A year on – remembering Phuket’s Phoenix boat tragedy

[webfact]

A year on – remembering Phuket’s Phoenix boat tragedy

By The Thaiger

 

 

July 5, 2018, and the preparations for the rescue of the 13 football players stuck inside the Tham Luang Caves in Chiang Rai were in full swing. The young men had been located, there was rain on the way and there was an urgent need to get them out before further monsoonal rains would make the task even more risky. Everyone understood the urgency and the world media was there to provide the latest sound bite or video grab for a global audience. It was a big story.

 

Meanwhile, on an otherwise ordinary afternoon, two tour boats, Phoenix and Serenata, were heading back to Phuket after a half day tour of snorkelling near Koh Racha. The weather forecast was for seasonal monsoonal SW winds and waves, about the usual for that time of the year. There was also a weather warning for a storm later in the afternoon. For whatever reasons the captains of the two vessels started heading back to Phuket despite the warnings or perhaps in full ignorance of them. Even a look to the SW horizon would have indicated some poor weather was on the way.

 

The tour boat Phoenix, as it appeared in promotional websites

 

Zheng Lancheng had travelled from China with his wife, daughter, son-in-law and 18 month old granddaughter for a trip to the tropical southern Thai island. Phoenix was carrying 101 passengers, 89 tourists – all but 2 were Chinese – 11 crew and a tour guide.

 

As the boats were off Koh Hei, south west of Phuket, a storm front, now looming large as it approached (a radar screenshot had even been posted by The Thaiger about 30 minutes before the tragedy), reached the two boats whipping up waves. The height of the waves was reported to be up to 5 metres by the Captain of Phoenix but were more likely around 3 metres.

 

A boat of the size of Phoenix, in capable hands, should have handled the conditions, whilst uncomfortable for the passengers, with relative ease.

 

But Phoenix wasn’t just a standard purpose-built 29 metre diving boat. It had some major design and construction flaws which would contribute to the death toll on the day. Loose concrete blocks had been placed into the boats bilge to provide ballast and stability.

 

These concrete blocks would shift as the boat started capsizing and make a bad situation worse. The boat had one watertight door, it should have had four. And the windows, smashing when the water hit them, were not marine-grade glass.

 

More about the boat’s shortcomings HERE.

 

Mr. Zheng and his family didn’t know what was going on. The boat was ‘shaking’ and passengers, although remaining silent, were ‘clearly frightened’. Suddenly the boat started lurching and tipping over. People started screaming. Most were still below decks because of the rain. Few were wearing life vests or bouyancy vests. Mr. Zheng, above decks with his family, held on to his wife but her knee had been injured. Suddenly he was in the water. Eventually many of the survivors would be found to be wearing non-compliant bouyancy vests.

 

He later told police there was no warning, no advice from crew beyond ‘Get out’.

 

Other witness reports say that the Thai crew and Captain, all saved on the day, were the first to get off the boat leaving more than half the passengers below decks and many other floundering around in the water.

 

 

Mr. Zheng struggled onto one of the life rafts, dragged in by other bewildered passengers. By this stage the boat had sunk.

 

“There were no words between any of us in the rubber boat. All of us were stunned. We could only hear the sounds of the sea.”

 

Mr Zheng said if they had known there would be a big rubber boat floating around after their boat sank, they might have first put on life vests and jumped in the vicinity to be saved.

 

“However, we knew nothing about it. No one gave us any warnings or guidance.”

 

There were 13 children that died in this disaster. Many were later found dead, floating face down, not far from their deceased parents.

 

In total, 47 people died as a result of the Phoenix sinking.

 

The other boat, Serenata, had also sunk off Koh Mai Thon but its 42 passengers were all rescued.

 

In the days following there were countless missteps and mishandling by Thai officials and politicians. Among them the Deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwan pushing the blame onto the boat’s ‘real’ owners saying the situation was just “Chinese killing Chinese”, alluding to the early revelation that the boat was really owned and funded by Chinese who merely had a Thai ‘shelf’ company to comply with the law.

