HONG KONG – Hampered by poor weather, rescue workers pressed their search yesterday for the more than 100 people still missing after a ferry sank on Thursday off the cost of Papua New Guinea, officials said.
A second full day of searching for survivors from the ferry, the MV Rabaul Queen,was drawing to a close with no signs of passengers, said Capt Nurur Rahman, rescue co-ordinator for Papua New Guinea's National Maritime Safety Authority.
Mr Rahman said no bodies had been found, and the official number of survivors remained at 238, unchanged since late on Thursday night.
The authorities said they could not determine whether the missing were trapped inside the ferry. Rescue workers aboard three ships, two helicopters and a plane would search the warm tropical waters until dusk yesterday, Mr Rahman said. Weather conditions at the site of the sinking were worse yesterday than the day before.
“The sea conditions are pretty rough, and the winds are pretty high. But I still remain positive about finding survivors,” Mr Rahman said.
“We still do not know, for example, how many people may have been able to swim ashore.”
The ferry was travelling from Kimbe on the island of New Britain to the town of Lae on Papua New Guinea’s main island on Thursday morning when it sank about 10 miles off the northern coast of Papua New Guinea.
Yesterday the owner of the ferry, Rabaul Shipping Co, said 350 people were aboard. The authorities in Papua New Guinea said 14 were crew members.
The Australian Broadcast Corporation reported that most of the passengers were students, travelling to school in Lae.
Papua New Guinea’s government has promised an investigation to determine the cause of the sinking.
Various local news reports suggested the ferry began its journey despite warnings of rough weather. In a report carried by the Post-Courier newspaper in Papua New Guinea, the country’s national weather service chief, Sam Maiha, said companies had been warned to keep ships moored this week because of high winds.
Ian Kemish, Australia’s high commissioner to Papua New Guinea, reiterated concerns about weather being a factor in the sinking.
However, Rahman discounted such reports. “It was not abnormally bad weather yesterday,” he said.
“Weather reporting is not the best in Papua New Guinea.”
– (New York Times)