Crew rescued as baking soda cargo ship sinks off Greece
Greece has rescued all nine crew members of a cargo ship that hit rocks and sank off the island of Andros in the southern Aegean, a coast guard official said.
The coast guard official said that the Vanuatu-flagged cargo ship, with its crew of 1 Azeri and 8 Turkish citizens, left Albania with 3000 metric tons of carbonate and was heading towards Ukraine when it sank off the coast of Andros.
It is not yet known what caused the ship, identified by authorities as Corsage C, to run aground.
A government official said a preliminary investigation has been launched into the incident.
Greek maritime ministry officials said two anti-pollution coast guard vessels and two other ships carrying anti-pollution equipment had previously deployed a floating sea barrier as authorities were concerned about potential fuel leaks.
Greek coast guard footage showed a small boat placing yellow floating bombs in the sea near the Andros coastline to help control pollution from the stricken ship.
The ship’s Türkiye-based operator could not immediately be reached for comment.
A rescue operation was launched after the ship made a distress call stating that it had run aground and was taking on water.
Officials said that Greece assigned three coast guard ships and a helicopter, while a cruise ship was assigned to locate the sinking cargo ship.
The coast guard official stated that two crew members were rescued from the sea and seven crew members were rescued from a rocky area on Andros, and that all of them were taken to the clinic on the island in “healthy” condition.
