Two freighters collided in fog early Friday in the Pacific Ocean near Tokyo, leaving one Chinese crew member dead and eight others missing.
The 499-ton, Japanese-registered Kaishin Maru and the 3,947-ton Wei Hang 9, registered in Malta, collided off the Boso Peninsula about 12 miles south of Choshi, the Mainichi Shimbun reported Friday.
The local office of the Japan Coast Guard dispatched eight patrol boats and five aircraft to search for the missing crew members.
The Wei Hang 9 sank, and 13 of its 21 Chinese crew members were brought on board the Japanese freighter and patrol boats. One of them later died, and another suffered slight injuries. Eight others remain missing.
None of the crew members of the Kaishin Maru was injured.
A dense fog warning was out in the area, and visibility was poor at the time of the accident.
The Kaishin Maru, loaded with some 330 tons of steel pipes, left Chiba Thursday afternoon and was heading to Kushiro on the east coast of Japan's Hokkaido island. The Wei Hang 9 was on its way to Dalian in northeast China from Shiogama, Miyagi prefecture, carrying approximately 5,800 tons of scrap steel.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
