Cyclone Phailin made landfall on Saturday on the Odisha coast
Cargo ship MV Bingo is presumed to have sunk in the rough seas off the Indian east coast after Cyclone Phailin hit on Saturday, sources said.
The ship's 18-member crew, however, was rescued after the Indian Coast Guard spotted them in a lifeboat 28 miles off Balasore coast in Odisha.
"The crew had abandoned the ship after it started sinking. All of them are safe now and they have been sent to a hospital in Balasore for check-up," Coast Guard Commandant Rajendra Nath told PTI.
A Dornier aircraft and a hovercraft belonging to the Coast Guard were pressed into service to locate the ship which had sailed with 17 Chinese and one Indonesian crew member on board.
The Panama-registered sea vessel, carrying 8000 tonnes of iron ore, had left from the Sagar anchorage in West Bengal on Friday. It went missing the day after.