⌛ Ferry Accident

I just read and copied...

MANILA, Philippines — Passengers leapt into the dark sea and parents dropped children into life rafts from a stricken ferry carrying nearly 1,000 people after it capsized in the middle of the night in the southern Philippines.

Nine people died and more than 30 were missing Sunday though rescue efforts saved about 900 terrified victims on the Superferry 9 after turned on its side 9 miles (15 kilometers) off Zamboanga del Norte province.

The vessel's violent rotation roused frightened passengers from their sleep and sent many jumping in the darkness into the water, coast guard chief Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo said.

Many aboard panicked as the huge ferry listed, said passenger Reymark Belgira. He said he saw parents tossing children to people on life rafts below, but he could not immediately jump himself.

"I held on to the ferry for hours until day break. I couldn't jump into the water in the dark," Belgira said.

Rescuers transferred 926 of 968 passengers and crewmen to two nearby commercial ships, a navy gunboat and a fishing boat, Tamayo said. A search was under way for 33 missing people.

"We really hope they're just unaccounted for due to the confusion," Tamayo told The Associated Press.

A coast guard statement said rescue efforts were continuing through the night.

Passenger Roger Cinciron said he felt the ferry tilting at about midnight but was assured by a crewman that all was well. About two hours later he was awoken by the sound of crashing cargo below his cabin, he told DZMM radio.

"People began to panic because the ship was really tilting," he said as he waited for rescuers to save him and a group of more than 20 other passengers.

Navy ships were deployed and three military aircraft scoured the seas, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said. American troops providing counterterrorism training to Philippine soldiers in the region deployed a civilian helicopter and five boats, some carrying paramedics, to help, U.S. Col. William Coultrup said.

Teodoro said two men and a child drowned during the scramble to escape the ship. The bodies of two other passengers were later plucked from the sea by fishermen, the coast guard said, adding three people were injured.

A Canadian tourist, Jeffrey Predchuz, was among the survivors, officials said.

The cause of the listing was not clear. The ferry skipper initially ordered everyone on board to abandon ship as a precautionary step, said Jess Supan, vice president of Aboitiz Transport System, which owns the steel-hulled ferry.

There were reports the 7,268-ton vessel listed to the right because of a hole in the hull, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said.

Aerial photos from the navy showed survivors holding on to anything as the ferry tilted. Others climbed down a ladder on the side as a lone orange life raft waited below.

The ferry left the southern port city of General Santos on Saturday and was scheduled to arrive in Iloilo city in the central Philippines later Sunday but ran into problems midway, Tamayo said.

There were no signs of possible terrorism, he said.

Al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf militants bombed another Superferry in Manila Bay in 2004, setting off an inferno that killed 116 people in Southeast Asia's second-worst terrorist attack.

The weather was generally fair in the Zamboanga peninsula region, about 530 miles (860 kilometers) south of Manila, although a tropical storm was battering the country's mountainous north, the coast guard said.

Sea accidents are common in the Philippine archipelago because of tropical storms, badly maintained boats and weak enforcement of safety regulations.

Last year, a ferry overturned after sailing toward a powerful typhoon in the central Philippines, killing more than 800 people on board.

In December 1987, the ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker in the Philippines, killing more than 4,341 people in the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster.

 

This is at 7:00 PM Eastern Daylight Savings time here in the US. ( You may be 11 hours ahead of us.) I think people were lucky in that it was slow to sink, calm seas, a captain leaning toward safety when there no evidence he had whether it would float or sink, and of course nearby ships to gather the passengers. The photo would not paste within the article..

Dozens missing from sunken ferry

Passengers scrambled to escape the listing ferry
Philippine authorities are continuing to search for about 30 people still missing after a ferry sank in the middle of the night.

Nine people died when the SuperFerry 9 listed then sank, but more than 900 were rescued from life rafts near the southern city of Zamboanga.

Officials are hopeful some passengers may still be drifting in life rafts.

The Philippine defence minister said the rescue had been helped by the presence of other vessels nearby.

A spokesman for the ferry owner, Aboitiz Transport System, said the priority was to find survivors.

"The focus of the company now, in co-ordination with the authorities, is the rescue and the proper counting of the survivors," said Erden Ferrer.

"That is actually the primary objective we have at the moment."

He said the company was finding out what happened to the crew.

"The captain is alive. The captain is on board the Navy Ship 116, at the moment; that we have confirmed.


PHILIPPINES' WORST FERRY DISASTERS
1987: More than 4,300 people die when the Dona Paz ferry collides with an oil tanker off Mindoro island - the world's worst peacetime shipping disaster
2008: More than 800 people killed when the Princess of the Stars ferry capsizes during a typhoon
1988: Dona Paz's sister ship, Dona Marilyn, sinks off Leyte province, killing 250-300 people
1998: The Princess of the Orient ferry sinks near Batangas province, killing 150-200 people
1994: About 140 people die when a freighter hits the Cebu City ferry in Manila Bay
2004: A fire aboard the Superferry 14 kills 116 people near Manila Bay. Abu Sayyaf claims it planted a bomb on board


In pictures: Philippines ferry sinks
"And also, about the 113 crew, we're still verifying the number and the whereabouts of the crew."

The company earlier said that the crew were the last to leave the ship at 0842 local time, when the ferry finally sank.

It also said that local rescue units and the Philippine National Red Cross were searching the coastal towns near the area for survivors.

