Int'l nautical rescue exercise launched
By Cao Desheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-07-08 06:03

SHANGHAI: Rescue drills have to look real. If they do not and a real emergency occurs, people could die because the simulation was not challenging enough.

So, when a bulk freighter supposedly collided with a container ship yesterday at Yangshan Port on the East China Sea, leaving its body tilting in the water with oil gushing, and three sailors leapt into the water because of a series of "explosions," there was actually no serious danger.

It was only a maritime drill that China held to improve the efficiency of rescue forces in responding to accidents. At 10:30 am, the exercise began with three red signal flares soaring into the sky at the order of Vice-Minister of Communications Xu Zuyuan, the general commander of the exercise.

Learning of the "accident," the Shanghai Maritime Search and Rescue Centre immediately launched an emergency plan and dispatched rescue forces to the scene while reporting the collision to State maritime authorities.

At 11 am, rescue workers in a lifeboat found the first sailor by following the orange smoke that he had sent out for help and rushed him to receive medical aid. Two others were rescued later while the fire-fighting was going on.

As the flames were brought under control, rescue professionals set up a containment belt around the oil and began to clean it up.

As the clean-up was about to end, the rescue centre was informed that the container ship might have been the victim of a terrorist attack as a report said it had been equipped with an explosive device.

With maritime police on guard in the water, the centre ordered a patrol boat to escort two experts to the container ship to search for the device. It was removed and the exercise ended at 11:40.

Japan and South Korea sent vessels to join in the exercise. Maritime officials from the United States, Russia, the International Maritime Organization and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were invited to observe.

In all, more than 30 vessels participated. Five maritime helicopters, including two from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, were set to join the exercise, but poor weather forced them to cancel.

The exercise was the largest of its kind ever held in China.

Foreign guests were also impressed. Christopher Young, a senior legal official from the International Maritime Organization, called the forces "well-founded and very well-equipped. I have no reason to doubt their abilities."

(China Daily 07/08/2005 page2)

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