China on Thursday (May 18th) urged Australia to send more planes, ships and rescuers to find the 39 crew members of a Chinese fishing vessel that sank in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday. The Lu Peng Yuan Yu 028, with 17 Chinese, 17 Indonesians and 5 Filipinos on board, capsized around 03:00 on Tuesday, Beijing time, according to state broadcaster CCTV. "To date, no individual has been found alive," Chinese Ambassador to Canberra Xiao Qian told reporters.
An international search and rescue operation is underway to locate the 39 missing crew members. Xiao Qian said Australia had already sent three planes and four ships to participate in search operations in the area of the sinking, located 5,000 kilometers west of Perth.
The ship last located on May 10
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We want them to send more planes, more ships and more personnel to this area," he said. Beijing diverted two commercial vessels to participate in the search operations, according to CCTV. The ambassador also asked the Australian government to conduct its search operations in coordination with rescuers from other countries near the site of the sinking.
The vessel was owned by Penglai Jinglu Fishery Co., a Chinese fishing company, and was licensed to fish for flying squid and Pacific sardines, according to data from the North Pacific Fisheries Commission. It left Cape Town, South Africa, on May 5, en route to Busan, South Korea, according to tracking site MarineTraffic, which last located the ship on May 10 southeast of Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean.