At least 15 dead as passengers rescued from sinking ship | World | News
The ferry with more than 350 people on board sank near an island in the south of the Philippines. Following the disaster, rescue teams rescued at least 316 passengers and recovered 15 bodies.
Coast guard officials said the inter-island cargo and passenger ferry M/V Trisha Kerstin 3 sank after midnight when it encountered technical problems while sailing from the port city of Zamboanga to the southern island of Jolo in Sulu province with 332 passengers and 27 crew on board.
Mohamad Khan, one of the rescued passengers, said that the ferry suddenly tilted and took on water, throwing people, including himself and his wife carrying their 6-month-old baby, into the sea in the dark. He and his wife were rescued, but their baby drowned.
“My wife lost control of our baby and we were all separated at sea,” a distraught Khan told a volunteer rescuer.
Coast guard Commander Romel Dua said the ferry sank in good weather, about 2 kilometers away from the island village of Baluk-baluk in Basilan province.
Stating that the security guard survived, Dua said, “There was a coast guard officer on the ship and he was the first person to call and warn us about the deployment of rescue ships.”
Dua said coast guard and navy ships, as well as a surveillance plane, air force Black Hawk helicopter and fleets of fishing boats, were conducting search and rescue operations off the coast of Basilan.
Basilan Governor Mujiv Hataman said that many passengers and two bodies were brought to the provincial capital, Isabela, and that he and ambulance vans were waiting there.
Speaking on his mobile phone from the Isabela pier, Hataman said, “I accept 37 people here at the pier. Unfortunately, two people died.”
The coast guard said 316 passengers were rescued and at least 15 bodies were found.
Stating that the cause of the ferry sinking is not yet clear and an investigation will be made, Dua added that the coast guard cleaned the ferry before it left Zamboanga port and there were no signs of overloading.
Maritime accidents are common Due to frequent storms in the Philippine archipelago, poorly maintained ships, overcrowding, and uneven enforcement of safety regulations, especially in remote provinces.
In December 1987, the Dona Paz ferry sank after colliding with a fuel tanker in the central Philippines, killing more than 4,300 people in the world’s deadliest peacetime maritime disaster.
