Twelve crew members died from suspected food poisoning onboard Chinese-flagged 76.000 dwt bulker WU ZHOU 8 (IMO: 9662760) offshore Vietnam.
After its 21 crew members suddenly became ill, the bulker requested emergency medicaid.
WU ZHOU 8 was located 63 miles southeast of Con Dao Island in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Vietnam when the situation on board was reported. Around 0905 on September 30, the Vietnam National Committee for Natural Disaster Response and Search and Rescue received a report from the Vietnam Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center about the incident.
Vietnamese authorities sent helicopters to transport the seafarers to a hospital.
The Southern Helicopter Company said that, receiving urgent instructions from VMSRCC, the unit mobilized its flight crew, along with doctors and nurses, and at 12 o’clock on September 30, the EC-225 helicopter (VN- 8622) and SuperPuma L2 (VN-8616) took off from Vung Tau airport.
However, by the time rescue teams arrived, 10 crew members had already died.
Two more died while en route to Con Dao Island’s hospital.
According to the local “TinTuk“, officials in Vietnam reported that nine other critically ill crew members were saved.
Six of them have regained consciousness.
