Taiwanese ship missing with 49 people on board near Falkland Islands

#fishingvessel #Taiwan #FalklandIslands #Kaohsiung Hsiang Fu Chun, a Taiwanese 700-tonne squid fishing vessel with 49 people has mysteriously disappeared near the Falkland Islands. It has reportedly vanished shortly after its skipper has intimated that it was taking on water. However, he did not make any mayday call.
The ship had lost contact with its owners soon after reporting about the water leaking on to the deck at around 3am on 26 February.
This is as per information in news.sky.com dated 8 March 2015.
The vessel had a crew of a Taiwanese skipper and chief engineer with 11 Chinese, 21 Indonesians, 13 Filipino and two Vietnamese.
Hsiang Fu Chun had been built 28 years ago and had set sail from Kaohsiung in January. It was believed to have been about 1,700 nautical miles off the coast of the Falkland Islands when it disappeared. This is as per satellite data.
There were doubts that the vessel could have lost power and be drifting or that it could have been hijacked by crew.
However, a Taiwanese search has failed to trace. The area is in a remote area - it takes six days for a boat to go there and 11 hours to reach it and return if a plane is used.
Moreover, the search is facing difficulties due to bad weather. Hence, the Taiwanese authorities have requested for help from Argentina and Britain.

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