97 Feared Lost in Capsizing of Drilling Ship in Storm

Rescuers suspended their search late Saturday for 97 crewmen of a U.S.-owned oil drilling ship that capsized in the worst typhoon to hit Thailand in more than three decades.

A helicopter spotted the upside-down hull of the 351-foot Seacrest, but a search covering 600 square miles in the Gulf of Thailand failed to find survivors, lifeboats or debris from the vessel.

“We are not encouraged by the present situation,” said Richard Keller, a Unocal Thailand vice president, as Los Angeles-based Unocal halted search operations because of darkness. Rescue efforts were to continue today.

The top-heavy Seacrest, with members of 13 nationalities aboard--including seven Americans--overturned earlier Saturday as Typhoon Gay blasted the gulf with 100-m.p.h. winds. At least a dozen fishing boats and two cargo vessels capsized in the storm, local news reports said.

Unocal lost contact with the vessel about 12 hours after the storm began whipping up Thursday.

By Saturday afternoon, four Unocal rescue ships and a helicopter had reached the area of the stricken vessel, said Carol Scott, a company spokeswoman in Bangkok. Ships and aircraft of the Thai navy and air force joined the search. There were 64 Thais and 33 people from other nations aboard.

The vessel was about three miles northwest of the Platong oil processing platform. The Platong field is 270 miles south of Bangkok.

A helicopter dropped a two-man search and rescue team atop the hull.

“They tapped on the part of the hull that is above water, listening for a signal back, but got no response,” Scott said.

Earlier, one of the Unocal search craft rescued six Thai fishermen who were clinging to their upturned boat without life jackets after a separate accident, Scott said.

A drilling rig reaching 60 feet or higher was mounted in the center of the Seacrest and the vessel was stacked with drilling equipment, said Barry Lane, a Unocal spokesman in Los Angeles. There was concern that the ship might have been too top-heavy to weather the storm. Also, the crew had little time to prepare.

“This actually was a small storm, a squall, and it escalated very quickly into a tropical storm, and then a typhoon,” he said.

The official Radio Thailand quoted meteorological officials as saying the typhoon was the worst to hit Thailand in 35 years.

The Seacrest is owned by a Unocal subsidiary and operated by Great Eastern Drilling and Engineering Co., Lane said. Of the 97 on board, there were 64 Thais, seven Americans, five Britons, four Australians, three Filipinos, three Singaporeans, two Malaysians, two Indonesians, two Canadians, two Danes, one West German, one New Zealander and one Norwegian.