The Andaman & Nicobar Command on Sunday said Indian Navy P-8I aircraft led to the detection of two floating liferafts and an oil slick near the reported location and two survivors have since been safely rescued by MV AOSPOS after the Panama-flagged cargo vessel MV Ocean Winner carrying iron ore from Odisha's Paradip Port to China sent a distress alert on Saturday from a position around 300 nautical miles north-northwest of Diglipur.

The search operations remain underway. The identities of the two rescued survivors were not immediately available

It said the headquarters coordinated the rescue efforts with the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC), Coast Guard Regional Headquarters in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Headquarters Eastern Naval Command and Coast Guard Regional Headquarters (Northeast), deploying naval ships and maritime reconnaissance aircraft, according to .

Union Shipping and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal expressed concern over the sinking of a Panama-flagged cargo vessel in the Bay of Bengal, saying all concerned agencies were involved in the search and rescue operation.

"Deeply concerned by the unfortunate incident involving MV OCEAN WINNER off the coast of Odisha. The Panama-flagged vessel was carrying iron ore from Paradip Port to China. All agencies are coordinating closely and actively doing search and rescue efforts," he said, adding, “Two survivors have been successfully rescued and are being given medical care; their rank and identity are currently being verified. My prayers for the safety of the remaining crew."

A Panama-registered cargo vessel carrying 24 crew members sank in the Bay of Bengal off India’s eastern coast on Saturday, officials said. The crew comprised 20 Chinese nationals, three Myanmar nationals and one Bangladeshi national.

The Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) was alerted late on August 22 after communication with MV Ocean Winner was lost. Victory Star Group Co Ltd subsequently sought assistance for a search and rescue operation.

Officials said the vessel was last reported at a location around 310 nautical miles from East Island. Following the distress alert, MRCC (SVP) activated the International Safety Net and diverted MT AISOPOS to locate the missing vessel and its liferafts and provide assistance.

MT AISOPOS later found two liferafts and rescued two survivors at around 8 pm.

The Indian Coast Guard also joined the operation, deploying ICGS Varad and ICGS Anmol, while ICGS Vijit was sent from Sri Vijaya Puram to reinforce the search. A senior police official said efforts were continuing to locate the remaining crew members.

The iron ore carrier reportedly vanished from the tracking system after leaving Odisha’s Paradip Port before sinking in the Bay of Bengal, over 200 nautical miles from the Paradip coast.

Maritime vessel tracking platform MarineTraffic identified MV Ocean Winner as a Panama-flagged bulk carrier. The vessel measured 225 metres in length and had a beam of 32.26 metres.

Garvit Bhirani is a journalist based in Gurugram. He is a Deputy Chief Content Producer at LiveMint, where he covers national and international news stories, focusing on accuracy and compelling storytelling for readers.

With a total of six years of experience in journalism, he has previously worked with Vaco Binary Semantics for Google, taking on the role of news curation lead, and reported from the field on health, education, and agriculture stories for 101reporters and News9. He has also served as a content editor for entertainment and news media organisations.

Garvit holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism and mass communication from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and Gurugram University, respectively. During college days, he joined India’s only non-profit student journalism network, where he anchored daily news updates and produced his own weekly show called ‘Data Fix’.

He was selected for the YES Foundation Media for Social Change Fellowship in Delhi, the Talking Data to the Fourth Pillar residential workshop, and the VOICE Fellowship in Pune.

He holds certificates in COVID-19-verification reporting, data journalism, food & agriculture, tech policy, media literacy and countering misinformation, and tackling election disinformation courses from Thomson Foundation, IndiaSpend, The Dialogue, US Mission in India, and AFP.

He can be reached on LinkedIn or on @garvitbhirani on X

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