A Russian cargo ship sank within the Mediterranean Sea between Spain and Algeria, leaving two crew members lacking, Spain’s maritime rescue company and the Russian Overseas Ministry mentioned Tuesday.
Fourteen of the Ursa Main’s crew have been rescued unhurt from a lifeboat and transferred to Spain, the company mentioned. The Russian ministry mentioned the ship began sinking following an explosion within the engine room.
The vessel was owned by SK-Yug, a subsidiary of the Russian delivery and logistics firm Oboronlogistika, which was established underneath Russia’s protection ministry and positioned underneath U.S. and European Union sanctions for its ties to Russia’s navy.
Spanish authorities mentioned there have been empty containers and two cranes on board. They didn’t affirm the reason for the accident.
In a press release on Dec. 20, Oboronlogistika mentioned the cargo ship was headed to Russia’s far jap metropolis of Vladivostok carrying two cranes for the port weighing 380 tons every. Ursa Main had left St. Petersburg 12 days in the past, Russian state information company Ria Novosti mentioned.
Spanish authorities mentioned they acquired an alert round 1 p.m. Monday when the vessel was roughly 57 nautical miles from Almería in southeastern Spain. The maritime rescue company contacted a ship close by that reported poor climate situations, a lifeboat within the water and the Ursa Main itemizing.
Authorities mentioned a Russian warship arrived later Monday to supervise rescue operations, and the 142-meter cargo vessel sank round midnight. The Russian embassy in Spain advised RIA Novosti it was investigating the accident and was in touch with native authorities.
Ursa Main was within the western Mediterranean concurrently Sparta – one other Russian cargo ship underneath U.S. sanctions – whose vacation spot as reported Tuesday was Port Mentioned in Egypt, in keeping with ship-spotting platform MarineTraffic.com.
It is commonplace for Russian ships going from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok to transit via the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal. With international warming, the Northern Sea Route by way of Russia’s Arctic is more and more traversed year-round, however most ships nonetheless select the southern route in winter.
Spanish maritime rescue models remained within the space Tuesday to observe for air pollution and take away any floating objects that might be harmful for navigation, authorities mentioned.
