Hong Kong continues search for 6 missing crew after boat crash

Hong Kong search teams held out hope on Friday for six boat crew members missing at sea after a collision, as officials investigated the cause of the latest incident to hit the city's busy waterways.

It comes after a ferry crash claimed 39 lives in October in the city's worst sea disaster in decades, and also follows a collision between a passenger ferry and a barge earlier this month, in which more than 30 people were injured.

The 11 crew from a 96-metre-long (315 foot) boat carrying construction waste were thrown into the water after it collided with another vessel and started to sink off Stanley, on the southeast of Hong Kong Island on Thursday evening.

Five were rescued but search teams were still looking for the other six, all from mainland China, as the light faded Friday.

"The priority of the marine department now is to find the six missing crew, not their bodies," a spokeswoman told AFP.

She said investigators were looking at whether the boat crews tried to take evasive action before the crash.

After poor visibility hampered the overnight search, nine boats and a helicopter took part in the efforts Friday, although the aircraft was called off after about five hours because of fog.

The marine department said visibility at the time of the crash was measured at 0.5 nautical miles (0.93 kilometres).

A police spokeswoman said officers had taken statements from seven crew members from the two boats.

The city's worst maritime catastrophe in 40 years last October saw a high-speed passenger ferry collide with a pleasure boat carrying around 120 people to watch national day fireworks.

The captains of the boats involved were last week each charged with 39 counts of manslaughter and face life in prison if convicted.

Fatal accidents are rare in Hong Kong despite its crowded waters, which often see high-speed hydrofoils vying for space with tourist junks, luxury yachts and a century-old public ferry system.

Saturday 20 April 2013

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/hong-kong-searches-for-6-/643616.html

continue reading

Derry: Photos recall graveyard collapse in 1934

These remarkable photographs reveal the extraordinary scenes witnessed by passers-by when a church graveyard collapsed into a Derry street nearly eighty years ago. The following story - compiled by local historians Sean McMahon and Trevor Temple for their book, “Derry: Day by Day” - tells the truly grisly tale of the day when tombstones, coffins and human remains ended up scattered across a busy city street.

The Long Tower churchyard, Derry, was the scene of a serious landslide on January 8, 1934, caused by the collapse of the eastern boundary wall.

People living in the neighbourhood were startled and terrified by a crash, when the wall opposite Stanley’s Walk gave way and tons of earth, headstones, and a number of coffins came toppling down to the street with a great noise.

Only two people, it was believed, witnessed the landslide, and neither of them was in close proximity at the time, and nobody was injured, though a youth was struck by a flying piece of stone.

On going to investigate, the residents of the locality were met with a tragic and gruesome scene. They were shocked at the disaster, which had occurred.

Strewn amongst and protruding at places were the remains of human bodies, bones of arms and legs, and skulls, as well as bits of rotted coffins and broken headstones.

The wall, which was forty yards long and twenty feet high, was on the eastern side of the graveyard, and was built in a semi-circular shape on the steep incline leading to Lecky Road.

Practically the whole of this boundary wall cracked and collapsed, and a landslide of the cemetery, for a distance of sixty yards, for a breadth of twelve feet, and to a depth of about nine or ten feet, followed.

The human remains, as far as possible, were gathered together and placed in a box.

A graphic story, typical of the experience of many people in the houses nearby, was given to press representatives by Mrs Maggie McNelis, of Foster’s Terrace, whose house was nearby.

She said she was sitting in the kitchen nursing a baby when she heard a terrible crash and noise like thunder, so loud was it.

She had a terrifying time with the shock that she received. She rushed out with the child in her arms to witness the catastrophe.

One of the eye-witnesses was George Dornan who said he was coming from his home when he saw a big crack in the wall.

Suddenly the wall gave way with a terrific crash, which could be heard over a wide area, and collapsed in a piece.

A piece of flying stone struck James McCloskey, a young man who was standing at a corner ten yards away.

Young children were passing to go to school at the time, and some of them actually saw stones falling on the street, and they ran up the church steps out of the way.

The roll was called in the schools, and every child was accounted for, while in the houses in the district a check was made of all the inmates, and police were later that day satisfied that nobody had been caught by the collapse of the wall, barring the slight chance of a stranger being there at the time.

Later also that day, the human remains found at the place were buried in the graveyard temporarily near the chapel.

POSTSCRIPT: In 2009, priests in the Long Tower parish authorised the excavation of a piece of land in the grounds of the church.

A “mound” - located in one of the upper graveyards at Long Tower Street - contained the remains of the graveyard and wall which collapsed into Lecky Road in 1934.

A local undertaker and members of the Long Tower Restoration Group conducted an investigative “dig” of the mound with a small earthmover.

While no human remains or coffins were found, anything unearthed belonging to a grave was collected and put to one side with a memorial to the ‘Holy Souls of the Long Tower’.

Saturday 20 April 2013

http://www.derryjournal.com/news/local/photos-recall-graveyard-collapse-1-5017481

continue reading

Update: 19 dead in Mahakam boat accident, 4 still missing

It was announced on Friday that 19 people are dead and 4 others still missing on the third day after KM Karya Indah, a wooden ship leased by PT Kalamur, sank in the Mahakam River, in Samarinda, East Kalimantan.

Rescue workers found 16 bodies on Friday, some more than a kilometer downstream from the site of the tragedy.

East Kalimantan Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) head Wahyu Widhi Heranata said that there were a total of 44 people onboard. Twenty-one passengers are known to have survived.

The announcement was made after East Kalimantan Governor Awang Faroek Ishak visited the search and rescue command post in Loa Janan.

It was previously reported that up to 68 people were on board when the accident took place.

