The ultra-large 330 mts Maersk containership of 15,262 TEU Maersk Honam headed from Singapore to Suez carrying 7,860 containers reported a serious fire in the vessel’s hold at on Tuesday near Agatti Island in the Arabian Sea.

The ship had left Singapore on 01 Mar 18 and was having passage to Suez. The ship has 27 crew and nationalities of the 27 crew members are: India (13), the Phillipines (9), Romania (1), South Africa (1), Thailand (2) and the United Kingdom (1) and out of 27 crew 23 were successfully evacuated to the vessel ALS Ceres,Still 4 crew member are missing.

The crew sent out a distress call after firefighting efforts onboard were unsuccessful.The Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC) Mumbai of the Indian Coast Guard received a distress message at 9:45 PM yesterday from Maersk Honam .

Search and rescue operations were ongoing for four crew members missing in the fire. The Singapore-flagged vessel is currently 900 nm Southeast of Salalah Oman and the situation was described as “very critical” by Maersk. Two of the rescued crew members are receiving medical attention on the ALS Ceres.

Indian Coast Guard’s Maritime Rescue Co-Ordination Centre Mumbai has directed four merchant ships near to the location to assist the distressed ship.

Merchant Ship MV Als Cicero reached Maersk Honam at about 11:25 PM and reports Maersk Honam on fire with flames from the main deck of the ship rising upto the ships bridge (height of about 25 metres). The crew has abandoned the ship as fire spread beyond control. Mearsk Honam had 27 crew onboard, out of which 23 has been rescued by Als Cicero.Remaining four are missing.

The current status that one crew of Thai nationality,out of 23 crew who were evacuated from Maersk Honam, has tragically passed away. His health condition drastically deteriorated during the afternoon.remaning 22 crew members are enroute to Sri Lanka on board the vessel ALS Ceres, four crew members remain missing and one is reported dead.