APD | Five Filipinos still missing from burnt vessel

By APD writer Melo M. Acuna

MANILA, Jan.14 (APD) -- Five out of 21 Filipino crew members of Panamanian-registered M/V Sincerity Ace remain missing after they abandoned their burning ship off Hawaii.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said the ship Sincerity Ace was enroute to Hawaii with 3,500 brand new vehicles from Japan when it caught fire and forced the crew to abandon ship last December 31,2018, some 1,800 nautical miles northwest of Oahu.

The DFA’s Office of Migrant Affairs has been informed by the ship’s manning agency that a tugboat and another vessel had been sent to the area to locate the five.

The 16 other Filipino seafarers were rescued by the United States Coast Guard and other passing merchant vessels.

Most of them have returned to the Philippines. The missing seafarers’ identities have not been released by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)