 

“Some Chinese use Thai nominees to bring Chinese tourists in. They did not heed warnings, which is why this incident happened. This needs to be remedied,” Prawit said.

 

But what warnings? The boat had been ticked off, approved and registered by Thai Authorities. Clearly unsuitable for its designed purposes, the vessel had been able to conduct tours with paying customers – all under the watch of Thai marine officials. For all the finger pointing and shifting of blame, the cause of the deaths lay fairly and squarely at the feet of the Thai authorities, the Thai Captain and Thai crew who had it within their entire control to avoid the loss of life.

 

Then, the final insult, as the Thai Government tries to auction off the wreck of Phoenixsaying they needed to pay for the storage fees at the Rasada shipyard where the broken relic still sits.

 

Read our editorial about the auction HERE.

 

A year later and the fallout can be properly measured. Probably the most obvious is the drop in Chinese tourism. Chinese social media savaged the handling of the entire Phoenix ‘situation’ and was candid in recommending that Chinese tourists avoid Phuket and Thailand in the future. And that, in part, has happened.

 

Phuket’s Chinese tourist flow has dropped dramatically, up to 30-50% year on year (based on hotel bookings, tour bookings and airport arrivals). There’s also been a drop in Chinese patronage for the rest of Thailand although the Thai government has stepped up measures to keep them coming including the waiver of the visa-on-arrrival fee and special ‘Chinese only’ immigration queues.

 

From a media point of view, Phuket largely ‘dodged a bullet’ as the world’s media was focused on the ongoing drama at Tham Luang Caves, luckily with a much happier ending. The Phoenix boat tragedy was not as widely reported as it would have been normally.

 

But Phuket’s reputation had been wounded. The stench of the unnecessary 47 deaths has tarnished the island’s ‘tropical playground’ sales point and will hang over the island for years.

 

Meanwhile, the Chinese tourists, are finding newer places to visit and are unlikely to return to the southern island in the past numbers.

 

The new Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana says there will be no memorial for the 47 lost lives today “because no one wants one”. He also told The Phuket News this week that the Chinese government and Chinese tourists now had more confidence in the safety of tourism in Phuket because the number of Chinese tourists traveling to Phuket has increased steadily after the incident.

 

His misinformed comment, unchallenged by reporters, bears no resemblance to the facts or explains hotel occupancies in Phuket sitting at record lows and the absence of the earlier throngs of Chinese travellers.

 

Today, a year later, the weather in Phuket is fine, with moderate winds, cloudy skies and a temperature of 31 – a perfect day for a tour off Phuket’s coast to one of the many, many islands. We hope that the events of July 5, 2018 may have lead to safer boats, better safety equipment, a better prepared journey, and a safe return.

 

 

Source: https://thethaiger.com/news/opinion/a-year-on-remembering-phukets-phoenix-boat-tragedy

 

 

-- © Copyright The Thaiger 2019-07-05

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[webfact]

Phoenix: A year after Thailand’s worst tour boat disaster, safety remains a publicity priority

By The Phuket News

 

Survivors of the ‘Phoenix’ cling to life in a raft as a Royal Thai Navy boat approaches to rescue them on July 5 last year. Photo: Royal Thai Navy

 

PHUKET: There will be no official memorial service today (Friday, July 5) for the 47 Chinese tourists killed in the Phoenix tour boat disaster a year ago, because no one wants one, the Phuket Governor announced earlier this week.

 

“There will be no public event because it is an accident that no one wanted to happen,” said Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana in a news release issued by the Phuket office of the Public Relations Department on Tuesday (July 2).

 

Governor Phakaphong this week instead highlighted the efforts by Thai authorities, including the police, to investigate the accident and improve marine safety for tourists.

Read more at https://www.thephuketnews.com/phoenix- a-year-after-thailand-worst-tour-boat-disaster-safety-remains-a-publicity-priority-72014.php#KKFMsaT8ugElYq50.99 

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2019-07-05

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[worgeordie]

I dont think this should be mentioned,the Government

would prefer that its all forgotten !

regards Worgeordie

[webfact]

OPINION

 

Who’s responsible for the sinking of ‘Phoenix’?

