HONG KONG — Search and rescue officials recovered 12 bodies from the area where a Chinese ship was split in half and sunk by a typhoon, while a fourth sailor was reported rescued, authorities said Monday. The engineering vessel Fujing001 and its 30 crew members were carrying out work on wind power projects when the vessel was caught in typhoon Chaba on Saturday and cut in half. China’s Guangdong Maritime Research and Rescue Center said the identities of the bodies were still being confirmed and the rescued sailor was in “normal physical condition”. The Hong Kong Civil Aviation Authority rescued the first three survivors. Cyrus Szeto, an aircrew officer involved in the search on Saturday, told RTHK on Monday that the rescue was extremely difficult and the team had to improvise their tactics. “The boat was leaning a lot, so there was no room for us to stand,” Szeto said. “Normally we’d upload each survivor one by one, but since there was no time, we uploaded two survivors with them, including me.” Wing Li, a helicopter pilot from the agency, told RTHK that they will not abandon their search and rescue mission. “There were previous cases where they were able to recover survivors after a period of time like this case,” Lee said. “So we’ll do our best.” The scope of the search and rescue has been extended to the northeast, Li said, adding that it was “difficult to accurately estimate the possible location of the missing crew members” as the wind continued to change direction. Vic Chang in Taipei contributed to this report.
