THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 15, 1994 TAG: 9412150432
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
The Coast Guard suspended its extensive search Wednesday for survivors of a cargo ship that sank last week about 1,200 miles off the New York coast.
The weeklong search for 29 crewmen had included more than 30 Coast Guard C-130 pilots and crew members from the air station in Elizabeth City.
The local units aided an international effort that covered more than 61,000 square miles of ocean and involved more than 38 merchant vessels, 18 aircraft from the United States and Canada, and a Boston-based Coast Guard cutter.
All were hunting for survivors from the 450-foot Salvadore Allende, which was carrying rice from Texas to Finland when it began taking on water in rough seas Dec. 8. It sank the next morning.
The cause of the sinking is under investigation but is believed to be weather-related, said Lt. Dan Taylor, the public affairs officer for the air station at Elizabeth City.
The decision to stop looking for survivors was ``based on the improbability of survival in these very harsh conditions,'' the Coast Guard said in a statement issued at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Bad weather - as extreme as 40-foot seas and 60-knot winds - hindered most of the search, the statement said.
Shortly after the ship sank, an aircraft crew sighted several Salvadore Allende crew members in life rafts, life boats and clinging to debris in tumultuous seas.
But only two of the 31-member crew were rescued. Seven bodies were sighted but not recovered.
The ship's second mate suffered leg injuries and cuts and bruises. He was picked up by a Norway-bound merchant vessel assisting in the operation.
The only other survivor, the third engineer, was in good condition at a hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia, said Taylor.
The decision to stop the search was made by Vice Adm. James M. Loy of the Coast Guard's Atlantic Area Command Center in New York, which coordinated the rescue efforts.
The operation included 11 aircraft from the Coast Guard in Elizabeth City, Florida and Puerto Rico; the U.S. Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps; and the Air National Guard from Suffolk County, N.Y. Also helping were the Coast Guard cutter Seneca and seven airplanes from the Canadian Defense Forces.
Thirty-eight merchant vessels that helped in the effort were part of the Coast Guard's Automated Mutual-Assistance Vessel Rescue Safety Network.
The computerized search-and-rescue system has 12,000 ships worldwide that agree to divert their ships to a distressed area when needed by the Coast Guard.
KEYWORDS: SEARCH AND RESCUE by CNB