OREANDA-NEWS. The body of one of the 17 missing crew members of the trawler "Onega", which sank in the Barents Sea this morning, was found. This was announced by the captain of the Murmansk port, to which the ship launched in 1979 was assigned.

"Onega" MK 0331 sank in the early morning of December 28 near the South Island of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. There were 19 people on board the seiner, two of them were rescued - they were picked up by the passing ship Voikovo. The fishermen who received frostbite said that almost the entire crew was washed away by the wave when the crew lifted a giant harbor on board. A few minutes later, the ship went under water, rescuers received a distress signal from a radio beacon.

“The Voykovo vessel brought on board three crew members, one of them was killed. According to the second mate, the vessel lost stability and turned over while hauling the line,” Murmansk seaport captain Eduard Bezukladov told TASS.

At present, only the Voikovo ship is at the site of the disaster, five more ships are at a distance of two hours of sailing. Experts assess the chances of rescuing the missing 16 crew members as negligible: even in a lifeboat it would be extremely difficult to survive a storm when the air temperature is minus 20 degrees, and the sailors were in the water in only wetsuits.

"More than five hours have passed since the disaster. Under these conditions, the bodies of most of the victims could quickly become numb, and the current could carry them out into the open sea. It is unlikely that they will be found," a source told Interfax.

Difficult weather conditions do not allow to attract aviation to the search operation. Several fishermen, as rescuers believe, could remain on the sunken ship, it will be surveyed using an underwater robot.