The Singapore Flagged vessels MV Cougar Ace remains disabled and listing at 90 degrees to her port side about 230 miles south of the Adak Island in the Aleutians on Monday, July 24, 2006 (LT).

The US Coast Guard and the Alaska Air National Guard were sent aircraft Monday to rescue 23 crew members aboard an Asian cargo ship taking on water south of the Aleutian Islands.

By the time a Coast Guard aircraft arrived and was able to drop three life rafts for the crew Monday morning, the ship was at an 80 degree angle, nearly on its side, officials said. The roiling waters shoved the rafts underneath the dipping port side of the 654-foot ship before the crew could secure them.

Rescuers tossed another raft toward the higher starboard side, but it was a 150-foot drop to the water.

A merchant vessel MV Ikan Juara crew that had been in the area reached the vessel Monday morning. The crew of that ship tried, but failed, to rig a line to the Cougar Ace to keep it from tilting further, and the Cougar Ace's crew was losing power in its hand-held radio.

Near the vessel, Coast Guard officers could see a long oil sheen, though officials said it was difficult to say how much of the ship's 430 mt of fuel oil or 112 mt of diesel fuel had spilled. The ocean was choppy, with rain squalls.

There were no other injuries reported beyond the one crew member's broken ankle.

Finally the US Coast Guard helicopters hoisted 23 crew members from Cougar Ace to safety overnight on 25th July, ending a daylong rescue effort as 10-foot waves slapped the ship's tilting deck.

The cause of the vessel damage is unknown at this time and it wasn't clear Tuesday morning if their cargo ship was still afloat or what had caused it to list.