TOKYO –
The Japanese Coast Guard said Sunday that rescue helicopters found seven of the 26 people on a tour boat missing in frigid waters off northern Japan since the day before, but their conditions were unknown.
Rescuers found four people near the tip of the Shiretoko Peninsula early Sunday and then three more people in the same area a few hours later, but the coast guard said it could not confirm whether they were rescued alive. NHK public television said they were unconscious.
The coast guard said the seven people were found in the same area near the tip of the peninsula north of where the ship sent out a distress call on Saturday. The location is known as a difficult place to maneuver boats due to its rocky coastline. The same tour boat had an accident there last year.
Footage on NHK showed one of the rescued people arriving by helicopter and being carried to an ambulance on a stretcher, with rescuers holding up blue plastic shields for privacy.
The boat carrying 24 passengers, including two children, and two crew members disappeared after sending out a distress call, saying it took on water and was beginning to sink.
Sunday’s rescue came after nearly 19 hours of intense search involving six patrol boats, several aircraft and divers. The coast guard said the search continued overnight.
The 19-tonne Kazu 1 made an emergency call early Saturday afternoon, saying the ship’s bow had been flooded and it was beginning to sink and list as it traveled off the western coast of the Shiretoko Peninsula in the northern island of Hokkaido, the coast guard said. saying.
Since then, the tour boat has lost contact, according to the coast guard. Nineteen people are still missing.
Average April sea temperatures in Shiretoko National Park are just above freezing.
An official with the ship’s operator, Shiretoko Pleasure Cruise, said he could not comment because he had to respond to calls from concerned families of passengers.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who was attending a two-day summit in Kumamoto in southern Japan, canceled his program for a second day and returned to Tokyo. He told reporters in the early hours of Sunday that he instructed officials “to do everything possible for the rescue.”
The cause of the accident is still under investigation, but experts suspect the ship ran aground and suffered damage in rough seas in an area known for strong currents and a rocky coastline.
High waves and strong winds were observed in the area around noon, according to a local fishing cooperative. Japanese media reports said the fishing boats had returned to port before noon due to bad weather.
NHK said there was a warning for high waves of up to 3 meters (9 feet).
The crew of a tour boat belonging to another operator told NHK that they warned about rough seas when they saw the crew of the Kazu 1 and told them not to leave. He said the same ship ran aground last year and suffered a crack in the bow.
The Coast Guard confirmed that the same boat ran aground in the area last June, although no one was injured in that accident.
Yoshihiko Yamada, a professor of marine science at Tokai University, said the ship likely ran aground after high waves tossed and damaged it, flooded it and probably sank. A tour boat of that size usually doesn’t carry a lifeboat, and passengers may not be able to escape a rapidly sinking ship with the windows probably closed to protect them from strong winds.
In an interview with TBS television, Yamada said there was also a slim chance the boat had been hit by a whale.
The cold temperature and strong wind could cause hypothermia and put passengers in severe survival conditions, according to Jun Abe, vice president of the Aquatic Rescue and Survival Research Society. “It’s a very serious condition, especially when they’re wet,” Abe told TBS.
According to the operator’s website, the tour lasts around three hours and offers panoramic views of the western coast of the peninsula and includes possible sightings of animals such as whales, dolphins and brown bears. The national park is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is famous for being the southernmost region to view drifting sea ice.
Reference-www.ctvnews.ca