Search continues for missing crew of capsized oil tanker

A search operation is under way to locate 16 missing crew members, 13 of whom are Indian, after an oil tanker capsized off the coast of Oman.

An Indian official told the BBC that the foreign ministry was coordinating the operation with Oman’s maritime authorities.

Oman officials said late on Monday that the oil tanker – Prestige Falcon – had capsized 25 nautical miles southeast of its Ras Madrakah peninsula.

Three of the 16 missing crew members are Sri Lankan.

The Comoros-flagged vessel was on its way to the port of Aden in Yemen when it capsized.

Officials from Oman’s Maritime Security Centre told Reuters news agency on Tuesday that the vessel remained “submerged, inverted” but didn’t confirm if it had stabilised.

Oman’s defence ministry, which runs the centre, did not respond to the BBC’s questions about whether the contents of the tanker had spilled into the sea.

The 117.4m-long tanker was built in 2007, according to marinetraffic.com. The area the ship capsized in falls in the province of Duqm in Oman, where the country has a massive industrial port.

Indians form a majority of global maritime workforce and they are often the victims of accidents or piracy.

Seventeen Indian crew members of the MSC Aries, a commercial ship with links to Israel, were stuck when Iranian troops seized the vessel in April. They were released after negotiations between India and Iran.

In 2022, 16 Indian crew members of a ship were held in the custody of Equatorial Guinea’s navy for nine months.