Seven people missing after Koh Samui ferry capsizes

[khunkarl]

1 hour ago, DoctorG said:

Overloaded/badly balanced?

Without doubt as it rolled over just 2 nautical miles from port.. A port it should never have left.

[metisdead]

An uncaring troll post and the replies have been removed. 

[Odisan]

"It wasn’t immediately exactly how many people were on board."

No. Words.

[khunkarl]

1 hour ago, PEE TEE said:

I did not know the ferries ran after 7pm. sad news i wonder how good the inspections for safety are on the  Raja company? 

 

It was a cargo vessel not a ferry fortunately. There are classification societies that at least annually checks the standards of ships. Without classification the ship owners can't get any certificates, which they need to legally operate their vessels. How that works here in Thailand is for me unknow but it is a worldwide standard so I can't see how they can do differently, but it's obviously not as it should be.

[The Theory]

Safety first. ???????? of course all incidents are nothing but accidents. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

17 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Or how about the captain of the boat ignored the bad conditions and still went ahead ?  

 

From the various indications here, I'm thinking the use of the term "accident" here is incorrect.

 

Kind of begins to remind of a prior travel despite storm warnings mishap a couple years back out of Phuket:

 

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/06/asia/phuket-thailand-boats-capsize-death-intl/index.html

 

Quote

The Thai authorities have provided conflicting information regarding the total number of people who were on the two boats and a jet ski that sank on Thursday afternoon in rough seas. The vessels went out despite a severe weather warning, which was still in place for much of the country's southern coast on Friday, according to the Thailand Meteorological Department.

 

[evadgib]

I stopped using Raja when I realized that;

 

- Their life rafts were a full TWELVE YEARS out of date;

 

- I could see the sea through the walls, &

 

- Diesel fumes caused nausea among many aboard (inc Me!) as there was frankly no escaping them.

[evadgib]

2 hours ago, pedro01 said:

Not sure he necessarily did based on conditions in Samui at Lipa Noi Pier less than an hour earlier. Quite calm. 

My son has just crossed in the other direction and says the sea is flat (@1445hrs) despite the continued wind.

[bodga]

6 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Officials said a full investigation will be launched

well lets hope its  not  launched into the sea, probably be as  much use though, why waste  time with the investigation,  here  Ill save you the  time, cause  of  accident  lack of everything.

[bodga]

18 minutes ago, The Theory said:

Safety first. ???????? of course all incidents are nothing but accidents. 

like  most  births

[sanuk711]

That's a rough stretch of water....I got off the night train about 15 years ago with a friend to go scuba Samui...... all the fishing boats were heading in, I have also been a merchant seaman for some years--and you could see that this just wasn't going to happen. So we went to the ticket agent girl (all been paid for up front in BKK) she explained that if they took the ferry out into the straights, then turned back because of bad weather then there was no refund. If they just said we cant do it then they had to give our money back---no prizes for whet option they took.

I wasn't on it--but the people looked quite shook up when the got back 2 hours latter..

[josephbloggs]

6 minutes ago, evadgib said:

My son has just crossed in the other direction and says the sea is flat (@1445hrs) despite the continued wind.

It is pretty calm now, but this morning there was a pretty ferocious storm for a few hours.

[off road pat]

4 hours ago, mickymouse1 said:

I very much doubt normal travellers use cargo ferry for crossing , not to mention the heavy loads!!

Hm,...Lots of tourist buses from Bangkok stop at Don Sak to unload passengers, some buses get on the ferry and others pick up passengers from the ferry. I must have taken the ferry over a hundred times go and back to Samui !

[bodga]

20 minutes ago, sanuk711 said:

then turned back because of bad weather then there was no refund

That famous   Thai service  rears  its  head  again

[grumpy 4680]

     Its quite common for the sea to be like mill pond, before a storm, Hence the expression " the lull before the storm" I know from first hand experience, when I was stupid enough to risk it when I had a 51 ft. ex fishing vessel, I never ignored weather warnings again.

[sambum]

Just now, PEE TEE said:

I did not know the ferries ran after 7pm. sad news i wonder how good the inspections for safety are on the  Raja company? 

