2012-01-15 16:18:59 – Vehicle Accident – Ireland

Fears are growing for five people missing after a trawler went down off the west Cork coast. One survivor was pulled from the sea close to Union Hall harbour, where the 21-metre (69ft) Tit Bonhomme was thought to have struck rocks in the early hours of Sunday morning. The Irish-registered fishing vessel was coming into shore when it got into difficulties beside the Adam and Eve islands, just outside the harbour. The crew made a distress call to the coastguard at about 6am, but it was cut off and all radio contact was lost. It is understood the captain is Irish. Coastguard helicopters from Shannon and Waterford were scrambled to the scene, while lifeboats from Courtmacsherry and Baltimore have been launched. Strong winds and heavy seas, which were hampering the search and rescue mission, have calmed. The survivor found in the water at about 8am has been taken to Cork University hospital, while five other crew members are still missing. It is understood the man who was pulled from the sea was an Egyptian national. Vincent O’Donovan, of Courtmacsherry lifeboat station, said the Tit Bonhomme had taken a battering in the rough waters. “Conditions had been bad all last night and this morning,” he said. “It was force 7 to 8, and it was a south-east wind, which causes difficulties off that coast.” The lifeboat launched shortly after 6am and spotted debris in the water near the mouth of Union Hall harbour, believed to be wreckage from the trawler, about an hour and a half later. Initial reports suggested two more survivors had made it on to rocks, but confusion remains, and the coastguard – which is leading the operation – said five people remain missing.rn

Posted:2012-01-15 16:18:59 [UTC]

2012-01-15 18:57:30 – Event into space – Other

Debris from a failed Russian spacecraft fell into the Pacific Ocean far off Chile on Sunday, the state-run RIA news agency cited a Russian military official as saying. Pieces of the Phobos-Grunt craft, which never made it out of orbit after its launch on a mission to probe the Martian moon Phobos, fell into the sea some 1,250 km (775 miles) west of the coastal island of Wellington, RIA cited Aerospace Defence Forces spokesman Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin as saying. It was not immediately clear whether all debris from the craft fell at that location. Russia’s space agency Roskosmos had said debris was most likely to fall in the Atlantic Ocean.

Posted:2012-01-15 18:57:30 [UTC]

2012-01-15 07:02:33 – Vehicle Accident – South Korea

A South Korean cargo ship was rocked by an explosion off the country’s west coast on Sunday, leaving five people dead and six others missing, officials said. The unexplained explosion tore apart the front of the ship and left the 4,198-tonne vessel half-submerged, according to the coast guard. Two of the five bodies located later had serious external wounds, suggesting they were killed by the explosion, coast guard officer Kim Dong-jin said. Five crewmen were rescued and searchers were trying to locate the six missing, the coast guard said in a statement. The explosion occurred relatively far from the tense sea border with North Korea, and the coast guard doesn’t suspect the North was involved, coast guard officer Ko Jae-young said. North Korea is accused of torpedoing a South Korean warship in 2010, killing 46 sailors, though Pyongyang has denied involvement. The cargo ship, which usually carried refined petroleum products and chemicals, was carrying 80 tonnes of Bunker-C oil and 40 tonnes of diesel oil as its fuel when it exploded, the coast guard statement said. Oil leakage weren’t immediately reported, it said. Eleven members of the crew are from South Korea, and the other five are from Burma.rn

Posted:2012-01-15 07:02:33 [UTC]

2012-01-14 04:57:00 – Biological Hazard – India

Bird flu scare spread to Chilika lake with a migratory bird found dead in Nalabana sanctuary, even as culling of poultry continued for the second day on Friday in Keranga of Khurda district. Wildlife officials found a dead brown-headed gull, a migratory bird, from the bird sanctuary area in the lake on Thursday. Officials of the animal resources department have collected at least 20 samples of eight migratory birds of different species, including the dead brown-headed gull, for testing. Besides the dead bird, swabs and blood samples of other birds have been collected by doctors of the veterinary department from the sanctuary area, said divisional forest officer (DFO) of Chilika Wildlife Division, B P Acharya. Officials of Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and wildlife organization of the forest department helped trap the birds to take samples. Wildlife officials said the bird samples had earlier tested negative for avian flu. Surveillance has been stepped up in Chilika, the biggest water fowl habitat in the country, to check the spread of the flu. “Surveillance has been stepped up in the entire 1,100 sq km area of the lake,” the DFO said. Migratory birds from far away Caspian Sea, Lake Baikal, remote parts of Russia, central and Southeast Asia, Ladakh and the Himalayas descend to the lake every winter for feeding and roosting. They start their homeward journey with the onset of summer. Majority of the winged guests flock to the 15.59 sq km area of Nalabana sanctuary. Among the 8,83,060 birds of 167 different species counted in Chilika this winter, 3.18 lakh were sighted in Nalabana alone, officials said.

The name of Hazard: Mass Birds Die-off
Species: Animal
Status: Confirmed

Posted:2012-01-14 04:57:00 [UTC]