Jascon 4
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Jascon 4 was a Nigerian flag tug and supply ship of the Sea Trucks Group . The ship sank with its crew of twelve sailors on May 26, 2013. The accident became known because the cook, 29-year-old Harrison Odjegba Okene, was rescued from an air bubble in the sunken ship after three days. The remaining eleven crew members did not survive.
ship
The Jascon 4 was a tug of West African Ventures , a subsidiary of the Sea Trucks Group . At the time of the accident, the ship was working for the Chevron Corporation in Nigeria . The ship had an area of 147 m² on deck. The ship entered service in 2004.
Downfall
According to the Dutch company that provided the rescue divers, the ship sank when it, along with two other tugs, towed a tanker . It should support the tanker via Single Mooring System (SBM), but got Jascon 4 flip side and sank. At the time, the ship was about 30 kilometers off the Nigerian coast at the Escravos estuary. A rescue operation with helicopters and a number of other ships was started, but without finding a live crew member.
Diving operation
At the time of the accident, the Lewek Toucan , a ship chartered by West African Ventures, with a team of saturation divers on board, was 120 kilometers and around 17 hours from the scene of the accident. The team was engaged in an operation for the Okpoho-Okono 16 pipeline.
After direct contact between the ship owner and the management of DCN Global, the six divers were instructed to come to the scene of the accident as quickly as possible and provide all possible assistance.
Upon arrival, the divers began searching for bodies in Jascon 4 at a depth of 30 meters . The 17-hour journey was used to adjust the divers to the depth of 30 meters. During the first dives, it was found that the wreck had turned 180 degrees and was upside down.
Rescue of the crew
After the divers had already recovered four bodies, a diver found the cook of the Jascon 4 in an air bubble . He had survived in a chamber for 62 hours. The divers carried an underwater camera, the images of which were transmitted to the base boat of the operation. One of the divers saw a hand in the water and thought it was another corpse. When he took his hand, it reached out for him. The diver initially reacted with shock, as he had only expected dead bodies. The divers gave Harrison Okene, the survivor, a full face mask which, in addition to the supply of breathing gas, also enabled voice communication with the divers and the control center. Paul McDonald, a member of the rescue team, told the media that no one on board could believe how "cool" Okene was while he was being rescued. After getting out of the wreck, the group first appeared up to the diving bell. Okene had to spend another 60 hours in the decompression chamber. A direct ascent to the surface would have been fatal because of the diving sickness.
The diving team was able to recover all eleven dead crew members. Eleven Nigerians were on board, including four young cadets from the Nigerian Maritime Academy and the Ukrainian captain. Presumably the sailors locked themselves in their cabins, as this is the usual procedure in the event of a pirate attack.
Following a request from The Associated Press , diving company DCN Diving posted a short version of the video of the operation on the Internet.
Survivor Harrison Odjegba Okene
At the time of the sinking at 4:30 a.m., the cook was already awake and in the toilet. When the ship sank, he crawled out of the toilet and found various tools and a life jacket with a flash. Finally he found a safe room still filled with air. Okene survived in the air bubble for more than two and a half days. The water temperature dropped during the time Okene was underwater. According to his own account, his belief in God helped him not to lose hope. He prayed the psalm his wife had sent him as a text message before the fall. He mourned his eleven colleagues.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Offshore Vessel Summary 2013 ( memento of the original from December 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Sea Trucks Group.
- ↑ Amanda Williams: 'He's alive! He's alive! ': Astonishing moment fisherman who survived for 60 hours in an air pocket was found by rescuers after his boat capsized off Nigeria. In: Daily Mail , December 3, 2013.
- ↑ DCN Divers Rescue Survivor from Jascon 4 (Nigeria). Press release from DCN Diving
- ^ Dramatic rescue of Nigerian man in sunken ship. In: news24.com , December 4, 2013.