By  Tim Newton

 

 

A year later, this hastily penned opinion piece still asks questions that remain mostly unanswered…

 

Who’s responsible for the ‘Phoenix’ boat disaster, the worst maritime disaster in Thailand since the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004?

 

Whilst events of the fateful evening on July 5 remain under investigation, awaiting a full court hearing down the track, there are some things which are very easy to pinpoint along the faltering chain of command.

 

In Greek mythology the ‘Phoenix’ rose from the ashes. In this case the ‘Phoenix’ boat faltered and sank like a stone.

 

On the night of July 5, from anecdotal evidence of passengers who survived the boat’s sinking and videos taken at the time, it appears that there were many passengers still in the lower decks of the boat, some of them in compartments from which they never escaped. Many weren’t wearing any sort of bouncy aid at the time, let alone a proper fit-for-purpose life jacket. Many others, as can be seen in the videos, were wearing simple ’bouyancy aids’.

 

The Thai captain and crew of the vessel escaped on the boat’s two life rafts, unharmed, leaving many people still downstairs as the boat began to sink.

 

From the videos we’ve seen it was chaos and panic – most, if not all, of the Chinese passengers could hardly swim, let alone survive in the rough seas many of them fell into.

 

Disturbingly, there were 13 children that died in this disaster. Many were later found dead, floating face down, not far from their deceased parents. If they were wearing proper life jackets they, along with their parents, would have had a much higher chance of survival.

 

The tour boats that ply Phuket’s waters, to the islands and around Phang Nga Bay, usually require their guests to wear basic buoyancy aids. These have floatation around the vest giving, as the name suggests, a basic aid to the floatation of the wearer – an aid for swimming, not much else. They are quite different from a life jacket that has almost all its floating capacity supporting the neck and in the front of the wearer. This forces the wearer onto their back and keeps the head above the water.

 

A fully-inflated life jacket can be quite cumbersome when walking around a boat so most of the newer versions, like on planes, automatically inflate when you hit the water, have a rip chord to inflate manually or can be simply blown up or ‘topped up’ with a tube. They also have a whistle attached to attract attention, something none of the vests, worn by passengers on ‘Phoenix’, had.

 

The basic rule, while at sea, is that the captain is in charge. If he or she says put your life jackets on, you do. They are in control of the vessel. The captain of ‘Phoenix’, currently in custody (along with the Thai ‘owner’ of the vessel), claims that the waves were 4-5 metres high. Even if that emerges to be an exaggeration, as some claim, the boat was of a length (29 metres) and size that should be able to cope with those conditions.

 

Seafarers know that, in most storms, you would continue head to wind, straight towards the waves, at a low speed – uncomfortable for passengers but totally survivable by a boat the size of ‘Phoenix’. That’s assuming that the design was such that it had sufficient weight low-down and wasn’t top-heavy, making the design more inclined to capsize. The courts will decide on that fact when the full evidence is presented to the presiding judge.

 

But the events on the actual day appear to be the thin end of the wedge with a litany of systemic negligence leading up to July 5.

Who ticked off on the design of ‘Phoenix’ – that the boat would be suitable for carrying up to 100 passengers and crew, safely? Who checked the construction of the boat as it was being built, and then when it was completed and launched to ensure that all the requirements of the engine, construction, engineering, equipment and safety equipment were met? Who was responsible for the qualifications of the Captain and crew and their fitness to handle a vessel of this size with up to 100 passengers? What safety training did the crew receive to handle an emergency? And who ticked off on their certification of ‘Phoenix’ – the final paperwork allowing to operate at sea as a tour boat?

 

For the company that owned ‘Phoenix’ – allegedly a Thai shelf company with a Thai nominee holding the majority shares but actually being controlled by Chinese citizens – who was checking the bonfides of the company structure? There’s little use accusing the Chinese money trail behind the company when there are laws in place preventing this type of thing from happening. Which accountant signed off on these company documents?

 

And who decided that the vessel should go to sea on that day when warnings had been issued? Or at least seen the storm approaching on their radars and sought shelter (as many other boats did on the day).