 

This was not a passenger ferry! If you read the post, you would see the following line in bold text right under the photo:-

 

"Seven people are missing after a cargo ferry travelling from Koh Samui capsized on Saturday night."

[khunPer]

2 hours ago, PEE TEE said:

I did not know the ferries ran after 7pm. sad news i wonder how good the inspections for safety are on the  Raja company? 

 

It's a cargo ferry with trucks.

[sambum]

Just now, off road pat said:

Hm,...Lots of tourist buses from Bangkok stop at Don Sak to unload passengers, some buses get on the ferry and others pick up passengers from the ferry. I must have taken the ferry over a hundred times go and back to Samui !

Your point being?

[khunPer]

58 minutes ago, Odisan said:

"It wasn’t immediately exactly how many people were on board."

No. Words.

It was however known public in details with all names in about one hour from the first news appeared, the news story is based on the fist initial report only. For a full name list see in other posts the linked story.

[Airbagwill]

1 hour ago, khunkarl said:

Without classification the ship owners can't get any certificates, which they need to legally operate their vessels. How that works here in Thailand is for me unknow

I don't believe how naive this comment is - you realise this is THAILAND we are talking about???

[Airbagwill]

36 minutes ago, off road pat said:

Hm,...Lots of tourist buses from Bangkok stop at Don Sak to unload passengers, some buses get on the ferry and others pick up passengers from the ferry. I must have taken the ferry over a hundred times go and back to Samui !

Your point being??

[Airbagwill]

1 hour ago, khunkarl said:

Without doubt as it rolled over just 2 nautical miles from port.. A port it should never have left.

No! Extremely unlikely.

 

although Raja 4 if that was the boat is quite small a fewwtrucks would not overload it. 

What invariably happens is water gets onto te cargo deck - tis this and the load slurps around th boat is flipped. This can be incredibly quick too.

 

As for setting off, rthat is a different matter - virtually EVERY Ro-RO ferry in Thailand is suitable to sail on only flat seas - any strong swell or chop is potentially lethal for these vessels.

My guess is that because it was a "trade only" crossing the skipper or someone decided to push the envelope a little as there were no tourists to get frightened or sick.

 

[khunkarl]

4 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Or how about the captain of the boat ignored the bad conditions and still went ahead ?  

Probably he was under pressure by the ship owners however taking the gamble with the weather makes him a captain with poor judgement. And now he will have to take the full responsibility for what has happened. If he had refused to leave port the worst that could have happened was him being sacked. Sad story and loss of lives that should not have happened. ????

[barney42bb]

Seems the lessons to be learned from previous Ferry Health and Safety failures.... Have not been learned.

[khunPer]

A few images from Google of Raja 4 (faster than checking my own picture folders)...

 

 

 

[khunPer]

Video from inside "Raja 4" ferry at the time of the incident (I've set UTL-time to start of Raja ferry report, t=138)...

 

 

 

[Skeptic7]

Place reopens exactly where it left off. A pathetic, phony joke which has all the "answers" (not!) for reopening, but not one answer when it comes to basic day-to-day, real life events (like law and transportation)...which take more lives than any virus ever will. 

[ronaldo0]

Going to say badly loaded and rolled . Did see a video this morning of people looking for survivors and of all the things it was on a ferry !! What’s the point of that ? Extremely slow and only benifit would be slight height advantage to look out, although all the people on it were sitting inside despite it not raining . I haven’t heard of any air search going on which would be obvious way to look but wife said they did find two people today alive on Koh tan .

[GAZZPA]

European health and safety can be a pain, it is often moaned about because bad things very rarely happen. Of course the health and safety legislation is the exact reason why bad things rarely happen however tedious it can sometimes feel. Thailand who have next to no enforcement of health and safety have accidents like this frequently from what i see, in this instance lives were needlessly lost. 

 

Don't expect any different from a country with the worst road fatalities in the world due to zero care and attention to training, testing and enforcement. Taking a ferry in Thailand is a genuine risk, relying on the following of some robust H&S rules for your safety is foolish. RIP to the poor deceased and i feel for their families for this avoidable loss of life.

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, DoctorG said:

Overloaded/badly balanced?

A bit like the government..