Seven saved in Baltic trawler rescue

The tanker and her crew, under the leadership of her master Alexey Maksimovsky, immediately responded to a request for help, and following the instructions received from the rescue centre in Tallinn, SCF Angara diverted to assist the ship in distress.

During a rescue operation, all seven members of Pongoma’s crew were successfully brought aboard the tanker. Two fishermen, in need of urgent medical care, were then evacuated by helicopter to Helsinki. The remaining five crewmembers were airlifted to Tallinn by the Estonian rescue service. SСF Angara then resumed her voyage.

The management of SCF Group and the technical managers of the ship, SCF Management Services (Cyprus), expressed their gratitude to the shipmaster and the crew for their concerted efforts in saving lives in adverse weather conditions in the dark.

The crews of SCF vessels have assisted seafarers in distress on numerous occasions. This has included fully-fledged rescue operations, carried out independently. In 2007, the crew of the LPG carrier SCF Tomsk rescued 41 people in the Atlantic Ocean 500 miles from the Cape Verde Islands. The rescued seafarers had been stranded in the open sea for over two weeks, running out of food and drinking water several days before rescue.

By Jake Frith