Phuket tour boats overturn in storm, rescue mission launched

[Chongalulu]

3 hours ago, Psimbo said:

Yep- forecasts are always 100% accurate aren't they!

Forecasting that there’ll be many more of these accidents due to negligence and greed certainly will be 100% accurate.

[jybkk]

This is a pic of the 'Phoenix' boat that capsized. It matches with the picture of it underwater that was published earlier.

 

 

 

 

[Khun Paul]

A well trained and experienced boat skipper would know how to deal with these seas, and in this case, he is blaming the weather for his incompetence, even I know and I was ( no longer ) RYA offshore sailor , you had to learn t5o deal with these problems before you got qualified. here it seems you do NOT !!

[ThaiWai]

12 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Weather warnings given were very generic, this seems more an attempts from authorities to not be blamed.

 

Conditions were quite calm yesterday, with a squall in the morning and longer squalls later in the day, and the latter caused havoc.

 

Seems more than generic but I suppose less than urgent.  I wouldn't have gone out personally.   https://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-emergency-services-ordered-ready-amid-storm-warning-67751.php#E0WisLrh7HgEswjT.99

[nabbie]

I notice the weather yesterday morning was splendid in Phuket Town area until around 4:30pm. I notice there were some strong grey clouds over the hills. Within about 20 minutes, it turned out to be a strong gale with monsoon. My condolences to the victims & their loved ones.    

[stevenl]

1 minute ago, jybkk said:

This is a pic of the 'Phoenix' boat that capsized. It matches with the picture of it underwater that was published earlier.

 

 

 

 

Yes, that's it.

[stevenl]

1 minute ago, ThaiWai said:

Seems more than generic but I suppose less than urgent.  I wouldn't have gone out personally.   https://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-emergency-services-ordered-ready-amid-storm-warning-67751.php#E0WisLrh7HgEswjT.99

Tour operators check weather warnings from TMD and check other weather sites since TMD is not really reliable. They do not check Phuket News for information the governor might have given. TMD issued last warning on 20 June.

[bbbbooboo]

hmmm..... another day in paradise......

[lovelomsak]

A boat big enough to hold that many people should have been able to handle a big sea. I have been is big seas in the northern Pacific where the sea was so large I could not see a  boat a 50 meters on either side but was safe just a rough,wet ride. We are talking boats over 60 feet l

 A  boat that size does not go down unless it was not sea worthy or very poorly  handled.Simple as that.

 They seem to have cowboys wanting to be sailors.

stevenl please do not reply to this ok

Edited July 6, 2018 by lovelomsak

[Rhys]

... oh come on... we know the high wai all is forgiven....back to making a baht.   sad.

[LivinginKata]

2 minutes ago, lovelomsak said:

A boat big enough to hold that many people should have been able to handle a big sea. I have been is big seas in the northern Pacific where the sea was so large I could not see a  boat a 50 meters on either side but was safe just a rough,wet ride.

 A  boat that size does not go down unless it was not sea worthy or very poorly  handled.Simple as that.

 They seem to have cowboys wanting to be sailors.

  

 

Even a very large ship can sink in heavy seas if not skippered correctly. It's a daunting challenge for the helms man. Over my years at sea in small and very large ships I have had more than my share of experiencing wild seas. It's more tricky than you think when wind and sea not running in same direction. These cowboy 'captains' know as much about boats as driving a bus, Same result.    

[stevenl]

12 minutes ago, lovelomsak said:

A boat big enough to hold that many people should have been able to handle a big sea. I have been is big seas in the northern Pacific where the sea was so large I could not see a  boat a 50 meters on either side but was safe just a rough,wet ride. We are talking boats over 60 feet l

 A  boat that size does not go down unless it was not sea worthy or very poorly  handled.Simple as that.

 They seem to have cowboys wanting to be sailors.

stevenl please do not reply to this ok

I'll ignore your last line, even though you had to edit your post to come up with it.

 

Agree with the rest of your post though, I had customers on another boat that was returning a bit before this one, back at the pier at 17.30, and no issues at all.

 

[saminoz]

Ultimately, it is the Captain's responsibility whether to put to sea or not based on his experience, assessment of the information to hand and the prevailing conditions.

If the warnings existed, as it seems from the Phuket news article, then I would expect it to have been his resonsibility to be aware of such a warning.

It still begs the question of whether there was a harbour authority monitoring the movements of these vessels and I would assume that there were Mayday, or at least Pan-Pan messages broadcast over Channel 16?  Is there a Royal Thai Coastguard who monitor 24/7?

Elsewhere in the world any such vessel would have to be equipped with GMDSS equipment that automatically receives severe weather warnings and alerts the folks on the bridge.

From the photos above in, jybkk's post, the boat looks to have been equipped with dual Inmarsat M terminals too.  Of course, that was just an artist's rendering.  They should, at the very least, have had amrine VHF radios and been able to receive warnings and broadcast their plight.  I wonder if that happened.

I'd be surpsrised if they actualy had two cans and a piece of string to communicate with.

Perhaps the illustrious "captain"and his crew were too busy jumping into liferafts to do the right thing?

Clearly they were too busy saving themselves before checking to see that all of their passengers were safely off the craft before abandoning ship themselves!

Despicable.

 

Edited July 6, 2018 by saminoz
Quoted reply of already removed troll post removed

[Soupdragon]

31 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Yes, that's it.

