VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese rescuers on the early morning of January 4 took Edward Cupisz, 63, a Polish sailor on the Atacama cargo ship of Malta, ashore for medical emergency at the General Hospital in Khanh Hoa Province.

A day earlier, the Vietnam Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center received an emergency aid proposal from Atacama, when the ship was 130 nautical miles to the northeast of Nha Trang City (Khanh Hoa).

Cupisz was reported to suffer from serious wounds, resulting in hemiplegia, while working on the ship during a voyage from China to Singapore.

A vessel at the port of Nha Trang was ordered to cross the sea to rescue the victim. Despite big waves and strong winds, the rescue ship approached Atacama at 10pm on January 3 and took the victim to the mainland.

On January 2, the Vietnam Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center received SOS calls from the ship Bulk Jupiter (Bahamas nationality) in the waters southeast off Vietnam’s Vung Tau city of 155 nautical miles.

However, the center failed to contact the Bulk Jupiter vessel to verify the information. From other sources, the center knew that Bulk Jupiter was carrying 46,400 tons of iron ore from Malaysia to China from December 30, 2014, with 19 crew members. The center informed all vessels operating in the waters of the ship in distress.

At about 11am on the same day, the ZIM ASIA ship (Liberia nationality) announced that it discovered a lifebuoy and a lifeboat about 5 nautical miles to the southwest of the area where the Bahamas ship was in distress.

At 12pm, several vehicles as Pan Uno, Kota Nekad (Singapore nationality), and OLNG Muttrah (Oman) were asked to search for the Bulk Jupiter. More than two hours later, OLNG Muttrah rescued the chef and fished out the body of the dead captain of Bulk Jupiter.

Le Ha