North Sea Cargo Ship Collision Kills Five Crew Members, Sinks 1,417 Mitsubishi Vehicles Heading For Russia

Dec 06, 2012 01:06 PM EST | Matt Mercuro

Five crew members died and six others have gone missing after a cargo ship carrying 1,417 Mitsubishi Motors Corp. vehicles hit a container ship in the North Sea according to Reuters .  

"We stopped searching in the night and as soon as it is daylight we will start again with an airplane and helicopters," a coastguard official told Reuters.

The Baltic Ace ship sank after colliding with a container vessel Corvus J the coast guard wrote on their website. At least 13 crew members have been saved, and five have been recovered from the sea.

Six crew members are still missing, though coastguard said they have reopened the search after stopping due to heavy winds. The ships collided just 40 miles off the southeastern coast of the Netherlands.

"The chance of finding any survivors is very slim because of the very low temperatures but we are still hoping," said a coastguard official.

Both ships are completely under water, and officials are trying to simply locate their position right now. They have not been able to determine what caused the ships to collide yet either.

The Bahamian-flagged Baltic Ace was going to from a Zeebrugee port in Belgium to Kotka, Finland when it hit a Cyprus-flagged Corvus J which was heading to Antwerp from a Scottish town called Grangemouth according to Reuters.

"The Mitsubishi cars bound for Russia have been lost," Mitsubishi spokesman Daniel Nacass said to Reuters. "(We) are deeply sorry for the tragic loss of lives."

Mitsubishi is currently working on assessing the impact the accident will have on its Russian distributor and dealers. They have already said they will try limiting the delay to Russian customers Nacass said. 

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