Christchurch: The search continued in Lyttelton Harbour today after a 52-year-old seafarer fell overboard containership Madinah (4,258 teu, built 2010) just after 1pm yesterday, around 3km from Lyttelton Port.
Yesterday the local coast guard, a rescue helicopter and 16 other vessels took up a search for the man, but by late evening operations was called off due to cold weather conditions.
While the search resumed today, police said they were not involved now as the search turns into a body recovery rather than rescue search. The vessel remains docked at the port.
The Madinah is owned by Seaspan, and currently on charter to OOCL, who run the vessel on their China – New Zealand service. It was also involved in an incident on Wednesday at Port Chalmers, when a crane operator was hospitalised as a straddle container carrier he was operating fell over while unloading the vessel.
