Gusts of wind and high waves are preventing an operation to rescue sailors from the Irina refrigerator vessel in distress 13 miles from the Russian Kunashir Island in the Far East, the Emergencies Ministry reported.
The Irina, whose homeport is Vladivostok, with 19 crew and 500 metric tons of frozen fish on board sent an SOS a few hours ago.
“The Tatarstan transport refrigerator and the Ilya Konovalov trawler were sent to assist the distressed vessel. The Tatarstan has arrived at the site, but wind gusts up to 30 mps and waves up to 3m high prevent [rescuers] from starting the evacuation of sailors,” a ministry spokesman said.
“The vessel is still afloat,” he said.
The Atlas rescue boat is on its way, and a Mi-8 helicopter could be used in the operation, he said.
