Bhubaneswar, Sept. 29 -- The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) on Sunday rescued a distressed foreign-flagged chemical tanker carrying 9,000 tonnes of palm oil after its main engine failed and ballast tanks began flooding, leaving the vessel dangerously tilted off the Odisha coast. The Belize-flagged MT Seagull 9, carrying 23 crew members, sent out a distress call around 7.30 am on September 27 when it was about 37 nautical miles east-southeast of Paradip. ICG chief public relations officer Commandant Amit Uniyal said the Coast Guard immediately deployed its offshore patrol vessel ICGS Vishwast to the distressed tanker. "A specialised damage-control team boarded the vessel despite challenging conditions and launched de-flooding operations using submersible pumps and other equipment. The team arrested the flooding, blanked two damaged seawater pipelines and contained a third fractured line, preventing the situation from worsening," he said. The coast guard also diverted a pollution control and offshore patrol vessels to maintain round-the-clock surveillance. With the tanker stabilised, its crew and the Coast Guard team carried out cargo-transfer and de-flooding operations simultaneously, averting the risk of the vessel capsizing. Coast guard Dornier aircraft operating from Bhubaneswar also conducted aerial surveillance of the tanker and surrounding waters. A minor palm-oil sheen spotted near the vessel on Sunday was found to have completely dissipated during follow-up aerial sorties on Monday, officials said. Pollution-response measures, however, remain in place as a precaution. After the tanker was stabilised, Paradip Port Authority tug Dolphin took MT Seagull 9 under tow towards the anchorage area off Paradip....