The PMO picked up a distress signal from the Golden Tree tanker vessel, which is Panama-flagged but Chinese-owned and whose engine room had caught fire some 30 miles from Iran’s Dayyer Port on Saturday, Nader Pasandeh, the director general of safety and maritime security at the PMO, said on Sunday.
Maritime search and rescue units and fireboats were immediately dispatched to the offshore location despite increment weather at sea and large waves, transferring the 17 crewmembers, who were of different nationalities, to their own ships and then to the Dayyer Port. Two other crewmembers from Golden Tree stayed to help with the firefighting.
All the foreign crewmembers were on the way back to their vessel, as the fire has been put out, Pasandeh said.
