Crew member still missing after MOL ferry fire

By Monday morning, there was still one person missing off the coast of Japan after a ferry caught fire on Friday.

The Japanese Coast Guard stated on Sunday that they had failed to find the ship’s second officer, Kunihiko Orita, 44.

Orita was reportedly fighting a blaze on the MOL Ferry Co’s Sunflower Daisetsu as it sailed about 50km off Tomakomai in Japan. The Japan Times reported that, in his final contact with the captain, Orita was quoted as saying, “There’s horrible black smoke here. It’s hard to see anything nearby.”

Nine coast guard members boarded the ferry from helicopters, but smoke and heat in the still-burning ferry hampered their search efforts, reported the Maritime Executive

The fire reportedly broke out in a parking area that contained four refrigerated container trucks and may have spread to the engine room and the steering gear room.