The SuperFerry 9 began listing about 0203 local time on Sunday (1830 GMT Saturday) during its journey from General Santos to Iloilo, and all on board were ordered onto life rafts when it became apparent that the problem could not be fixed.

The coastguard, the navy, the air force and private boats in the area rushed to help.

The death toll could rise if reports of more fishing boats bringing in dead bodies proved accurate, officials said.

The Philippine air force and army have sent helicopters to help in the search for those still missing.

The cause of the sinking was unknown, but the weather was reported to be fair at the time of the incident.

The ferry ran into trouble about 530 miles (860km) south of the Philippine capital, Manila.

 

Being a neophite at the web....not sure of the results. The following are photos I garnished from web news locally. I hope you can view them.



BBC NEWS | In Pictures | In pictures: Philippines ferry sinks
BBC NEWS | In Pictures | In pictures: Philippines ferry sinks
BBC NEWS | In Pictures | In pictures: Philippines ferry sinks
BBC NEWS | In Pictures | In pictures: Philippines ferry sinks
Philippines Ferry - Photos, Pictures, Images - msnbc.com
Ferry sinks in southern Philippines | World news | guardian.co.uk

 

Sad news. The hull probably rusted through!

 

In the aftermath of lasy years ferry disaster, with the loss of 800 lives, i was really surprised by how little people cared. the general reaction was either
a.) i did not know or
b.) it happened somewhere different

 

May our Father in Heaven protect those who are lost or are still missing. May He also grant his protection to the many volunteers and to the authorities searching for the missing and caring for the survivors.

May the souls of those who perished rest in eternal peace. Amen.

 

Poor safety record. The philiipine government is not concerned of the lives that was lost in many years. Now again such accident happens again. Poor safety!

 

It is very very poor maintenance of shipping lines in the Philippines. :(

 

6:00 AM Monday here (5:00 PM) Manila?

Latest update about the ferry:


Hosted by Back to Google NewsFilipino warplanes, boats led massive ferry rescue
By JIM GOMEZ (AP) – 1 hour ago

MANILA, Philippines — The proximity of bomber planes and gunboats used for fighting al-Qaida-linked militants and two passing cargo ships led to the successful rescue of nearly 1,000 people from a sunken ferry in a country known for some of the world's worst maritime disasters, officials said Monday.

Nine people died and one remained missing but rescue efforts by the navy, coast guard and civilian ships saved 958 passengers and crew from the Superferry 9, which sank Sunday off southern Zamboanga del Norte province after precariously listing for at least six hours, officials said.

An investigation will begin later this week to find out why the 7,269-ton vessel — its power flickering on and off — suddenly tilted to the right then began to sink in the dark, pre-dawn hours, sparking panic among hundreds of terrified passengers, coast guard chief Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo said.

Capt. Jose Yap, who was among the survivors, issued the "abandon ship" order at 4:40 a.m. (2040GMT) and the ferry, built in 1986 in Japan, sank six hours later, the coast guard said.

As panic ensued, passengers leapt into the dark sea and parents dropped children into life rafts bobbing in the choppy sea, according to witnesses.

Two passing cargo and container ships arrived at the scene less than an hour after receiving a coast guard emergency call for assistance. About two hours later, two assault navy boats guided by two OV-10 bomber planes and two Huey helicopters arrived and began to pluck survivors from the ferry and the sea, regional military commander Maj. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino said.

Although many passengers donned life jackets and managed to cling onto the ferry until they were rescued, some panicked and jumped into the water and others drifted away on life boats, Dolorfino said.

"When our assets arrived, people were floating everywhere," Dolorfino told The Associated Press, adding the military searched a three-mile (five-kilometer) radius from the sinking ferry.

"The presence of many military assets in the area was a big factor," he said.

About 100 sailors and divers and air force pilots helped in the rescue, said Rear Admiral Alex Pama, who helped supervise the operation. Fishing boats also helped in the crucial hours.

"Luck was a factor because we had about two hours before the ferry sank," Pama told The AP.

When the disaster struck, most warships and planes were at a regional military base in Zamboanga city, about 43 miles (70 kilometers) away, in the absence of any major offensives against Abu Sayyaf extremists in the Zamboanga peninsula and nearby Basilan Island, Pama said.

"Some survivors were already in the hands of our divers only to be swept away again by the waves," Pama said, describing the difficulty of the rescue.

The ferry left the southern port city of General Santos on Saturday and was scheduled to arrive in Iloilo city in the central Philippines on Sunday but ran into problems midway, Tamayo said.

There were no signs of possible terrorism, he said.

Abu Sayyaf militants bombed another Superferry in Manila Bay in 2004, setting off an inferno that killed 116 people in Southeast Asia's second-worst terrorist attack.

Last year, a ferry rapidly overturned after sailing toward a powerful typhoon in the central Philippines, killing more than 800 people on board.

In December 1987, the ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker in the Philippines, killing more than 4,341 people in the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Add News to your Google HomepagePhoto 3 of 6

In this photo released by the Philippine Naval Forces Western Mindanao, passengers hang on the port side of the tilted Superferry 9 off Zamboanga del Norte province, southern Philippines, Sunday Sept. 6, 2009. Rescuers transferred 900 of 968 passengers and crewmen to two nearby commercial ships, a navy gunboat and a fishing boat. (AP Photo/Philippine Navy Forces Western Mindanao)



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