Two British shipping officials arrived in Bermuda over the weekend to investigate an accident on board the tanker Johann Schulte , in which two crew men lost their lives.

And the critically injured 33-year-old sailor who survived the tragedy along with two others was airlifted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland yesterday afternoon.

The news came from Meyer Shipping spokesman Captain John Moore, who added that he could not elaborate any more on the condition of the man when he left. Of the other two survivors, he said one was scheduled to fly back home to the Philipines today, while the other remained in the general ward at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital "until he's fit enough to travel''.

The men were thrown across the deck of their 465ft Isle of Man registered vessel after a huge wave crashed over them as they were trying to secure an anchor in seas 800 miles east of Bermuda. One man, the ship's Polish Chief Officer, died shortly after the accident while another, the 59-year-old ship's bosun, succumbed to his injuries on Friday morning.

The injured men were flown back to Bermuda after a joint United States Air Force/Coast Guard rescue mission was organised in coordination with Bermuda's Rescue Coordination Centre. The Johann Schulte arrived in Bermuda on Sunday afternoon, anchoring off St. George's for the night before shifting to Dockyard yesterday morning.

The two dead bodies of the crew men were removed from the vessel and transported to the morgue. Yesterday, Police Coroner's Officer Sgt. Phil Taylor explained that two men from the Isle of Man's Department of Trade and Industry Marine Administration would be conducting an investigation into how the two men died. He said the men arrived on Saturday, along with a representative from the owners of the ship Dorchester Maritime Ltd., which is based in the Isle of Man.

Sgt. Taylor added that local Police had been and would continue to carry out enquiries as to exactly how injuries of the dead men occurred.

"I was on board the ship this morning,'' he said, "and we were just collecting the basic facts and background information to what caused the accident. According to Sgt. Taylor, Bermuda is bound by law to do some of its own investigating since the bodies were actually landed here. "A pathologist will carry out autopsies on them, which will be submitted to the coroner,'' he said. "But there will probably be no inquest here since the Isle of Man officials have requested that it be done by them.'' After the autopsies, a funeral director will have the bodies transported back to Poland and the Phillipines.

The three survivors, a 33-year-old able seaman with serious head injuries, a 39-year-old able seaman and a 31-year-old seaman, were winched off the ship and transported to hospital by USAF Blackhawk helicopters on Friday night. In the meantime, the crews of four US Air Force helicopters and planes and one US Coast Guard plane flew their vehicles back to Moody Air Force Base in Georgia yesterday afternoon.

Photos by David Skinner Investigating: On the left, Police officers and crew members of the Johann Schulte remove the body of one of the men who died in Thursday's accident as the ship berths at King's Wharf, Dockyard yesterday morning. Pictured above the 465ft liquid gas tanker ties up at King's Wharf, Dockyard yesterday morning.