TOKYO ~ Japan arrested the navigator of a freighter on Tuesday, a coastguard official said, over a collision with another ship that left 16 South Korean and Indonesian sailors missing, feared dead.

The Japanese Coast Guard held Kyi Sein, a 48-year-old Myanmar national, on suspicion of negligence after his Panamanian-registered Cygnus Ace collided with the South Korean-registered Orchid Pia on March 10.

The pre-dawn collision in strong rains and winds sank the South Korean vessel, and its 16 sailors have since been missing off Japan’s Izu Oshima island, about 120 kilometers south of Tokyo.

Search operations ended late Monday without any survivors or bodies found.

“We will continue our search for clues in our regular offshore patrol operations from now on,” the official said.

Authorities have questioned crew members of the Cygnus Ace, which sailed into Yokohama port southwest of Tokyo with a damaged bow after the collision.

The Orchid Pia, which was carrying a cargo of steel coils, had been travelling from the port of Kashima in eastern Japan towards South Korea.