Search for ship in distress in Tatar Strait starts off Sakhalin

VLADIVOSTOK, January 7 (Itar-Tass) -- The search for the crew of the
fishing vessel Partner, which gave the SOS signals in the Tatar Strait
(the north of the Sea of Japan (the East Sea)) on Friday morning, was
launched on the western coast of the Sakhalin Island. The Cambodia-flagged
fishing vessel has the crew of 14 Russian citizens.
No motor roads exist in the incident area, therefore, heavy machinery
is involved in the search, the press service of the main EMERCOM
department in the Sakhalin Region reported. The ground search team
includes a doctor with warm clothes and foodstuffs aboard the vehicles.
The crewmen will receive all the aid in case of evacuation on the coast in
life rafts.
An airplane An-74 of the Far Eastern EMERCOM aviation centre flied
from Khabarovsk for an air reconnaissance in the incident area. A
helicopter Mi-8 is on standby in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, because high winds and
the bad visibility are observed in the Tatar Strait.
The fishing vessel Partner gave the SOS signal from the point five
nautical miles off the Sakhalin Horn of Lamanon. Shakhtersk and Uglegorsk
are situated there. The motor ships Pioneer of Kholmsk and Chelyabinsk of
the Sakhalin sea shipping company were dispatched for the rescue operation.
-0-baz/usn