Coast Guard on Guam has busy
week
responding to emergencies
By Donovan Brooks, Guam bureau chief
FINEGAYAN
— Guam-based Coast Guard members were busy this week responding to several
emergencies, including an alleged hijacking at sea.
The Coast
Guard responded early Wednesday to a "mayday" call over a maritime distress
frequency, said Lt. Lee Putnam, a Coast Guard spokesman.
A HH-65
helicopter and a Navy CH-46 helicopter, along with the Guam-based cutter Galveston Island
and local police and fire personnel, responded to Guam’s Hagatna Bay. There, rescue
officials found three shackled crewmembers of the 130-foot Taiwanese fishing vessel, Chuan
Fu 17.
A report
from the Taipei Rescue Coordinating Center said the vessel masters had been hijacked by
the crew.
After a
search of the waters and coastline, three suspected illegal immigrants were found and
detained, Putnam said.
The
immigrants, who had been working on the fishing vessel, told officials that eight
crewmembers had swum ashore. A search for the five other crewmen was suspended Wednesday.
U.S.
Immigration and Naturalization and Coast Guard officials will investigate the hijacking
allegations.
The Coast
Guard assisted in a two-day rescue earlier in the week.
A
Hawaii-based Coast Guard C-130 on Tuesday helped a Kadena Air Base Navy P-3 and two
private ships in the rescue of six Taiwanese fishermen from their sinking ship.
The 66-foot
liner Hung Sun Tsai had been fishing in Federated States of Micronesia waters when it
began taking on water. A temporary repair failed, and the ship’s main engine died.
The ship was tossed about by 9-foot seas about 450 miles southeast of Guam, Putnam said.
The
600-foot M/V Leo Leader responded to Coast Guard requests for assistance, and spent 19
hours at the scene as Navy and Coast Guard C-130s dropped life rafts to the stricken ship.
Strong
winds and high seas prevented the fishermen from retrieving any of the four rafts dropped,
Putnam said. The Leo Leader also tried four times to get a raft on a tether to the crew,
but was not successful.
Finally, on
Wednesday morning, the M/V Brilliant Corners arrived. The ship was small enough to come
alongside the Hung Sun Tsai, and the fishing crew, reportedly in good health, was taken
aboard.
And on
Monday, a Hawaii-based Coast Guard C-130 aircraft spotted a 19-foot skiff with three
people aboard that had been missing for six days. The boat and its passengers were from
Kosrae in the Federated States of Micronesia, about 1,200 miles southwest of Guam.
The boat
and its passengers went fishing off Kosrae on April 17, but didn’t return, said Lt.
Greg Fondran, spokesman for the 14th Coast Guard District.
The ship
had drifted about 150 miles before being spotted. The FSM transport ship Independence was
directed to the scene and towed the skiff back to Kosrae.
Kosrae
police detective Rimson Phillip said the three passengers were checked and released from
the local hospital, and were in good condition.
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