Crew still missing in fiery oil tanker crash

Rescue teams were racing Monday to save more than 30 missing crew members and contain spewing oil after an oil tanker crashed into a freighter Saturday evening in the East China Sea. Bad weather and dark, billowing smoke from the tanker Sanchi threaten the search-and-rescue effort about 160 nautical miles from Shanghai. Thirty Iranians and two Bangladeshis aboard the Sanchi are missing. The ship is registered in Panama but operated by the National Iranian Tanker Co. Rescuers saved the 21 crew members, all Chinese nationals, from the Hong Kong–registered freighter CF Crystal. The Sanchi carried nearly 1 million barrels of condensate, a type of ultralight oil that is colorless and odorless, making it difficult to detect. It’s also toxic and highly explosive, further complicating cleanup work and potentially wreaking havoc on marine life. The Sanchi’s own fuel, which is heavier and more difficult to clean up, is also leaking into the ocean. China sent several rescue ships and cleaning boats to the crash site, while South Korea dispatched a ship and a helicopter, and a U.S. Navy plane searched for crew members. The Sanchi was on its way from Iran to South Korea but traveled an unlikely course for a vessel its size. Saturday’s collision is the second for a ship from the National Iranian Tanker Co. in less than two years. In August 2016, one of its vessels crashed into a Swiss container ship in the Singapore Strait. Both ships were damaged, but there were no injuries or oil spills. Rescue teams will continue the search in the East China Sea on Tuesday.