Cargo ship overloaded with crushed stone and sand capsizes, four missing

The Grigory Lovtsov cargo ship with crushed stone and sand on board capsized off the coast of the Sakhalin Island, Governor Valery Limarenko said. It is believed that the ship capsized due to overload.

Photo: flickr.com by Maersk Line, CC BY-SA 2.0

There were seven crew members on board, three were rescued, the fate of four others is still unknown. The search and rescue operation is ongoing, two tugboats and a rescue ship are working at the scene, the governor said.

On October 18 at about 14:00 local time (about 06:00 Moscow time), the Grigory Lovtsov capsized while entering the port of Korsakov.

In January 2022, the Grigory Lovtsov ship got stuck in ice in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. The ship sent a distress signal due to the threat of damage to the hull. The ship was located near the Shantar Islands, 20 km from the shore. The crew was evacuated by helicopter, medical assistance was not required.

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Sakhalin is an island in Northeast Asia. Its north coast lies 6.5 km (4.0 mi) off the southeastern coast of Khabarovsk Krai in Russia, while its southern tip lies 40 kilometres (25 mi) north of Japan's Hokkaido. An island of the West Pacific, Sakhalin divides the Sea of Okhotsk to its east from the Sea of Japan to its southwest. It is administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast and is the largest island of Russia, with an area of 72,492 square kilometres (27,989 sq mi). The island has a population of roughly 500,000, the majority of whom are Russians. The indigenous peoples of the island are the Ainu, Oroks, and Nivkhs, who are now present in very small numbers.