Bengal: Indian Coast Guard attends to injured Indonesian seafarer on merchant vessel

Kolkata, Aug 27 – The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) on Tuesday said that it assisted an injured mariner on board an Indonesian merchant vessel which was waiting to enter the Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) in West Bengal.

“The seafarer, with a severe head injury, was stabilised by ICG medics on board the container ship before being shifted to a hospital,” an IGC official said.

He said that the ICG district headquarters at Haldia received an email from the marine office of HDC, regarding a medical emergency on board MSC Tiger F.

“The merchant vessel was then near the anchorage at the Sandheads, about 130 km from Haldia. The ICG immediately deployed the fast patrol vessel ICGS Anmol with the district medical officer and a medical assistant,” the official said.

It added that on boarding the container vessel, it came to be known that the 3rd officer was working on the deck when he met with an accident.

“Apart from hurting a finger on his right hand, the seafarer of Indonesian origin also suffered a head injury and lost consciousness,” an ICG official said.

He added that the ICG medical team provided necessary assistance to the 3rd officer, adding that the seafarer was in a stable condition when shifted to a hospital in Haldia.

The MSC Tiger F, which entered HDC early on Tuesday, is a Panama-flagged container vessel that departed Colombo on August 22. She is 154.51 metres long and 25 metres wide.

Meanwhile, the ICG is continuing its search for the three missing crew members of ITT Puma, the general cargo carrier that capsized about 90 nautical miles south of Sagar Island on Sunday.

Eleven members of the crew were already rescued by the Coast Guard in an air-sea coordinated operation throughout the intervening night of Sunday and Monday. Among those missing is the captain of the ITT Puma.

The ICG’s Dornier aircraft are concentrating in the area where debris and flotsam from the wreck was detected on Monday.