 

As the yacht was constructed in Phuket, the answer to all these questions is Thai officials and professionals – officials that were allegedly qualified and authorised to tick off on all these standard compliances. Apart from the head of the local Marine Department being ‘side-lined’ pending further enquiry, we haven’t yet heard much about the designer, the engineers, the safety inspectors or training regimens of the tour boat crew. Or who missed the company documents.

 

And then, sitting above these people, with the final responsiblity, is the island’s Governor.

 

Phuket Governor Noraphat Plodthong has fronted most of the media briefings where the latest bad news in the boat tragedy has been presented to the local media. He’s also been the face of Phuket with the sad task of having to meet with survivors and relatives and listen to the concerns from the Chinese Ambassador to Thailand.

 

The Thaiger’s main reporter says that very few questions were asked by journalists at those media presentations, beyond the current situation and the rising numbers of dead Chinese found floating around the Andaman Sea. But questions as to people’s responsibility in the sinking were rarely raised.

 

Whilst the blame game will continue, and Phuket’s Provincial Court eventually convenes to hear all the evidence, it is quite apparent that it is a long, long period of non-compliance to standing maritime laws, blind-eyes being turned (for reasons we hope emerge in the hearings), correct procedures not being put in place and a somewhat ‘sabai sabai’ attitude to the entire issue of marine safety beyond a few media releases and photo opportunities.

 

Finally, there’s the role of the media in all this. When tragedies have occurred in the past the media seem more interested in getting a photo of the line-up of dignitaries than following up the nitty-gritty of the incident. The investigative reporting that may may reveal some of the systemic failures, and courageous owners who would publish these stories, never happened.

 

For the foreign media in Phuket this is a complicated issue as we’re ‘guests’ working here and are generally told not to ’step on toes’ in our reporting of local news lest we find problems arising in our Work Permits or Applications for visas. And, in some cases, those who have risen to the challenge and published damaging news about Thai ofiicials, are now no longer working in their capacity as publishers of news in Thailand.

 

The full investigation is yet to wrap up but some of the key people are now in custody, insurance companies are making payments and the Chinese families have either buried the 47 passengers that died or repatriated their bodies for arrangements back in China.

If not for the huge amount of attention on the Tham Luang cave story in Chang Rai, by any standards, the sinking of the ‘Phoenix’ and the deaths, including 13 children, of 47 Chinese citizens should have made lead-story headlines. It didn’t, except in local media. In some ways Phuket dodged a media bullet.

 

The fallout of this tragedy – in terms of Chinese tourism to the island and the findings of court cases in relation to this matter – will be more apparent in time. But if just a few of the many, many mistakes that were made along the way could have been prevented there is a strong chance the 47 tourists would still be alive.

 

Source: https://thethaiger.com/news/phuket/comment-whos-responsible-for-the-sinking-of-phoenix

 

 

-- © Copyright The Thaiger 2019-07-05

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[darksidedog]

The Phuket Governor saying the Chinese now have more confidence in safety issues in Phuket beggars the big question; have the necessary lessons been learnt from this tragedy? The attempts to shift blame all over the place, suggest not.

The truth is that there are vessels all over the country that are unsafe, not seaworthy and manned by crews that don't have the first clue about what they are doing. Until the authorities put aside the cost issues operators bleat about and put safety first, this is sadly a tragedy that is likely to be repeated at some point in time.

[marko kok prong]

Thailand-Safety two words that can never meet.

[Emdog]

Team effort I reckon. No one has the brains or skill to do this alone

[rtco]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

We hope that the events of July 5, 2018 may have lead to safer boats, better safety equipment, a better prepared journey, and a safe return.

Fat chance of that!!!

[tompelli]

Get Thailand to comply with international (not national) rules & inspections. They do that for airplanes (thank god/Buddha/allah).

[Ulic]

Equal part owner, crew, and Thai government regulators who certify standards of both construction and operation of these businesses. Of course if the tourists had not been on board there would have been no deaths, will be how many Thais frame the tragedy. All that said, nothing will change. Everyone quickly forgets.