Dubai: Dubai Police have rescued 14 Indian sailors stranded off of Palm Deira after their ship hit rocks on the breakwater following engine failure.
Colonel Saeed Al Madhani, deputy director of Ports police station, said the rescue teams spent 35 minutes to rescue all the stranded sailors.
He said that they were alerted on 6:14 AM on Wednesday that sailors need an urgent rescue operation after their ship got stranded near Palm Deira due to rough sea and strong winds.
“Despite the bad weather, rough sea, we located their place and rescued them in an operation lasted for 35 minutes,” Col Al Madhani said.
The Indian Consulate in Dubai has thanked Dubai Police for saving the lives of the crew on board the vessel Khadeeja 7 belonging to Orassia Shipping LLC on Tuesday night.
“The vessel was in blackout condition due to technical fault and struck with rock stones,” the mission tweeted.
“There was ingress of water into the vessel after which timely help was provided by @DubaiPoliceHQ and the crew were safely rescued to Port Rashid,” it added.
Speaking to Gulf News, Consul General of India in Dubai Vipul said the seafarers had been stranded without payment of salaries for several weeks.
“We knew about this vessel which was in trouble for quite some time. About a week back there was a blackout [on the ship]. The owner had worked on that and the technical issues were resolved,” he said.
However, it happened on Tuesday night, he said.
After the latest blackout on the ship, the sailors sought help through the mission.
“There was very good response from the FTA (Federal Transport Authority), Dubai Police and port authorities. Dubai Police quickly went to help them. They rescued them and brought them to Port Rashid,” he added.
The Consul General said there were 22 Indian crew members stranded aboard the ship earlier. “Eight of them had already signed off and flown home in the last few weeks.”
Consulate officials visited the 14 crew members who were rescued by the police on Wednesday. “We have offered all the assistance for their repatriation. But the formalities will take time,” said Vipul.
