The Iranian oil tanker sank around midday Sunday after the spread of fire to new oil condensate tanks created blazes as high as 100 meters and increased temperature to 350 degrees Celsius (660 degrees Fahrenheit).
The Sunday’s raging inferno made it impossible for the rescuers to even approach the ship.
Sanchi, with 32 people on board, including 30 Iranians, collided with a Chinese freight ship in the East China Sea on January 6 and had been burning ever since.
While China’s search and rescue teams recovered three bodies from the main deck and retrieved the vessel’s black box, a group of Iranian naval commandos were dispatched to the crash site for rescue operation, but could not take action because of unsafe conditions.
The Panama-registered tanker was carrying 136,000 tons of condensate, an ultra-light crude that is highly flammable, to South Korea.
