As teams of volunteers recovered the remains of those lost in the Aung Takon 3 ferry disaster of March 13, further details have begun to emerge of the events immediately surrounding the tragedy, including eyewitness accounts.
The death toll late on March 17 reached 63 as the recovery teams, led by young members of a local philanthropic organisation, continued their search and the disposal of the remains. Combined with the 169 people officials say were rescued, this means there were at least 232 people on board – 18 more than the official manifest – but survivors said there could have been up to 400 on the ferry when it went down.
Amid allegations the ferry was severely overloaded when it sunk, the Rakhine State government has formed an investigation commission and instructed the team to complete its report no later than yesterday, March 18. An earlier government statement blaming the weather has been dismissed.
Volunteer members of Duwunkyel free funeral service in Kyaukpyu are leading the search for the deceased.
On March 15, they found two bodies, which were buried in Myebon. A further 20 bodies discovered the following day were also buried in Kyaukpyu township.
“The bodies we found on [March 16] could not be identified because their state of decomposition was too advanced,” U Tun Kyi, a member of the Duwunkyel free funeral service, told The Myanmar Times yesterday. “We will find more bodies if we can search the sunken ferry itself.”
The volunteers found seven more bodies on March 17, at about 5:30pm. They were cremated on Myauk Kyein Island, the place nearest to where they were discovered, because it was too difficult to carry them to Kyaukpyu, said U Myo Myint Naing, one of the searchers.
“One of them was the captain. Some people recognised him. The bodies of two monks from Kyaukpyu were also found, and we cremated them here at once,” he said.
Captain U Hla Maung Thein was listed as missing as of March 17, but 10 crew members survived, rescuers said.
Of the 169 people the authorities say were rescued, most have gone home, and 33 were accommodated temporarily at the Basic Education Middle School 4 Kyaukpyu, while some of the injured are in the local hospital.
It has emerged that the ferry left Kyaukpyu port bound for the state capital, Sittwe, at about 4:30pm. Flooding began at about 7pm as it entered the waters between Naung Daw Gyi and Naung Daw Lay islands, which are notorious for treacherous currents. Attempts to stem the flooding failed, and the vessel sank at 8:15pm.
Preliminary reports estimated the death toll at 34, out of 214 passengers and crew officially listed. But ferries in these waters are known to be chronically overcrowded, as passengers pay only K2500 per ticket, instead of the K15,000 charged by private ferry companies. The Aung Takon line was owned by the government.
Survivor U Tin Win, of Toungup township in southern Rakhine State, told The Myanmar Times that the waves were just 60 centimetres (2 feet) high when the flooding started, just after the vessel had passed Naung Daw Gyi island.
“The crew asked the passengers to help bail out the water, but it just kept pouring in. Crew members were trying to lighten the load by throwing 80-pound [36.3-kilogram] bags of lime overboard. It was no good,” he said. “When I went looking for my little daughter, the ferry tilted to the left. Within 10 seconds, it went down.”
The government said the ferry was authorised to carry 120 tonnes of goods and 176 people. Survivors have told reporters there were about 400 passengers on board. Survivors have said they witnessed excessive loading on board, including bags of lime and other goods stacked on deck, as the ferry left port.
U Maung Maung Ohn said that the ferry sank because it was overloaded. Meteorologist U Tun Lwin has questioned a government statement issued on March 14 that the ferry sank due to bad weather, dismissing this claim as impossible.
The Rakhine Chief Minister said the regional government would take responsibility for the care of children who had lost their parents, and had also assumed responsibility for helping survivors now staying in Kyaukpyu to return to their families and jobs. The regional government has also paid K1.2 million to the families of the deceased and K500,000 to each survivor.
Friday 20 March 2015
http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/13609-overloading-blamed-for-ferry-accident-as-death-toll-hits-63.html
0 comments:
Post a Comment