Wahyu blamed the lack of a manifest for hindering the swift identification of the missing after the accident.

Only one passenger, Nurhayati, 41, has been identified.

The BPBD is coordinating with the local office of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) and the public order agency.

“Search and rescue work will continue until at least Tuesday in the emergency response stage,” Wahyu said.

Human error was blamed for the accident. Passengers crowded the bow of the boat, leading to it sink according to the East Kalimantan Police intelligence unit chief Sr. Comr. Hari Prasojo.

Most of the passengers were women, according to reports. While the vessel reportedly was well equipped with life vests, the passengers did not use them.

Bodies of the unidentified victims have been taken to the Abdul Wahab Syahrani General Hospital in Samarinda.

The ship carrying employees of PT Kalamur, sank about 7:30 p.m. local time (6:30 p.m. Jakarta time) on Wednesday when ferrying the employees from PT Kalamur wharf at their work site to their dormitories some 500 meters away in Loa Janan Ilir district in Samarinda.

The ship was only about 50 meters from the Loa Janan wharf, when the high river tide swamped it and it sank.

The victims are all employees of plywood companies PT Kalamur and PT Melapi Timber.

The firm will provide compensation for victims through Jamsostek.

Meanwhile, the Samarinda Port Police has named KM Karya Indah skipper, Teddy Noor Arifin, 20, as suspect in the accident, Antara news agency reported.

“We have named one suspect, the ship’s skipper, and he is has already been detained,” said Samarinda Port Police chief Comr. Harun Purwoko.

The initial investigation revealed that the ship was overloaded. The capacity was only 30 passengers but there were more on board at the time of accident.

“If his negligence which directly led to the death of at least 19 women, the suspect may get five years in jail,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kompas.com reported that the ship’s owner, Suriansyah, said that PT Kalamur had contracted his ship to carry employees since 1992 without any problems.

“But sometimes they recruit outsourcing workers if there is more work and those contract workers can sometimes be unruly ignoring safety precautions,” he said when questioned at the Samarinda Port Police station

Saturday 20 April 2013

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/04/20/19-dead-mahakam-boat-accident-4-still-missing.html

continue reading

Earthquake hits south-west China, at least 102 dead

At least 102 people are dead and more than 2,200 injured after a powerful earthquake rocked Sichuan, in south-west China, on Saturday morning, officials said.

The 6.6-magnitude shock is believed to have been on the same fault as the devastating quake that left 70,000 dead and another 18,000 missing in the province five years ago. It struck close to Ya'an, a city of 1.5 million people west of the provincial capital, Chengdu, at about 8am local time.

State television said 102 people had been confirmed dead with more than 2,200 injured, 147 of them seriously.

Officials said almost all the buildings in Longmen village collapsed and nearly 10,000 houses throughout Lushan county were damaged. In some areas, roads were cut off, power failed and telecoms service was intermittent.

Residents in Chengdu and Chongqing, hundreds of kilometres as away, fled their buildings as they felt the tremor and repeated aftershocks.

More than 6,000 soldiers have been dispatched to aid rescue efforts in the mountainous area, state media reported.

China's president, Xi Jinping, and the premier, Li Keqiang, called an emergency meeting to co-ordinate the response and Li has flown to the disaster zone to supervise work, the official broadcaster reported.

Initial reports suggested the worst damage was in rural villages around Ya'an, which lies on the edge of the Tibetan plateau. The state news agency Xinhua reported major building collapses and damaged roads in Shuangshi and Longmen townships.

"We are very busy right now. There are about eight or nine injured people; the doctors are handling the cases," a doctor at a Ya'an hospital told Reuters.

A man who answered the phone at the Jiajia Hotel in Ya'an said many houses had collapsed and many people were injured.

Another man living nearby said officials and company bosses had evacuated everyone to outdoor spaces. "It is very chaotic everywhere and people have no idea what we can do," he said. "We were the frontline of [the 2008] earthquake, so in most companies, departments or organisations there are emergency resources, but we need more. Hopefully we can get over it soon, and it won't be as bad as last time."

Chinese seismologists recorded the quake at magnitude 7, while the US Geological Survey recorded it at magnitude 6.6 at a depth of 12km. The USGS said it appeared to be on the Longmenshan fault, the source of 2008's 7.9-magnitude shock.

Chengdu airport was briefly closed to flights after the shock hit and railways officials halted 82 trains, China Daily reported.

Saturday 20 April 2013

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/20/earthquake-china-yaan-sichuan

continue reading

Twelve dead, 15 missing in Brazil boat accident

At least 12 people died and around 15 were missing Friday after a boat capsized in the Ariri river in the Brazilian Amazon, firefighters said in a revised toll, as an investigation got under way.

"Twelve bodies, including those of children, have now been recovered," Colonel Carlos Alberto Moreira Reis told AFP by telephone.

"The boat had more than 70 people aboard -- 41 of them were found alive, including nine who were hospitalized," he said.

Earlier in the day, he gave a toll of four dead and 25 unaccounted for. Reis said the captain of the boat, identified as Luis Inacio Lima, initially "lied and said there were only 49 passengers aboard," before later admitting that there were in fact more passengers than the maximum capacity allowed.

"I was at the helm when the boat capsized. I did not hit anything. I cannot understand what happened. It was so fast," the G1 website quoted the captain as saying.

The boat sailed from the town of Chaves on Marajo island for a 10-hour journey to Belem, the capital of the northern state of Para, according to Reis, who said the accident occurred as most of the passengers were asleep.

Two helicopters, six divers and a ship are taking part in rescue operations, the official said. An investigation is expected to last up to 90 days.

Saturday 20 April 2013

http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-97582-Twelve-dead,-15-missing-in-Brazil-boat-accident

continue reading