NEWS

Three Greeks on lost tanker

Three Greek officers are among the 18 seamen missing in the Atlantic after a Greek-managed tanker carrying 11,000 tons of a highly flammable fuel additive exploded and sank early yesterday off the coast of Virginia, in the USA. The three missing Greeks from the Norwegian-owned Bow Mariner were identified as Captain Stratos Kavouras, 52, First Mate Spyros Melles, 42, and First Engineer Legantis Athanassiou, 47. A large US coast guard rescue operation was under way in the area where the tanker sank, some 50 miles off Virginia’s Eastern Shore, where water temperatures were below 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit). Only six of the Singaporean-flagged Bow Mariner’s crew of 27 – 24 of whom were Filipinos – had been rescued by late yesterday, while three bodies were recovered. US officials said the explosion seemed to have been an accident. The 22-year-old ship had been sailing from New York to Houston, carrying a load of ethanol, a grain alcohol.

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