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Video: LPG Tanker Sinks Fishing Vessel in Hit-and-Run off Tamil Nadu

Life buoy
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Published Dec 11, 2024 7:36 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

The crewmembers of an Indian fishing vessel claim that an LPG tanker ran down their boat and sank it off southern India, then continued on its way to its next port of call. 

On Wednesday morning, the fishing vessel Paralogamatha was anchored about 25 nautical miles off the coast of Colachel, a small fishing port on the southern tip of the Indian Subcontinent. At about 0430 hours, the LPG tanker Nus approached and hit the anchored boat, sinking it quickly, the survivors said.

Good Samaritan fishing vessels rescued all nine members of the Paralogamatha's crew, but the Nus continued on its commercial voyage without stopping to render aid, according to the district fishermens' association for Kanyakumari. 

The tanker Nus' last received AIS signal suggests that it was in the area of the collision on Wednesday morning, just off Tamil Nadu. Its transmission declared the vessel's destination as Sohar, Oman, and the fishermens' group called on authorities to arrange for the ship's arrest on its arrival.

Nus (ex name BW Challenger, Cape Gas, Portofino Gas) is a 1992-built LPG tanker with a questionable history. It is listed as a Comoros-flagged vessel, but its Equasis records show that this was reported as a false flag in April 2024 - the month before Nus changed names. Without a valid flag on its record, it may be (or may have been in the recent past) a stateless vessel. Its last class certificate was also withdrawn in May. 

The Nus is managed by a company registered in the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, a free trade zone in the UAE that has become a hub for trading in sanctioned energy commodities. Its history shows that it has operated primarily in East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Subcontinent for at least the last five years.