Ponta Delgada, Portugal, June 23, 2025 (Lusa) - On Sunday, the Portuguese Navy coordinated the rescue of 11 crew members from a Portuguese-flagged fishing vessel experiencing uncontrollable flooding and facing imminent danger of sinking northeast of São Miguel, in the Azores, authorities announced on Monday.

The operation began at 11:39 a.m. local time (one hour later in Lisbon), and the Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Centre in Ponta Delgada (MRCC Delgada) carried it out with the support of the merchant ship MV Bushu Maru, registered in the Bahamas.

The 11 crew members were on board the Portuguese-flagged fishing vessel Carmen, “which required immediate assistance due to uncontrollable flooding and was in imminent danger of sinking, about 300 nautical miles, equivalent to about 560 kilometres, northeast of the island of São Miguel,” the Navy said in a statement.

“The merchant ship Bushu Maru rescued the 11 crew members at 4:21 p.m. (local time); the crew members were already in the liferaft, and the ship was sailing about 20 nautical miles—equivalent to 37 kilometres—away,” it said.

The crew members, of Portuguese, Indonesian and Moroccan nationality, boarded the Bushu Maru and headed for its destination port of Dunkirk, France.

ASR/ADB // ADB.

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