Z19 SONJA

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More details regarding shipwreck revealed

The "Sonja - Z 19", based in Zeebrugge, was thought to have sank within minutes at about 2 p.m. on Aug 25 leading to a massive search operation after three survivors were found in life raft by the "Pacific Princess". Rescued were Dirk Coolsaet (53) from Oudenburg and his colleagues Pascal Pincket from Eernegem and Luc Heyneman from Heist. They had been at sea for six days. Two other crew members, Roger Zoete (60) from Gistel and Kurt Slabinck (48) from Moerkerke, were reported as missing and their bodies were found near the sunken boat in the afternoon of Aug 26 by a Maritime and Coastguard Helicopter. Their bodies were flown to Humberside, where the local police attempted to contact their families. The bodies corresponded with the descriptions of them. No mayday was sent out. The ship was close to a sandbank when it got in distress. The crew picked up the nets, but the sand stayed in it. The tawler began to capsize, perhaps by a combination of the weight, the tight wind and the high waves. At that moment the wind force was up to 8 Beaufort. The deck hands called for skipper Kurt to unload the nets, but he did not react anymore. Possibly he had fallen in the wheelhouse and became unconscious. The "Sonja" went within seconds. Dirk Coolsat ended up in the water and kept clinging to the hull of the ship. Roger Zoete was on the same side, but lower than him. Suddenly he did not see him anymore. Also Luc Heyneman from Heist could cling to the hull. Machinist Pascal Pincket had grabbed a buoy. Heyneman and Coolsaet managed to climb onto the hull and pull Pascal Pincket up to them. Suddenly the raft came loose and they managed to blow it up and crawl into it. After five minutes on the raft they saw Roger Zoete surfacing, face down. They not possibly grab him. 15 minutes later they saw Kurt Slabinck floating in the sea, but we could not save him either. The three survivors floated for another four hours at sea. Suddenly they saw an oil tanker, but it had not seen the rocket they shot off. The three men in the life raft were finally rescued by the "Pacific Princess" at 6.30 p.m., which alerted the authorities that two other fishermen were missing. At 7 p.m. the helicopter from Humberside Coastguard was called out and at 8 p.m. it arrived and discovered the "Sonja" had sunk with no sign of its two missing. At 8 p.m. Caister and Gorleston lifeboats were called out as part of an extensive search which involved other cruise ships and passing vessels. The weekend search also involved the Lowestoft lifeboat.

Three rescued, two dead after shipwreck off England

On Aug 25, 2018, the "Sonja - Z 19", 159 gt (IMO: 7524627), issued a distress call in pos. 52-48.5 N 002-20.5 E, approximately 25 nautical miles east northeast off Great Yarmouth near the Smiths Knoll Buoy and sank at 5.4 p.m. in eight Beaufort winds with a five-member crew on board. In addition to two rescue helicopters from Humberside the RNLI boat from Gorleston, a lifeboat from Caister and other ships participated n the SAR operation. The crew of the Bermuda-flagged cruise ship "Pacific Princess" (IMO: 9187887), was able to pick up three of the castaways 25 miles from Norfolk four hours after the sinking. They had launched an emergency flare, and the ship was heading for the position. Actually it wanted to give the raft only shelter from the wind, until the Coastguard had arrived, but at 6.30 p.m. it came in such a favorable position that a fallreep was deployed, where the fishermen could climb up. One of them fell into the water, but was able to hold on to the gangway and be pulled back into the liferaft, in order to successfully try it a second time. Then the search for two more, still missing fishermen went on. After two hours, the "Pacific Princess" continued the journey from Rosyth to Dover. Here the castaways were dropped off. The British Coast Guard coordinated the further search, during which the corpses of the two missing men were discovered in the morning of Aug 26 and airlifted to Humberside airport. They were found on the base of various SARIS plot searches around the last known position by different assets which led to debris being found in the area. The rescue units then were stood down returned to their bases. The maritime rescue coordination center in Oostende launched an investigation into whether the cutter could have had a ground contact before sinking. Reports with photos and video: https://news.sky.com/story/two-sailors-missing-after-three-are-rescued-in-north-sea-by-passing-cruise-ship-11482470 https://nieuws.vtm.be/binnenland/belgisch-schip-gekapseisd-2-belgen-overleden?referer=https%3A//www.google.nl/