A search is being conducted after a ship with a crew of 43 and nearly 6,000 head of cattle capsized and sank off Japan’s southwestern coast, officials of the country’s coast guard and navy say.
The coast guard said it received a distress call Wednesday from the cargo vessel the Gulf Livestock 1, when it was west of the Japanese island of Amami-Oshima in the East China Sea, as Typhoon Maysak moved through the area with strong wind and heavy seas.
A navy surveillance aircraft spotted a survivor in the water Wednesday night and a coast guard vessel rescued 45-year-old Sareno Edvarodo, a chief officer on the ship, a short time later. He told officials he put on a life jacket and jumped into the water as the ship capsized and sank after one engine failed in the storm.
The coast guard said he is the only crew member rescued.
The ship loaded with cattle departed New Zealand, bound for China, on August 14 with 39 crew members from the Philippines, two from New Zealand and two from Australia.
Typhoon Maysak also struck South Korea’s southern and eastern coasts on Thursday, flooding streams, cutting power to thousands of homes and leaving at least one person dead.
