Tragic Ferry Sinking

Two people are missing and presumed dead after the 125m Queen of the North struck Gill Island and sank in 365m of water. 99 were rescued from lifeboats.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060325.BCFERRY25/TPStory/TPNational/

 

Quite strange, isn't it?

 

Accident do happen even with all those modern technology gadget..seen it so many times happen in the Straits of Melaka.. :?:

 

"The ferry that went down off British Columbia's rugged north central coast shortly after midnight on Wednesday didn't blunder into a sunken reef -- it ran to its death at full throttle, straying 1.7 kilometres off course before striking Gil Island and tearing its guts out along a long, rocky shoreline that plunged straight into the sea.

Only a miracle, he said, kept the badly damaged vessel afloat long enough for 99 of the 101 passengers and crew time to abandon ship."
.........."shortly after midnight the three officers who would normally be on the bridge -- a senior deck officer, a junior deck officer and a helmsman -- would have been watching for a flashing light on their port side.

"They would have had a GPS, Global Positioning System, that GPS would have fed at least one radar and an electronic charting system. They would have had at least two radars. They would have had a gyro compass, which allows you to see a true course rather than a magnetic course, and they would have had an automatic pilot. ."

 

Ships are not allowed to use auto pilot in the Straits of Melaka..and that strait are bigger than that Fjord I believe..

 

It's Canada though, so almost everyone was saved, and there weren't 11000 people on the boat to begin with. which is probably why I haven't seen anything about it on the international news.
It was fortunate that the community of Hartly Bay was nearby and so was a coast guard vessel.

 

Accident the aftermath

Those passengers are real lucky lot..I have known a case with smaller number on board.. all but two perish in the collision between a 250K ton crude oil tanker with 50K ton bulk carrier.That bulk carrier sunk within 3 minutes of collision.I'am monitoring our radio that night..real sad.

 

Actually, the BC ferries Queen of Victoria was struck by a tanker in dense fog back in the 1970's. The boat was bent like a horseshoe, but she stayed afloat, and was repaired and continued sailing for twenty-odd more years. Several people died on that one I think.

 

Still, She sank like a stone. A 125m ferry should be a three compartment ship and not flood like this one did. I am waiting for the results of the investigation to find out why she went down so fast. As was said though, it is fortunate it was close to a populated area with lots of litle boats and a Canadian Coast Guard ship was nearby. The response was terrific, and at last I heard only one person was unaccounted for.

 

Seaforth Jarl (Anchor Handling Tug supply, supposedly one of the best in it's day) with a deck cargo of rig chain, cargo shifted in heavy weather and stripped all the tank vents of one side, rolled again filled up all those tanks with water and sank in eight (8) minutes! Everybody saved and that was in Canada, with a Canadian crew which proves it ain't who or where that sinks you but what!!! (incidentally for our Scottish readers - that was the ship the kid built with his bare hands whilst drinking 'Irn Bru' sez it all really - funnily enough that advert suddenly disappeared off the TV, can't understand it?!

 

Still two people missing. The investigation will expose some weird dealings between surveyors, Transport Canada and BC Ferries. Not necessarily crooked, but strange none the less.