A Russian vessel with 11 crewmembers went missing in the Sea of Okhotsk on Sunday, the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Sea Rescue Coordination Center reported.
“The Amurskoye motor ship disappeared three hours ago after sending a distress signal. We are currently searching for the ship but have so far failed to find it,” the rescue center said.
“An emergency beacon was activated. Probably, it simply fell over the board. That is why, we can’t yet say that the ship has sunk,” the rescue center said.
The emergency beacon sent a signal at 08:15 a.m. Moscow time (05:15 GMT) near the Shantar islands in the southwestern portion of the Sea of Okhotsk. The tanker Novik, which arrived at the scene of the beacon’s distress call, did not discover the vessel, a source in law-enforcement agencies told RIA Novosti.
The search and rescue operation is complicated by a severe storm at the scene of a possible shipwreck.