Five Filipino crew members on a Taiwan-registered fishing boat are missing after the vessel caught fire on February 11 off the Falkland Islands in the southern Atlantic Ocean.
Another 64 people who were on board the vessel were rescued and taken to safety, an official with Kaohsiung City’s Marine Bureau said this week.
The 998-ton longliner Jun Rong had a crew of 69 at the time of the drama – four Taiwanese, 22 Filipinos, 28 Indonesians, one Chinese, nine Vietnamese and five from Myanmar.
The vessel caught fire at around 60 nautical miles north of Stanley, the capital of the Falklands, The Taiwan Times reported.
One of the Indonesian fishermen who was rescued, a man named Aan Hen Sueke, managed to take several videos of the burning vessel. He told the media they suspected that a generator had exploded and started the fierce blaze. But, the actual cause of the fire was not known.
The Philippine Embassy in London said in a statement on February 15 that it remained hopeful that the five missing Filipinos would be found, and they were continuing to coordinate with UK authorities in regard to the search.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they had also sought assistance from the UK government in regard to the drama.
The 64 crew members were taken to safety in Port Montevideo in Uruguay and the Jung Ron fishing company has promised to provide any assistance necessary to help them to return to their respective home countries.