Divers recover two bodies of dredger JBB DE RONG 19's missing crew

Divers have recovered two bodies out of the five missing crew of Dominican-registered dredger JBB DE RONG 19 this afternoon following a collision with Indonesian-registered tanker Kartika Segara early today.

"The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) expresses our deepest condolences to the families of the two deceased and wish those injured a speedy recovery. We will continue with our search and rescue efforts to find the remaining three missing crew members," said its chief executive, Andrew Tan in an updated statement, here.

It was reported earlier that a Malaysian was one of the five missing crew of a dredger that capsized and lay partly submerged.

However, it has yet to be confirmed whether one of the bodies found is the Malaysian crew.

At the point of collision which occurred in Singapore territorial waters about 12.40am, 12 crew members were onboard JBB DE RONG 19.

The MPA which continues to lead the SAR operations, with support from the relevant Singapore agencies, said seven crew members were sent to the Singapore General Hospital, out of whom five have been discharged.

It said assets from the Singapore agencies deployed included two Super Puma, two Chinook and one Fokker 50 from the Republic of Singapore Air Force, 15 vessels from MPA, Republic of Singapore Navy, Singapore Police Coast Guard and Singapore Civil Defence Force, and seven vessels from PSA Marine Pte Ltd and POSH Semco Pte Ltd.

About 200 personnel are involved in the SAR operations.

The MPA said it had notified the Indonesian Rescue Coordination Centre about the incident and they have deployed five vessels to assist with SAR in Indonesian territorial waters.

There have been no reports of an oil spill or disruption to shipping traffic in the Singapore Strait, it said.

-- BERNAMA