Sailor jumps overboard

A FILIPINO seaman is feared drowned after jumping overboard from the bridge of a Hong Kong-owned container ship off northern Scotland. A Royal Air Force helicopter and two lifeboats mounted a search for the seaman from the OOCL Assurance, but after five hours coastguards feared the worst.

An OOCL spokesman said the seaman had been acting as watchman on the ship's wing bridge when he jumped overboard. The ship was on its way to Montreal from Hamburg.