Armed Forces monitor sunk ship 80 miles from Delimara

Transport Malta and Armed Forces of Malta continue to monitor cargo ship which sunk 80 miles off Delimara point to ensure there is no pollution.

13 January 2012, 12:00am

1 min read

After the Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) observed a troubled towing operation of MV 'Fas Provence', the cargo ship sunk 80 miles off Delimara point at around 4am this morning.

The MV 'FAS Provence was an unmanned container ship registered in Bahamas with no cargo onboard and was being towed by tugs boats 'West' and "Izmir Bull".

The master of one of 'Izmir Bull' yesterday informed Malta Radio that the condition of MV 'FAS Provence' was deteriorating quickly with the vessel listing to one side and taking in water.

Due to the recent gale force winds, the vessel posed a serious hazard to navigation and regular broadcasts were transmitted alerting all ships in the central area of the Mediterranean of the hazard.

Transport Malta (TM) said it had closely been monitoring developments and communicated all information to AFM which deployed an aircraft to assess the situation.

After all necessary alerts were raised, TM and AFM continued to liaise and monitor the situation for any possible pollution.

Malta Radio was informed that the tug "WEST" would remain standby on location and AFM will be deploying another reconnaissance flight to the area later on today.

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If this sinking leads to an oil spill, it could be infinitely more serious than the current political crisis... 80 nautical miles may sound like a lot, but in 2002, when the Prestige sank off Galicia and Portugal, it was 250 km from the coast... More information please...

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Mhux l-Gvern ta' Gonzi biss qed jegħreq.