By
Michele Witthaus |
A passenger ferry has sunk off Papua New Guinea, with many feared dead.
The 259 gt Rabaul Queen is almost three decades old and is part of owner Rabaul Shipping’s Star Ships fleet that serves the Pacific island nation. The ferry is reported to have sunk in bad weather with strong winds and five-metre wave swells.
Star Ships said it lost contact with the ferry at about 6am local time while the vessel was sailing between Kimbe and Lae in the east of the country. The sinking took place around 7.30am about nine nautical miles offshore.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) announced that merchant ships in the area had rescued 238 people from the sea and from liferafts about 12 hours after the incident. AMSA diverted eight merchant vessels to help with the rescue and also sent helicopters and aircraft to the scene.
“We are getting more life rafts out into the water,” said AMSA spokeswoman Carly Lusk said. “There have been more reports of vessels sighting people in life rafts, so we’re hoping for the number (of survivors) to increase in the very near future.”
Rabaul Shipping said that they had no information about what caused the accident but that the vessel sank quickly and without sending a distress message.
Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill promised that his government would carry out a full investigation into the disaster. “We need to bring some safety measures back into this industry,” he commented.