Three fishermen were killed after their boat capsized as a result of a collision with another vessel off Pangasinan province in the northern Philippines on Monday, October 2.
Investigators from the Philippine Coast Guard said the locally-registered fishing vessel Dearyn was some 180 nautical miles off the coast when it was struck by an unnamed foreign commercial ship at around 04:20 local time on Monday.
The three fatalities included the boat's 47-year-old captain and two crewmen, aged 62 and 38, respectively.
Dearyn's 11 surviving crewmembers later utilised their vessel's tenders to transport the bodies of their deceased companions to shore and into the custody of local authorities.
The survivors told investigators that the pre-dawn darkness and the adverse weather conditions in the area at the time may have prevented their vessel from being detected by the crew of the commercial ship as the latter sailed through those same waters.
The coast guard said it is cross-referencing the survivors' accounts and the date and time of the collision to identify the vessels that were passing through the area when the incident occurred. Once the other vessel involved has been identified, the coast guard will contact the flag state of the vessel and its next port of call as part of the ongoing investigation.
