4 Die after Cargo Ship, Fishing Boat Collision off Aomori

Aomori, March 17 (Jiji Press)–Four people died after a collision between a cargo ship and a fishing boat off the northeastern Japan prefecture of Aomori in the early hours of Tuesday. The Japan Coast Guard’s 2nd regional headquarters in Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture, also in northeastern Japan, was alerted by the cargo ship’s captain at around 1:20 a.m. saying that the two vessels had collided while sailing off the Misawa fishing port in Aomori, resulting in the fishing boat capsizing. After all 13 people aboard the fishing boat were rescued, four were found unconscious and later died, while the remaining nine sustained no major injuries, according to the Hachinohe Coast Guard Office in the city of Hachinohe, Aomori. All those aboard the fishing boat were wearing life jackets. Six crew members of the cargo ship were unharmed. The coast guard office is currently investigating the cause of the accident. The vessels that collided were the Suehiro Maru, a 748-ton cargo ship owned by a shipping company in the city of Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, western Japan, and the No. 65 Kofuku Maru, a 140-ton fishing boat owned by a company in Hachinohe. The Suehiro Maru, carrying a load of rocks, departed Tomakomai Port in the northernmost Japan prefecture of Hokkaido on Monday evening, bound for the port of Kimitsu in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo. The fishing boat departed Hachinohe Port at around 10:45 p.m. on Monday. The incident occurred about 20 kilometers northeast of the Misawa fishing port. Weather conditions were clear at the time, and visibility was reportedly good. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]