SEVASTOPOL. Jan 10 (Interfax-AVN) - An AN-26 Curl search and rescue plane of the Russian Black Sea Fleet has only found an emergency buoy and a lifebelt of a Turkish vessel in distress, not the vessel itself, chief traffic controller of the Sevastopol trading port Sergei Grishin said on Friday.
"The AN-26 with special equipment organic of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and under command of first-class pilot Pavel Khinev was searching the area. It took off from Kachi at 3:53 p.m. Moscow time (1253 GMT) and landed at 6:30 p.m. Moscow time (1530 GMT) on Thursday. The vessel in distress or swimming people were not found. However the Black Sea Fleet aviators managed to find an emergency buoy and a lifebelt and fed the data to the vessels effecting the search," Grishin told Interfax-Military News Agency.
This made it possible for the Volga-Don vessel to find, pick up and deliver to Sevastopol's outer raids the emergency buoy, two lifebelts and waste. The finds were subsequently handed over to the Sevastopol transport prosecutor's office.
"Last time the SOS signal was coming from the area 43 degrees 36 minutes North and 33 degrees 48 minutes East of Greenwich," Grishin said.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Navy has put on alert its search and rescue service in order to provide aid to the Turkish vessel Amir-1, the press service of the Ukrainian Armed Forces told Interfax-AVN.
"Right after we were notified on SOS signals by the bodies we are interacting with, the command post of the Ukrainian Navy Staff set up a supernumerary search and rescue post, established interaction with the Odesa naval rescue coordination center that supervises the search and rescue operation, and other operational services," the press service said.
Two Ukrainian Transportation Ministry vessels, the Volga-Don 5091 and Volgobalt, the Russian ship Lena-Neft, the Turkish vessel Bakanar, and the Russian AN-26 airplane are involved in the search for the Amir 1.
The ship with its 24 crewmembers left the Kerch Bay on Monday and was heading for the Turkish port of Gerze, the press service of the Ukrainian Emergencies Ministry told Interfax. There had been no radio contact with it for two days.
According to other sources, the crew comprised 21 men, these being 16 Tunisians, three Turks and two Azerbaijanis.