Marine

Citation

(2005), "Marine", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 14 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2005.07314bac.001

Marine

12 June 2004Bay of Bengal

Bangladeshi rescuers, battling rough seas, are searching for around 140 fishermen missing after a storm sank 20 boats in the Bay of Bengal. Police say ten bodies have been found. Two people have been rescued alive but in critical condition while drifting for nearly 24 hours of the storm. “The sinking of the boats was reported late on Saturday (June 12),” Police Superintendent Ataul Kibria said. Fifteen fishermen had been rescued on Saturday but a fishing association says 144 of their colleagues are missing.

13 June 2004. Three fishermen drowned and about 200 others were missing after a powerful storm sank at least 18 trawlers off Bangladesh’s southern coast, officials and survivors said today. Hundreds of people thronged the beach in search of relatives after the storm lashed the Bay of Bengal off Cox’s Bazar and neighbouring Tekhnaf coast yesterday. The storm packed 30 mph winds and generated waves as high as 40 feet. Villagers found three bodies washed ashore on Maheshkhali island in the Bay of Bengal late yesterday, said Ataul Kibria, a senior police official in Cox’s Bazar. Nurul Amin, an owner of one of the lost trawlers, said only four of the 11 men on his vessel had made it back home by today. The strong winds and rough seas made searching for the lost fishermen too dangerous. “The sea is so choppy and rough that we can’t go out there,” Kibria said. A rescue official said he was hopeful that many of the missing were able to swim to small islands that dot the coast, or were rescued by other vessels.

14 June 2004. Seven more bodies washed up the Bangladesh coastline, raising the death toll from a powerful weekend (June 12-13) storm to at least 13, police said today. About 140 fishermen were missing. The storm hit on Saturday, with waves reaching 40 feet and wind gusts up to 30mph. At least 20 trawlers capsized carrying an estimated 200 fishermen. The police official said about 50 fishermen were picked up or managed to swim to safety. “About 140 people were still missing, but we believe that many of them could be taking shelter in nearby islands, or were rescued by villagers,” the official said.

1 July 2004Sri Muryani 02 (Indonesia)

At least 22 crew members including the Taiwanese master and a Chinese national were killed as their fishing Sri Muryani 02, owned by PT Indo Hong Hai (PT IHH), based in Bitung, exploded and caught fire in the Arufuru Sea, approximately 350km southeast of Ambon, Maluku, survivors said today. The accident actually occurred on Saturday (June 26) but was just reported by the surviving five crew members who recently arrived in Bitung, North Sulawesi province, yesterday evening after being rescued by fishing Udang 02. The survivors said a short-circuit likely triggered the explosion that quickly ignited the wooden ship. The North Sulawesi water police unit stationed in Bitung confirmed the report on the accident but refused to speak further. “Sorry, we are not authorized to give any more details about the matter because the accident did not take place in our jurisdiction,” said a local police officer.

6 July 2004Nasrin-2

Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (Blast) has filed a Tk 290 million (about $5 million) compensation suit against the government for victims of ferry Nasrin-2, which capsized in Bagladesh’s Meghna river, in July 2003, on behalf of 121 victims of the launch mishap. Blast filed the suit with the third Joint District Judge’s Court, against 21 persons belonging to the government, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), Sea Transport Directorate; launch company and its owner. Nasrin-2, capsized on July 8, 2003 at the Padma, Meghna and Dakatia confluence in Chandpur leaving 150 people dead, about 200 missing and many others injured. The triple-decker vessel was on its way to Lalmohan in Bhola from Dhaka with about 700 passengers on board.

13 July 2004Andrew J. Barberi (USA)

The federal prosecutor overseeing the investigation of last year’s fatal crash of ferry Andrew J. Barberi suggested today that people involved in the case could be indicted within a month. The accident killed 11 commuters, injured dozens and led to billions of dollars in civil claims. Chief Assistant US Attorney Andrew Hruska asked Magistrate Judge Viktor Pohorelsky to extend until August an order suspending the gathering of evidence for lawsuits against the city. Prosecutors worry that giving plaintiffs’ attorneys access to witnesses and documents could damage their criminal case. The judge granted the government’s request to extend the ban beyond today, but noted that the investigation was 10 months old and had yet to produce criminal charges. He said he would need evidence of progress before extending the order beyond its new August 13 deadline. Hruska replied: “I hope I’ll be able to do that in a straightforward way.” He also told the judge that another extension of the deadline might be unnecessary. He declined to elaborate on his comments as he left the courtroom, but a law enforcement source familiar with the probe said that prosecutors expected to produce indictments within a month. The vessel slammed into a concrete pier on Staten Island after crossing New York Harbour from Manhattan on October 15. The master violated procedure by being out of the vessel’s wheelhouse during docking, when his assistant lost control of the vessel, investigators said. The assistant, pilot Richard Smith, said he passed out at the controls. The criminal investigation expanded its focus from the crew to high-ranking ferry officials and whether they neglected safety rules so grievously that they committed crimes.

