Anony Mouse

They were able to stay afloat and survive for hours in the stormy sea by clutching on to the sacks of coconut husks, which are naturally buoyant. These ferries were typically overloaded with such cargo.

I was on living the islands at the time, was very well connected to locals and officials, and I am well familiar with the details of the incident because I met the girls as they were leaving the country. I do know that there was an initial attempt to hide or play down everything, followed by an the first official press release from local officials that was full of misinformation, which covered up the details, credited the wrong people and gave no credit to the German girls. The Thai government finally had to acknowledge and credit the German girls, when they could no longer suppress the information, and it was evident that they played a major role in saving dozens of lives.