Fishing boat burns in Indian Ocean

Taiwanese trawler burns at sea.

Fifteen people rescued off West Australian coast after vessel fire

Fifteen people have been rescued from a burning vessel about 670km west of Carnarvon this morning.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) coordinated the rescue after detecting a Taiwanese coded distress beacon from a fishing vessel at about 11.30pm last night AEST.

AMSA tasked its search and rescue Dornier aircraft from Perth to respond, as well as a civil aircraft carrying a police air observer.

The Dornier aircraft battled strong head winds and arrived on scene about 7.30am AEST this morning.

Once on scene, the Dornier aircraft reported the vessel was on fire with several people spotted on the bow of the vessel.

The Dornier aircraft conducted a successful liferaft drop to the vessel this morning.

The civil aircraft arrived on scene about 8.30am AEST this morning.

AMSA also issued a broadcast to shipping and a United Kingdom flagged oil tanker, and a Greek flagged container ship responded. The oil tanker arrived on scene about 10am AEST and launched its rescue boat. The container ship was released from tasking before reaching the scene.

A fishing vessel, which was in the area, also came to the aid of the fishing vessel.

The fifteen people on board the burning vessel were transferred directly to the assisting fishing vessel or via the liferaft dropped by the Dornier aircraft.

No injuries were reported and all people on board have been accounted for. The rescued people will be taken to the fishing vessel’s next port in Indonesia.

AMSA thanks all those who assisted in the successful rescue.

Source: amsa.gov.au