The full crew of 36 were rescued from Chinese longliner Shen Gang Shun 1, which had run aground on the west coast of Arutua atoll in the Tuamotu archipelago earlier this week.
The distress call was received by JRCC Tahiti, which scrambled a naval helicopter. The helicopter crew winched all of the longliner’s 36 crew to safety and transferred them to Aratua airport before they were transferred to three other vessels in the area owned by the same company. The day-long helicopter operation was interrupted with calls at calls at Rangiroa to refuel.
The Dauphin helicopter team returned to Faa’a with its mission completed, having carried out a record number of lifts during the day. The Chinese fishing vessels with the rescued crew on board headed back towards international waters.
Shen Gang Shun 1 remains on Aratua Reef and will be the subject of a later operation to remove the wreck from the atoll.
The longliner had spent more than seven months at sea before docking to unload its cargo at the port of Papeete last week. The crew was confined during the stopover and the vessel underwent all the required control formalities to allow it to sail again, along with the other longliners from the same company.
