Crew members of grounded Chinese fishing boat return home from Japan

Twenty-three crew members aboard a Chinese fishing boat that was grounded near Japan's Shimane Prefecture a week ago left Osaka for China by air Thursday afternoon.

In the early morning of Dec. 18, a 255-ton fishing boat JIN HAI 805 from China's Zhejiang province hit rocks and was grounded near Shimane Prefecture when taking refuge from storms there.

Twenty-three out of the 25 crew members on board were rescued, among whom three were injured badly. The body of one missing crew member was found several days after the incident, while the other is still unaccounted for.

After the incident, the Chinese Consulate-General in Osaka immediately launched consular protection mechanism and sent diplomats to the scene to provide help. The rescued crew members took bus to Kansai International Airport from Shimane Prefecture on Thursday and left for China by air.