The whole crew of 14 sailors was saved from a sinking cargo ship in the Bohai Sea on Tuesday morning, an official from the Ministry of Communications announced.

The cargo ship, 86 meters long and 13.2 meters wide, had 14 sailors and 3,420 tons of goods on board. It began to sink on Tuesday morning after being smashed by high winds 50 nautical miles northwest of Dongying City, in eastern China's Shandong Province, said Zhu Baozhu, a rescue official.

Two salvage ships, a fixed-wing plane and a helicopter were sent to the rescue. The helicopter made two flights in strong winds to save all 14 endangered sailors, Zhu said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 18, 2006)