4 Missing after Freighters Collide off Eastern Japan

May 26, 2019

Tokyo- Two Japanese freighters collided off Chiba Prefecture, eastern Japan, early Sunday, with one of them sinking and four of the five crew members of the ill-fated ship going missing.

Patrol ships and helicopters from the Japan Coast Guard are searching for the missing people. The coast guard is investigating the cause of the accident.

According to the coast guard's third regional headquarters in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, the 499-ton Sensho Maru, owned by a shipping company in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, western Japan, sank after colliding with the 499-ton Sumiho Maru of a shipping firm in Kure in Hiroshima Prefecture, also western Japan, at a point about 11 kilometers south of Inubosaki, a cape in Choshi in Chiba, around 2:10 a.m. (5:10 p.m. Saturday GMT).

The four missing are Kazufumi Kamimura, 60, of Ibusuki in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, Akira Yano, 72, of the central city of Shizuoka, Hiroshi Seno, 69, of the northeastern city of Akita, and 67-year-old Saigo Umakoshi of Imabari.

The 60-year-old captain of the sunken vessel was rescued by a patrol ship and is not in a life-threatening condition.

All four crew members of the Sumiho Maru are safe.

At the time of the accident, visibility around the collision site was low due to fog.

The Sensho Maru, loaded with steel weighing a total of about 1,300 tons, was heading for Osaka, western Japan, after leaving Kashima port in Ibaraki Prefecture, which neighbors Chiba.

The coast guard became aware of the accident as it monitored radio communications made by the Sensho Maru right before the sinking. Jiji Press