site.btaBulgarian Company's Ship Rescues 34 Fishermen from Burning Vessel in Indian Ocean

A ship of the Bulgarian company Eleen Marinе rescued 34 fishermen from a burning vessel in the Indian Ocean. The event was reported to BTA on Thursday by Martin Angelov, security officer in charge of the company's fleet quality, safety and security management system. 

The Liberian-flagged bulk carrier Eleen Armonia, bound from Singapore for the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa), rescued the crew of the fishing vessel about 500 nautical miles southeast of Sri Lanka.

"This is one of the busiest sea lanes in the world at the moment, especially after the recent events of a year and a half in which the Houthis attacked ships in the Gulf of Aden. There have also been pirate raids, but the Houthis are mostly the ones blocking the passage of ships. Most merchant ships head and pass from the Cape of Good Hope to Singapore and back. That represents entire flow of shipping from the Far East to Europe, West Africa, etc. Our ship passes in this area along with many others. The fishing vessel, which was in distress due to fire, was spotted by other ships but no one stopped. Only our ship and our crew, led by Commander Todor Todorov," said Angelov. 

He added that the commanding officer and the crew should have carried out a risk assessment as the case involved an unidentified burning vessel which was only spotted by smoke, with no automatic identification system and without appearing on radars.

The operation, which lasted several hours, was successful, with all 34 fishermen rescued and the fire extinguished. According to Angelov, the rescued fishermen were not even equipped with life jackets.

Later, Eleen Marinе established contact with the company that owns the fishing vessel. It turned out that it had three other fishing ships in the vicinity, they were sent to collect the rescued crew to sail to their home country, Indonesia. 

"We were in the right place at the right time," Angelov said. He explained that the crew of the Bulgarian company's ship was international, but the senior officers were Bulgarian.