Missing sailors: Bering Sea mission continues

Portraits of the students who died in the Sewol ferry disaster are seen behind an art installation in Seoul, South Korea. The sinking of the fishing trawler in the Bering Sea has struck a nerve in Seoul, where the Sewol ferry disaster is still fresh in many minds. File photo: Kim Hong-ji

Portraits of the students who died in the Sewol ferry disaster are seen behind an art installation in Seoul, South Korea. The sinking of the fishing trawler in the Bering Sea has struck a nerve in Seoul, where the Sewol ferry disaster is still fresh in many minds. File photo: Kim Hong-ji

Published Dec 4, 2014

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Seoul - Eight more bodies were recovered on Thursday from the area where a South Korean trawler sank in the Bering Sea off Russia's far east coast, leaving 33 crew members still missing, officials said.

A total of 20 bodies have now been recovered since the 1 753-ton Oryong 501 trawler went down on Monday in rough, icy seas with 60 people on board.

Only seven people were rescued.

The eight bodies recovered on Thursday included two Indonesians, two South Koreans, two Filipinos and two unidentified crew members, said a spokesman for the vessel's operator, Sajo Industries.

A US Coast Guard plane has been helping South Korean and Russian ships scouring the area, backed by a Russian helicopter.

South Korea plans to dispatch two naval planes and a Coast Guard ship, despite the increasingly unlikely prospect of finding any survivors.

Those on board included 11 South Koreans, 35 Indonesians, 13 Philippine crew members, as well as a Russian fisheries inspector who was among the rescued.

Sapa-AFP

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