5 Hope crew set to return at night

Five sailors of the ill-fated MV Hope, which tilted and partially sank off the coast of Thailand's resort city of Phuket last week, will reach home on Sunday night.

There is still no trace of the six members of the crew who have been missing since the ship capsized.

Mohiuddin Abdul Quader of Interport Maritime Ltd, a representative of the P&I club of Chittagong’s ship owners told bdnews24.com, “After the MV Hope capsized, another cargo ship MV Buxmoon, which was headed for Bangladesh, picked up the five crew from a life boat."

"The Buxmoon will reach Chittagong tonight."

He said the rescued five are in the ship.
The five survivors are the ship’s deck cadet Mokhlesur Rahman, 4th engineer Abdul Hakim, Mohammad Rubel, Mohamed Osman and Saiful Islam.

MV Buxmoon is expected to reach Chittagong port’s outer anchorage between 8pm to 9pm. From there the five Bangladeshi sailors will be brought to shore, said Abdul Quader.

He said there were still no traces of the missing crew but the rescue operation will continue due to the request of their families of the missing sailors.

Earlier, it was said that the rescue will end on Sunday morning.

There is an ongoing effort to pull MV Hope up, he added.

Cargo vessel MV Hope was bound for Bangladesh laden with raw product for ceramic, ‘ball clay’ last Thursday, when it faced cross winds and rough tides. A few among the 17 sailors on board got onto a life boat to save their lives. The rest put on life jackets and jumped into the sea.

A helicopter of the Royal Thai Navy rescued deck cadet Abu Bakar Siddiqui who was floating with his life jacket and sent him to a hospital in Phuket.

The second day saw three more getting rescued and the Buxmoon recovered the dead bodies of two crew members. Both their bodies were handed to the Thai navy.

Those rescued on Friday – MV Hope’s Second Officer Mobarak Hossain, Deck Cadet Rayekh Fairooz and Engine Cadet Mushfikur Rahman – were admitted for medical attention.