Nearly a week after the Panama-flagged bulk cargo vessel MV Ocean Winner went down in the Bay of Bengal, Indian rescue forces have yet to locate any sign of the 22 missing crew members still unaccounted for, the Indian Coast Guard confirmed in an official update released Tuesday.
The ill-fated ship, which was carrying a full cargo of iron ore bound for Chinese ports, sent a distress signal to regional authorities last Saturday before sinking roughly 276 miles, or 444 kilometers, off the coast of Paradip in India’s eastern Odisha state. In the immediate hours after the distress call, rescue teams pulled two Chinese crew members from the water, but the remaining 22 people on board have had no contact with authorities since the vessel sank.
According to official crew rosters shared by the Indian Coast Guard, the MV Ocean Winner carried a total of 24 people when it departed: 20 Chinese nationals, three Myanmar nationals, and one Bangladeshi national. Since the sinking, a joint search and recovery operation has been mounted by the Indian Coast Guard and the Indian Navy, combining aerial surveillance missions and on-water search sweeps across the vast area where the ship was last tracked.
Officials have noted that the operation has faced significant logistical challenges, starting with the exceptionally deep water that covers the ship’s last known position. To date, search teams have only recovered two empty life rafts and spotted a large oil slick drifting near the area – no wreckage from the vessel has been located. The absence of confirmed wreckage has not only slowed efforts to narrow the search focus but also complicated ongoing investigations into what caused the ship to sink suddenly last week.
On Tuesday, search operations continued, with dedicated aircraft and surface vessels scouring the surrounding waters in the hopes of locating the missing crew and uncovering clues about the sinking.