28 July 2004. A woman injured in the Staten Island ferry crash has reached a $1.125 million settlement with the city, the largest to date. Laura Diaz, 41, suffered a broken leg and pelvis when ferry Andrew J. Barberi crashed into a pier near the St. George terminal in Staten Island on October 15. She had to have screws put into her leg, said her lawyer, Daniel O’Toole. Diaz was in the hospital for two weeks and is still out of work. “She’s still weaning herself off a cane,” O’Toole said. “Unfortunately, that pain is going to be with her the rest of her life.” Diaz was on her way home from her job as a federal bankruptcy court clerk on the afternoon of the disaster. She was one of 71 people injured in the crash, which killed 11 people. The settlement came after negotiations with the city corporation counsel. The negotiations were “pretty amicable,” O’Toole said, adding that “the city came up with a fair price.” It was the 33rd settlement reached in the city involving the ferry crash, said Kate O’Brien Ahlers, a spokeswoman for the corporation counsel. Diaz’ settlement, announced yesterday, is worth more than the other 32 cases combined, which totalled about $600,000. “Ms Diaz had very serious injuries,” said corporation counsel attorney, Susan Rogerson Pondish. “We feel this was a reasonable settlement that we hope will assist in bringing closure to her and her family.” There are still about 150 ferry-crash cases outstanding, Ahlers said. It’s possible that there may be even larger settlements or jury awards in the future, given that most of the cases involving the 11 deaths have not yet been resolved. Earlier this month, the Brooklyn US Attorney’s office gained a 30-day extension to freeze new civil actions in the case to keep them from interfering with the criminal investigation. Much of the investigation has focused on the whereabouts of Capt Michael Gansas when the vessel crashed. The city has said that he was not in the pilothouse. Gansas refused to talk with investigators and was fired. Assistant Capt Richard Smith, who was at the helm, told investigators he passed out at the wheel.

4 August 2004. Ferry Andrew J. Barberi: a Staten Island Ferry assistant captain pleaded guilty today to manslaughter and lying to the Coast Guard about his medical history before the crash that killed 11 commuters, injured dozens more and exposed systemic problems with the vessel’s operations. Richard Smith was entering his plea under an agreement reached with prosecutors. Smith acknowledged that his misconduct and inattention to duty caused the deaths last October. Smith also admitted that he had taken Tramadol, a back pain drug, and Tylenol PM – two drugs with side effects that can include drowsiness. The two were among five drugs he was taking for conditions including high blood pressure in the month before the accident; both were in his system at the time of the crash. “You were negligent in the same way, for example, that someone who drives a car while intoxicated is negligent,’’ US District Court Judge Edward Korman said. The manslaughter counts are part of a separate federal code dealing with maritime law. Smith could face up to ten years in prison on each count, although his plea agreement was expected to provide him with a more lenient sentence. Smith, 55, appearing haggard and drawn, said he didn’t acknowledge his health problems because he was afraid of losing his job. He had lied on an August 2000 application for his licence, where word of his high blood pressure and use of prescription drugs could have led to a rejection. The guilty plea followed a ten-month investigation into the Staten Island ferry crash.

5 August 2004. The city’s director of ferries pleaded not guilty today to 11 counts of manslaughter in last year’s wreck of the Staten Island ferry Andrew J. Barberi. Patrick Ryan left the federal courthouse without speaking to reporters. His attorney, Tom Fitzpatrick, said he and Ryan were taken aback by the harshness of the charges. The October 15 crash was one of the worst mass-transit disasters in New York history. Eleven people died and dozens were hurt when the ferry’s pilot blacked out and Andrew J. Barberi slammed into a maintenance pier. Ferry pilot Richard Smith pleaded guilty yesterday to 11 counts of manslaughter, acknowledging he neglected his duties by taking medications that made him lose consciousness at the helm. Prosecutors accused Ryan of slipshod management, saying years of neglect were “a tragedy waiting to happen.’’ They allege Ryan neglected long-established safety practices, including a requirement that a ship’s captain and assistant captain share the wheelhouse during docking. Ryan never told new pilots about the rule or enforced it, prosecutors said. Authorities say the ferry’s captain was not in the wheelhouse when Smith passed out at the helm. The ferry’s port captain and a doctor who treated the ferry’s pilot also pleaded not guilty to making false statements after the crash.

26 July 2004Lighting Sun (Pakistan)

Bangladesh Shipping Ministry has directed authorities concerned to take action against owner and master of ferry Lighting Sun, which sunk in the river Meghna on May 23. The government took this decision following the recommendations of an inquiry committee, formed by it to probe the launch capsize, which killed 86 people. The ministry asked Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority to suspend temporarily and lodge departmental cases against its drawing officer Siddiqur Rahman and design instructor executive engineer Md Rabiul Islam. It directed Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation to suspend temporarily and take departmental actions against its naval architect, assistant engineer Md Ziaul Islam. It directed the director general of the Department of Shipping to lodge murder cases against the launch owner Momtaz Begum and master Abul Kalam. The ministry also directed to cancel the licence of the master of the launch.

