HONG KONG: Hong Kong investigators yesterday examined the salvaged wreck of a boat that sank in a collision killing 38 people, as the city sought answers to its worst maritime accident in decades.
The Lamma IV was towed to a beach to reveal a gaping hole in its left rear from Monday evening’s collision with the Sea Smooth ferry that flooded its stern within minutes trapping passengers in the cabin.
More than 120 passengers and crew were on the Hong Kong Electric company vessel to watch a huge National Day fireworks display in Victoria Harbour when the accident occurred just off Lamma, an island to the southwest of Hong Kong.
The stricken, twin-hulled Sea Smooth ferry limped to Lamma where its shaken but relatively unharmed passengers disembarked before it took on too much water from a hole in its left hull, which was sheared off in the impact.
Investigators pored over the pleasure boat Lamma IV as they tried to piece together how such an accident could have occurred in one of the world’s busiest ports, which prides itself on its state-of-the-art transport infrastructure.
“I never thought such a tragedy would happen here and so many people would die,” said survivor Ivan Lee, 47, a building contractor who was on the Lamma IV with his wife and two young children.
“I thought my whole family would die there,” he said.
AFP
