Seventeen fishermen were missing and feared dead Monday after a Russian trawler capsized during a storm and sank in the icy waters of the Barents Sea. Officials said two people were rescued by a passing ship, but hopes were dashed quickly that more survivors could be found during a snowstorm over Arctic waters.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday expressed “deep condolences” to the families of the victims and offered “words of support” to the survivors.
“I learned with sadness about the tragedy,” Putin said in a statement released by the Kremlin.
Speaking at a government meeting earlier, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin instructed officials to provide the victims’ relatives with the necessary help.
“There has been a tragedy in the Barents Sea today,” Mishustin said. “People died,” he added, without giving further details.
Alexander Kokorin / AP
Officials said a search and rescue operation was underway, but bad weather complicated the task.
“There is a strong storm, the waves are up to four meters high and temperatures are around 20-25 degrees Celsius below zero,” Alexei Barinov, a spokesman for the northwestern Murmansk region’s emergency ministry, told AFP. .
“We are hoping for a New Year’s miracle,” he added.
However, a source familiar with the details of the search efforts told AFP that there is little hope of finding survivors.
“A person cannot last more than 15 minutes in these conditions,” the source said.
The privately owned boat, named Onega, sank near the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Barents Sea around 6:20 a.m. (3:30 GMT), said Ruslan Nazarov, head of the Murmansk branch of the emergency ministry.
Ten minutes later, a passing ship rescued two fishermen, Nazarov told reporters.
Officials believe the Russian-flagged ship, which has been operating since 1979, capsized after the accumulation of ice caused it to tilt.
The disaster occurred when the crew pulled out a catch net, said Rosmorrechflot spokesman for the maritime and river transport agency Alexei Kravchenko.
“The ship lost its balance and overturned instantly,” he told AFP.
Three ships and an Il-38 maritime patrol plane were sent to the scene, officials said.
Kravchenko said no bodies had been found so far, although the two survivors saw a crew member die in front of them.
Maritime accidents are quite common in Russia.
In April 2015, a Russian trawler sank in the Okhotsk Sea off Kamchatka. Of the 132 people on board Dalniy Vostok, only 63 were rescued.
In December 2011, a drilling rig overturned and sank off Sakhalin Island during a storm. More than 50 people were killed or disappeared.