20 July 2004KM Amami (Indonesia)

Fourteen people were missing after general cargo KM Amami, 700gt, sank in waters off eastern Indonesia, an official said today. The vessel capsized in huge waves Friday (July 16) in the Banda Sea between Banda and Buru islands in Maluku province, said Tumorang Hutasoit, chief of the port authority in the provincial capital Ambon. He said the vessel with 14 crew and two passengers was carrying rice, sugar and other goods from the East Java capital of Surabaya to Gorom Island in southern Maluku. The vessel went down about 2400 kilometres east of Jakarta. The Banda Sea has the deepest waters in Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago. Hutasoit said he didn’t find out about the accident until last night, when two crew members arrived in Ambon after being rescued by a passing vessel.

25 July 2004Qadeer Ur Rehman

The local shipping agency Noor Sons informed Maritime Security Agency (MSA) that its 120-feet general cargo Qadeer Ur Rehman, which departed Dubai July 12 for Karachi, with iron scrap and nine crew members, has capsized in the Arabian Sea. Subsequently, the wreckage of the vessel was spotted 40 nautical miles from Karachi without a crew. It is feared that the crew have drowned. A decomposed body, believed to be a member of the same vessel’s crew, washed ashore at Sonara beach yesterday. The shipping agency, Noor Sons, which handled the vessel’s operation, said that the crew had remained in touch with it till July 15 but since then all efforts to establish contact had failed. A spokesman for the shipping agent said that two search vessels with five divers had been sent to the spot.

26 July 2004. The nine crew members from general cargo Qadeer Ur Rehman that sank on its way from the United Arab Emirates to Pakistan are probably dead, officials said yesterday. The body of a man washed ashore early yesterday near Sunera Point, about 30 kilometres west of the vessel’s destination in Karachi, said Edhi Foundation relief agency’s Faisal Edhi. The agency is helping search for the missing sailors. Doctors at a hospital in Sunera Point are trying to establish the identity of the deceased, but they believe he was one of the crew, Edhi said. The Pakistani vessel, carrying food and electrical goods, left Dubai for Karachi on July 12 and lost contact with its shipping agent in Karachi on July 19, said Maritime Security Agency spokesman Nadeem Tahir. The vessel’s wreckage was found three days later about 70 kilometres west of Karachi. No bodies were found but there were no signs of survivors either, he said. Tahir said the shipwreck was likely caused by rough seas, which are common during the monsoon season.

27 July 2004. Pakistan’s Maritime Security Agency (MSA) today said that a search is still going on in deep water for the missing crew of ill-fated 120-feet general cargo Qadeer Ur Rehman, which capsized last week in the Arabian Sea while returning from Dubai. Separately, the underwater divers and volunteers of Edhi Foundation were also searching for the crew at coastlines of Sindh and Balochistan. M/s Mohammed Aslam & Company of Dubai reportedly owned the vessel. The vessel departed Dubai July 12 for Karachi, with iron scrap and nine crewmembers, and capsized in the Arabian Sea. Subsequently, the wreckage of the vessel was spotted 40 nautical miles from Karachi without a crew. It is feared that the crew have drowned.

29 July 2004Superferry 14 (Philippines)

Passenger ro/ro Superferry 14 was refloated from its half-submerged position in Sisiman Bay, near the town of Mariveles, and towed to Herma Shipyard, Mariveles, on July 27. The Philippine Coast Guard said the vessel was “floated and towed by two tugs under escort of Philippine Coast Guard search and rescue vessel Davao del Norte to Herma Shipyard where it is now berthed port side”. The vessel arrived at the Shipyard at around 1330 hrs, after which firemen and Coast Guard personnel boarded the vessel to check compartments for toxicity and dangerous gases. After the vessel was declared environmentally safe, marine surveyors and insurance representatives conducted their own inspections on board the vessel. The Coast Guard said that search and retrieval operations were resumed today for the bodies of at least 50 missing passengers who are presumed to be still inside the vessel. The Coast Guard said that they would provide security for the vessel which has been raided by thieves who have carted away part of the vessel’s cargo while it was grounded off Mariveles. The Coast Guard said that 23 personnel are providing dockside security while Davao del Norte is guarding the vessel from the sea.

5 August 2004Bay of Bengal area

At least 48 fishermen went missing after they ventured out into the rough sea for fishing yesterday. Official sources in Kolkata said today that 48 trawlers had ventured out into the Bay of Bengal yesterday. All the trawlers, except six, managed to return. The sources said a search operation was on to trace the six trawlers and rescue the 48 fishermen.