Video: Japanese Cargo Ship Collides With Chemical Tanker, 3 Seafarers Missing

Three people have been missing as a chemical tanker collided with a Japanese cargo ship near Ehime. The Marshall Islands-registered vessel Ulsan Pioneer had been hit by the cargo ship on Friday as it lay anchored off the Imabari coast in Ehime Prefecture. The collision has damaged the tanker’s bow.

According to Coast Guard officials, the incident happened in the Seto Inland Sea where the Japanese cargo ship had sunk after the collision.

The Imabari Coast Guard has revealed that the 11454-ton Japanese cargo ship Byakko and the 2696 ton chemical tanker Ulsan Pioneer had collided around 11:55 pm on Thursday. Nearly 3 hours after the collision, the Japanese cargo ship sank at 2:45 am on Friday.

The 3 missing seafarers are from the 12 crew members of the Japanese ship. The 3 missing persons are of Japanese origin named Tamotsu Sato 66-year-old captain), Yuki Ogawa (27-year-old first engineer) and Takahiro Uehata (22-year-old second engineer).

So far, the coast guard has rescued 9 people. 4 of them were picked up by a private container ship and the rest by a coast guard patrol vessel.

The tanker had 13 crew members, of which 5 were from Myanmar and the rest from South Korea. All of them have been found unharmed in the incident.

Although the tanker has been damaged in the bow it remains afloat. Prince Kaiun Co, the Kobe based company that operates the auto parts carrying Japanese cargo ship Byakko had left the port at 4:30 pm and was headed towards Kanda in Fukuoka Prefecture.

The chemical tanker was on its way to Osaka port from a Chinese port. It was supposed to arrive in Osaka on Friday at 2 pm.

Earlier this week, another Japanese vessel had been involved in a similar incident when a Russian ship collided with a Japanese fishing boat near the Hokkaido coast. The incident had killed 3 crew from the Japanese fishing boat.

27日夜遅く、愛媛県沖の瀬戸内海で日本の貨物船と外国船籍の船が衝突しました。日本の貨物船は転覆し、乗っていた12人のうち9人は救助されましたが、3人の行方がわかっておらず、海上保安部が行方を捜しています。https://t.co/uIJ1WWexur #nhk_video pic.twitter.com/n7AJ3clHhr

— NHKニュース (@nhk_news) May 27, 2021