Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Post-mortems on three who drowned at sea

Updated at 3:01 pm on 21 August 2010

Post-mortems on the bodies of the three fishermen who drowned at sea this week were expected to be carried out on Saturday.

The Indonesian men died when the fishing trawler on which they were working, the Oyang 70, capsized and sank in the Pacific Ocean east of Dunedin early on Wednesday morning.

Three other crew members - including the Korean captain - are missing and presumed drowned.

The rest of the crew - 45 Chinese, Filipino, Indonesian and Korean fishermen - were rescued by a New Zealand trawler belonging to Talleys, the Amaltal Atlantis, which arrived at the Port of Lyttelton early on Friday morning.

The crews of both vessels are being interviewed by the Transport Accident Investigation Commission.

The fishermen from the Oyang 70 are also being questioned by police, who are investigating the deaths and disappearances on behalf of the coroner.

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