Fishing Vessel Sinks In Antarctic Ocean, 5 Dead and 17 Missing

Maritime officials say 5 crew members of a South Korean fishing vessel died Monday when the ship sank off the coast of Antarctica. At least 20 people were rescued, but 17 others remain missing. The missing had an estimated 10 minutes of surviving in the water because water temperatures were just 35.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

"Indications from the rescue vessel and also the company was that all the survivors went into the water without life jackets, without immersion suits, so we're looking at a maximum survival time of about 10 minutes in 2-degree waters,” Dave Wilson of Maritime New Zealand told CNN.

The ship sank around 6:30 a.m. about 1,000 nautical miles from the McMurdo Station in Antarctica. It is still unknown what caused the vessel to sink. The crew included 11 Indonesians, 11 Vietnamese, 8 Koreans, 8 Chinese, 3 Filipinos and 1 Russian.

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