Supertanker ablaze off Sri Lanka, cargo area intact
A fire was still raging on a supertanker carrying about two million barrels of oil in the Indian Ocean on Friday (September 4) off the east coast of Sri Lanka.
A spokesman for the country's navy said that one of the 23 crew members on the New Diamond tanker was missing, while another was injured during the blaze.
Video showed smoke billowing from the tanker as flames spread to its bridge, but there has been no reported damage to the cargo area, and no oil spill as of Friday.
The tanker is charted by Indian Oil Corp and was crewed by 5 Greek and 18 Philippine nationals.
The navy spokesman, Captain Indika de Silva said the missing Filipino sailor is presumed dead.
De Silva had said the blaze was under control on Thursday but a second blaze later broke out.
Sri Lanka sent an aircraft and two ships to put out the fire and several others were assisting in the operation.
The New Diamond is what's called a "very large crude carrier" -- that's the naming classification for the second-largest type of oil tanker in the world.
The ship had sailed from Kuwait and was headed toward India, according to ship-tracking data.
