A typhoon named Mitag claimed a bulk freighter on November 27, 2007 northwest of Keelung Island, Taiwan. The ship was built at Mitsubishi in Osaka, Japan in 1975 at Itaboa, after several name changes she was last known as Mezzanine. On that November day she was filled with iron ore from Indonesia bound for Tianjin, China, when at 2:28 p.m. a distress call was sent alerting Taiwanese authorities that the ship was taking on water and was sinking. A search was started, but was abandoned in just a couple of hours due to weather, a decision that would be criticized later.

According to the only survivor the ship had been hit by a huge wave and possibly sank in a whirlpool. The crew did not have time to launch lifeboats and went over the side into the water with only lifebelts, he said that they soon became separated and he never saw any of them again. Searches were made for four days, but none of the twenty-six men were ever found.