An accidental fall could have caused the death of the 37-year-old Chinese sailor on board a cargo vessel off the coast of Vizhinjam last week, according to State police investigators.
An Indian Coast Guard (ICG) vessel had evacuated Yushiyang from Vivian Ocean, a Chinese-owned ship sailing under a Panamanian flag, following a medical evacuation call from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, Port Blair, on January 25.
Deputy Commissioner of Police V. Ajith Kumar, who boarded the ship on Monday as part of the investigation into the unnatural death of the sailor, told The Hindu that the motorman appeared to have slipped and fallen while using a utility hatch to access the critical mechanical area of the vessel rapidly.
Investigators descended the narrow steel ladder to a metal platform nearly 4 m below deck where other sailors found Yushiyang lying spread-eagled and motionless. “A suffocating smell emanated from the hold of the ship when we opened the hatch,” Mr Ajith said.
Women crime scene experts could not board the ship anchored off Vizhinjam. “It pitched and rolled perilously, and it was difficult for them to clamber on to the slanting ladder from the police patrol boat,” he said.
The police would escort the vessel to the Kochi port and have it berthed for detailed forensic examination. The 21-member crew of the ship are all Chinese. The police recorded their statements with the help of Jeeval Kumar, a Chinese language expert attached to the Military Intelligence Directorate, and Jamsheed, a China-educated doctor practising in Thiruvananthapuram. A sailor stated that he had noted feeble signs of life when Yushiyang was brought up from the platform.
The Vivian Ocean is 167-m-long, 27-m-wide and with a draught of 9 m. It had set sail from the Solomon Islands in Panama on January 21 with a cargo of wood. Kandala was its port of destination. The fatality occurred in international waters 30 nautical miles off Indian coast.
Officials said Indian jurisdiction ended after 12 nautical miles and they could only report their findings to Panama Government as per maritime law. They have conducted a post-mortem examination and held an inquest.
