TOKYO • The Japan Coast Guard yesterday suspended its search for the crew missing from a cattle ship in the East China Sea due to bad weather from a typhoon.
A third crewman from the Gulf Livestock 1, which capsized in a storm off Japan with a crew of 43 and a cargo of nearly 6,000 cattle, was found alive on Friday after he was spotted by a search plane.
Filipino Jay-nel Rosals, 30, was found on a life raft waving for help 2km off Kodakarajima, a small island in Japan's southern Kagoshima prefecture. He was conscious and able to walk when the coast guard rescued him.
Rescuers also found an overturned orange lifeboat floating at sea some 4km off Kodakarajima, but no one was on that boat.
The search continued through noon, Japan time, without finding more crew, but vessels, airplanes and divers were pulled out due to bad weather, said Mr Junpei Sakaguchi, an officer at the search and rescue division at the 10th regional maritime safety headquarters of the coast guard.
"We plan to resume the search when sea and weather conditions improve, but we don't know when that would be as it will depend on the weather," he said.
The powerful Typhoon Haishen - a much stronger storm than the earlier Typhoon Maysak - is approaching south-western Japan.
Weather forecasters warn of heavy rainfall, huge waves, high tides and strong winds of up to 290km per hour, making it a "violent" storm on the top level of the country's classification scale.
The Gulf Livestock 1 sent a distress call from the west of Amami Oshima island in south-western Japan on Wednesday as Typhoon Maysak lashed the area with strong winds and big waves.
It had lost engine power before it was hit by a massive wave, according to the first survivor who was found on Wednesday evening.
The body of a second crewman was recovered at sea on Friday.
The crew on board the ship was made up of 39 Filipinos, two New Zealanders and two Australians. The vessel had been travelling from Napier in New Zealand to the Chinese port of Tangshan.
On Friday, it emerged that the ship, owned by Gulf Navigation based in the United Arab Emirates, had a history of mechanical issues.
Several maritime reports logged over the past two years showed the ship had operational concerns.
A December inspection report from the Indonesian authorities on the website of Equasis, which collates ship safety information from both public and private sources, logged issues with the ship's propulsion and auxiliary machinery.
The issues included "deficiencies" with the propulsion main engine, gauges and thermometers.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
