Sunken Warship’s Life Jacket Found Near Koh Tao

[webfact]

The life jacket recovered from the sea off Koh Tao Dec. 23, 2023. Photos: Matichon

 

by TNR Staff 

 

A LIFE JACKET from HTMS 442 Sukhothai that sank off Prachuab Khiri Khan on Sunday night (Dec. 18) was found floating near Koh Tao, almost a hundred nautical miles away, but no sailor seen nearby, Matichon newspaper said this afternoon (Dec. 23).

 

At 10.15 a.m. Surat Thani’s Governor Mr. Wichawut Jinto was alerted about a life jacket not worn by a sailor being seen floating in the sea about 25 nautical miles from Koh Tao island.

 

Wichawut then instructed the officials to alert the Thai Maritime Enforcement Command Centre in Chumphon to instruct their officers based on this island to bring the item ashore and inspect it.

 

Full story: https://thainewsroom.com/2022/12/23/sunken-warships-life-jacket-found-near-koh-tao/

 

-- © Copyright  THAI NEWSROOM 2022-12-24

 

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[KhunLA]

Kind of counters the 'not enough' stories, if spares are floating around.

[spidermike007]

This is a truly pathetic and likely avoidable tragedy. Admiral Choengchai Chomchoengpaet, the head of the navy, the vice admiral, and the captain of the ship should all be fired and court martialed for malfeasance. The lack of life preservers was so mickey mouse, such bad form and unforgivable. It is the responsibility of the captain, to make sure a navy boat is safe, before it leaves port. This is a crime against his soldiers, who depend on him with their lives. It is very possible many of these young men could have survived with that equipment. Lock all 3 of these Navy brass creeps up. 

 

The pain they have caused to what will likely turn out to be over 30 families of the navy men is unspeakable. Someone should pay for this dearly. And it is likely none of the brass will ever take responsibility for this. They are not man enough. 

[lujanit]

12 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

And it is likely none of the brass will ever take responsibility for this. They are not man enough. 

The system in the armed forces is loaded in favour of top brass at the detriment of lower ranks.  Top brass obviously doesn’t care about lower ranks.

[superal]

23 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

This is a truly pathetic and likely avoidable tragedy. Admiral Choengchai Chomchoengpaet, the head of the navy, the vice admiral, and the captain of the ship should all be fired and court martialed for malfeasance. The lack of life preservers was so mickey mouse, such bad form and unforgivable. It is the responsibility of the captain, to make sure a navy boat is safe, before it leaves port. This is a crime against his soldiers, who depend on him with their lives. It is very possible many of these young men could have survived with that equipment. Lock all 3 of these Navy brass creeps up. 

 

The pain they have caused to what will likely turn out to be over 30 families of the navy men is unspeakable. Someone should pay for this dearly. And it is likely none of the brass will ever take responsibility for this. They are not man enough. 

Does anyone know if the search for survivals found any sailors alive with their life jackets being worn that saved their lives ? Indeed the mind boggles as to question if there was a practised emergency drill for abandoning ship . Can only speak of the UK navy who are professional sailors who will be well inducted on emergency situations but I would think that most of the western world navies will be the same with an ample supply of life jackets and rafts etc . Abandoning ship drills are the fundamental basic procedures to cover all weather conditions . The loss of life on this scale to a countries professional  navy is not acceptable and the tragedy needs to be investigated by an independent , unbiased panel . will that happen ?

[internationalism]

there were several sailors rescued (one group was 3 sailors who shared 2 vests, that included a nurse with first aid kit - the 4th drowned just minutes before and second group was 1 survivor and 6 bodies). They also found an empty raft.

so very few are saved, it's a week now, only bodies being washed away on nearby beaches

 

[KhunLA]

Does seem to be turning out to be a major clusterFk.

 

Seems plenty of time to abandon ship safely, and ship not really big enough for some to be caught off guard below deck.  Large percentage of crew missing isn't a good sign.

 

Thais aren't known to be great swimmers, but vest should keep you afloat long enough to get to a raft, if you need to just jump into the sea as last resort.

 

It is the Navy, and training should be geared toward 'expect the worst' scenarios.  Hoping for some miracles for those still missing.

[spidermike007]

2 hours ago, superal said:

Does anyone know if the search for survivals found any sailors alive with their life jackets being worn that saved their lives ? Indeed the mind boggles as to question if there was a practised emergency drill for abandoning ship . Can only speak of the UK navy who are professional sailors who will be well inducted on emergency situations but I would think that most of the western world navies will be the same with an ample supply of life jackets and rafts etc . Abandoning ship drills are the fundamental basic procedures to cover all weather conditions . The loss of life on this scale to a countries professional  navy is not acceptable and the tragedy needs to be investigated by an independent , unbiased panel . will that happen ?

It should happen. Around the world, much is learned from mistakes made. But, in order to learn from mistakes, you have to be man enough to take responsibility for them, and courageous enough to learn and progress. Basic stuff. Face, rank, title and family name here often get in the way of progress and forward movement. 

[Patong2021]

On 12/23/2022 at 7:20 PM, KhunLA said:

Kind of counters the 'not enough' stories, if spares are floating around.

No.  It can also mean, sailors not given enough time to safely leave ship, or sailor not put jacket on correctly, or sailor eaten by scavenger and body fall out of jacket.

This terrible tragedy and I hope senior officers are held accountable.

[KhunLA]

30 minutes ago, Patong2021 said:

No.  It can also mean, sailors not given enough time to safely leave ship, or sailor not put jacket on correctly, or sailor eaten by scavenger and body fall out of jacket.

This terrible tragedy and I hope senior officers are held accountable.

Plenty of time to leave ship safely ... 

 

... Water entered the front portion of the 252-foot (76.8-meter) long warship around 8:45 p.m. Sunday ...  flooding continued for more than three hours"

 

Paraphrased from:

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/21/asia/thai-warship-sinks-not-enough-life-jackets-intl-hnk-ml/index.html

[internationalism]

there is a short video from the ship from Sunday evening, just before sunset. There were no clouds, good visibility and calm water.

I gather she lost engines during storm in the afternoon, started to drift and slowly taking water. 

Once she lost engines they should call SOS. 

One earlier report said that not rafts were deployed. There was one found later on, apparently empty. 

I don't follow news closely, but looks like reports are contradictory.

 

[RT555]

The last island you would want to wash ashore........????????????????????????☠️☠️☠️

[mikebell]

7 hours ago, RT555 said:

The last island you would want to wash ashore........????????????????????????☠️☠️☠️

AKA Death Island.

[superal]

This is incredible but I have just read that some of the sailors could not swim .

[josephbloggs]

23 hours ago, superal said:

This is incredible but I have just read that some of the sailors could not swim .

Where did you read that?  On here?

[superal]

13 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

Where did you read that?  On here?

No not on here on the BBC about 4 days ago I think . The mind does boggle when you consider the state of the seas which were not that rough or cold and another quote I read was from a Thai sailor who said he could float in that sea for 3 days  .  Plenty of time to leave the vessel so I am thinking was it the passengers that drowned ? It is all a very sad mystery .

Will an inquest be biased towards the captains position ?