Is she steel or wooden hull ?

[travelling wilbury]

97 divers on one boat is plain crazy however big it is the passengers must be as stupid to go out with a storm forcast as the captain and so called dive master (whose job is to ensure the safety of all the divers )

But this is thailand it is all about money hopefully someone will be held to account for the sinking but i doubt it (pocket money will put everything right as usual )

[manly36]

You might want to check Thailand's status in regard to where it stands before you post. Thailand is actually a developing country and not a 3rd world country.

[mrfill]

55 minutes ago, CLW said:

1 hour ago, happy chappie said:

A few of these would be handy.cant understand how a place like phuket with 10,000s of people going into the sea each day haven't got anything like this..

Because it costs money to buy and maintain them.

And the ones illustrated cost the government £0. Not a bean. RNLI is a charity and is not government funded.

[stevenl]

21 minutes ago, Soupdragon said:

Is she steel or wooden hull ?

If I recall correctly steel.

 

9 minutes ago, travelling wilbury said:

97 divers on one boat is plain crazy however big it is the passengers must be as stupid to go out with a storm forcast as the captain and so called dive master (whose job is to ensure the safety of all the divers )

But this is thailand it is all about money hopefully someone will be held to account for the sinking but i doubt it (pocket money will put everything right as usual )

97 or 93 guests on board, probably 20 divers or so., most doing just 1 dive. This was a snorkeling trip with diving upsold, not a diving trip.

[Xaos]

You might want to check Thailand's status in regard to where it stands before you post. Thailand is actually a developing country and not a 3rd world country.

Its 3rd world.
No democracy
Military rule.
Electric outages.
No pavements.
Rich poor disproportions.

[alzack]

Well the captain could not do a runner like Thai motorist could he

[Soupdragon]

3 minutes ago, stevenl said:

If I recall correctly steel.

Yes she looks steel.  I was thinking she was wooden and sprung a plank or two and that is why she went down so quick as to trap so many inside.

[lovelomsak]

42 minutes ago, LivinginKata said:

 

Even a very large ship can sink in heavy seas if not skippered correctly. It's a daunting challenge for the helms man. Over my years at sea in small and very large ships I have had more than my share of experiencing wild seas. It's more tricky than you think when wind and sea not running in same direction. These cowboy 'captains' know as much about boats as driving a bus, Same result.    

I  feel we agree poor skipper skills would be the major problem.

  The size of the boat is irrelevant.  I to have been in many boats and many sea states. 

  If I knew how to put pics on here I could show water breaking over the bow of the HMCS Yellowknife repeatedly. in sequence I took so many.That is not a small ship believe me. But then again I have been on Canadian mine sweepers that become unstable in anything over 15 knot winds with a crew and skipper that believed they could cope with what ever the sea threw at them.

  On my own I have sailed my 27  footer single handed in 50 knot winds riding out a 2 hour squall.With a 120 genie up and full main.

  As the old saying goes the boat can usually take more than the crew.

[StevieAus]

4 hours ago, sawadee1947 said:

If you go to a 3rd world country you will get 3rd world safety standard.

If you care to research or google the definition of a “ third world country” you might be surprised as I was to find that it is related to political alignment not standards in the country.

[stevenl]

3 hours ago, stevenl said:

That number will rise considerably unfortunately, all missing are probably floating around or still in the boat.

Friends of mine are picking up bodies right now, from inside the boat.

[Miss Pickle]

I have been on one of these boats the take too many people on them .The one I was on broke down at sea we had to sit for 2 hours bobbing about everyone being sick with the motion as the engine broke down we did eventually get rescued but it was scary thankfully it was not in the middle of a storm. These guys know the water why did they not get back to the shore earlier.

 

 

[Crustyhk]

1 hour ago, jybkk said:

This is a pic of the 'Phoenix' boat that capsized. It matches with the picture of it underwater that was published earlier.

 

 

 

 

How the hell does a 4m wave swamp a boat of this size?

One of 2 ways I'm guessing. Either a very poorly designed boat or a poorly qualified operator.

You could sail that thing around the world with a bit of skill. 

 

[allexx]

Death toll from Thai boat disaster rises to 21: Phuket official

 

The death toll from a boat accident near the Thai holiday island of Phuket surged to 21, officials said Friday, as divers reported seeing multiple bodies inside the sunken hull of the Phoenix tourist vessel.

Phuket provincial rescue centre said "21 bodies" had been retrieved from the water, while Rear Admiral Charoenphon Khumrasee of the Thai navy said divers had seen "over 10 bodies" inside the submerged boat, which was carrying Chinese tourists when it went down on Thursday.

 

http://afp.omni.se/death-toll-from-thai-boat-disaster-rises-to-21-phuket-official/a/EonM65

 

[CGW]

8 minutes ago, Crustyhk said:

How the hell does a 4m wave swamp a boat of this size?

One of 2 ways I'm guessing. Either a very poorly designed boat or a poorly qualified operator.

You could sail that thing around the world with a bit of skill. 

If she didn't have that top deck & I knew how much draft she was carrying, I would say seaworthy.

"A very poorly designed boat" probably sums it up best!

[KiChakayan]

Thailand, the most dangerous hub on earth...

[gerritkaew]

people wearing live vest and still drowning ? Have to be some bigg waves!!