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On Sakhalin, probe launched in wreck of ADEX schooner in Sea of Okhotsk

On 7 February 2016, the Far Eastern Transport Investigations Directorate of the Investigative Committee got a report that two alarm beacons had gone off on two foreign shills in the Sea of Okhotsk. The investigative authorities have carried out a procedural check and opened a criminal investigation in a crime under part 3 of article 263 of the RF Penal Code (violation of traffic safety and operation of water transportation system entailing by negligence death of two or more people) after the wreck of the ADEX ship.

According to the investigation, on 7 February 2016, at 10:45 AM, Khabarovsk time, two alarm beacons went off at the ADEX and NORT ships in the Sea of Okhotsk. The search-and-rescue efforts conducted by the Far Eastern Regional Center of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations involving the Vasily Polishchuk refrigerator ship and the Sibirsky rescue ship found and recovered 2 radio buoys, 3 wet suits, 2 life jackets and a life buoy which beloned to the ADEX. On 10 February 2016, an Antonov-74 plane of the Emergency Ministry located an inflated life raft.

The investigation has revealed that both of the foreign ships belonged to one foreign company, whose name is being checked now.

The ADEX (previous name was Virp) is an average fishing refrigerator trawler made in Japan, its home port is Lome, and it sailed under the flat of the Republic of Togo.

In September 2015, the ship was arrested by the Kamchatka coast guard. It sailed from the port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on 8 December 2015.

According to the ADEX muster roll submitted on 15 December 2015, at the port of Otaru, Japan, it had on board 16 crew members, all of them were Russian citizens, residents of Maritime Territory and Sakhalin Region, 9 of them lived in the town of Nevelsk, Sakhalin Region.

The NORT (home port Sierra Lione) was built in the Kirov Plant (Khabarovsk) in 1983. Before 2009, it was owned by the Sakhalin company. So far, there are no documents confirming where and when the ship sailed.

Investigative and other procedural activities are underway in Kamchatka, Maritime Territories and Sakhalin Region to find out all the details of the incident. The investigation is ongoing.