Bureau Report
Port Blair, July 21: After nearly 10 hour ordeal at high sea amidst worst possible weather conditions and subsequent 17 hour sea journey in Coast Guard ship, all element crew members of ITT Panther finally reached shores of Port Blair this morning.
The Coast Guard Ship ICGS Rajkamal, which has rescued these crew members from high sea, brought them directly to Port Blair and handed them over to cargo ship’s local agents and family members.
Visibly overwhelmed with the rescue operation and very helpful treatment onboard Coast Guard ship all crew members expressed gratitude towards Coast Guard for saving their lives.
“Within one hour of drifting and sending distress signal we could see Coast Guard aircraft over us and the aircrafts kept on flying over us till we were finally picked up by Coast Guard ship,” said Mr. Amitabha Chaterjee, Captain of the ill-fated cargo vessel ITT Panther.
Most of the crew members of ITT Panther are young and hails from various parts of India.
“Our ship sank at nearly 6.30 am and our Masterji gave us order to abandon ship, following this we jumped from ship one by one and saved our life. We are really thankful to Coast Guard for this life saving act. Only because of Coast Guard we are today standing infront of you guys,” said Nageshwar Singh Dara, who hails from Jammu.
All the rescued crew members were received at Port Blair by Chief of Staff, DIG, Pankaj Verma at Port Blair’s Coast Guard Jetty.
Talking to media the crew members confirmed that shifting of weight due to bad weather was the reason behind this major accident.
