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By IBTimes Staff Reporter: Subscribe to IBTimes's RSS feed | December 6, 2012 3:11 PM GMT
A cargo ship sank off the Dutch coast Wednesday night after it collided with another vessel. Four crew members died while seven went missing in the icy waters of the North Sea, rescuers told reporters.
"We can confirm that four bodies have been found, along with 13 people rescued alive," Coast Guard spokesman Marcel Oldenburger said.
The sinking of the ship was followed up by a massive air and sea rescue operation involving several helicopters, two navy patrol ships and even on of the ships involved in the collision.
According to the Associated Press, the 148-meter (485-foot) Baltic Ace collided with the 134-meter (440-foot) container ship Corvus J in darkness near busy shipping lanes some 65 kilometers (40 miles) off the coast of the southern Netherlands. The Baltic Ace, carrying a cargo of cars, had a crew of 24 which was forced to abandon ship as it sank quickly.
A statement cited by the AP indicates that by approximately 10 p.m., 11 crew members had been rescued by helicopters and two more ships.
The rescue operation was called off at about 2 a.m. before Coast Guard officials said they would decide at daylight whether to continue the search.
"We still hope to find them," Kees Brinkman, a spokesman for rescuers, told Dutch television nearly four hours after the collision. But, he added, "their chances of survival are shrinking" if they are in the water.
The Dutch Defense Ministry said in a statement obtained by the AP that two navy patrol ships were aiding the search. "Helicopters are trying, in (strong wind) and high waves to bring the people to safety," the ministry said.
The coast guard spokesman told reporters the cause of the collision was not known. "At the moment we are solely focused on getting the people to safety," he said. Four of the survivors were being flown to a hospital in Rotterdam and seven to an airbase in Belgium.
According to the AP, The Baltic Ace, sailing under a Bahamas flag, was heading from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge to Kotka in Finland, and the Cyprus-registered Corvus J was on its way from Grangemouth in Scotland to Antwerp, Belgium.
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