemen when it transmitted a distress call around 22:00 local time (16:30 GMT) on Monday.

Officials from Oman’s Maritime Security Centre told Reuters news agency on Tuesday that the vessel remained “submerged, inverted” but did not confirm if it had stabilised.

Oman’s defence ministry, which runs the centre, did not respond to the BBC’s questions about whether the contents of the tanker had spilled into the sea.

The 117m (384ft)-long tanker was built in 2007, according to marinetraffic.com.

The area the ship capsized in falls in the province of Duqm in Oman, where the country has a major industrial port.

Indians form a majority of the global maritime workforce and are often the victims of accidents or piracy.

In April, 17 Indians, four Filipinos, two Pakistanis, one Russian and one Estonian national on board the MSC Aries, a Portuguese-flagged container ship, were stuck in Iran after Iranian troops seized the vessel. The crew were released the following month.