Joint Indo-US Maritime Effort Saves 14 Indian Seafarers From Sinking Ship At Sea

Indian authorities coordinated with the U.S Navy to carry out a search and rescue operation in the Northern Arabian Sea after receiving a distress call from a dhow carrying 14 Indian seafarers.

The vessel was approximately 80 nm east of Ras Al Hadd when authorities received the call for help.

According to reports, a U.S Navy P-8 aircraft was dispatched to the site immediately. It dropped a search and rescue kit, including a life raft, which the mariners boarded, CENTCOM said.

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Michael Murphy also responded to the distress call.

The incident comes amidst tensions between New Delhi and Washington over U.S Navy attacks on three commercial tankers in the past week, with an Indian crew and the deaths of 3 indian seafarers as a result of the attack.

The Indian Government also summoned a U.S diplomat and strongly condemned the attacks while issuing an official advisory through the DG Shipping to restrict the deployment of Indian seafarers in the conflict zone.

Coming back to the incident, a nearby Motor Vessel (M/V) Jabal Ali 9 assisted in the operation.

It diverted from its route and recovered the 11 crew members from the life raft.

An MH-60S Sea Hawk, assigned to the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, rescued the other 3 mariners after their life raft capsized in the rough seas.

They were transported to M/V Jabal Ali 9 later.

The rescue happened in the US 5th Fleet area of operations, which covers 2.5 million square miles of water, covering the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea, parts of the Indian Ocean, and maritime chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz, Suez Canal and Bab al-Mandeb.