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A ship with about 350 passengers sinks in Papua New Guinea
posted on: Feb 3 2012 7:11 by RDugey. Viewed 9 times.
A boat with about 350 passengers yesterday was wrecked off the coast of northeast of Papua New Guinea, where carries out an extensive rescue operation in which have been rescued more than 200 survivors.
The MV Rabaul Queen sent a distress signal in the first hour of the morning of Thursday, when sailing between the tourist town of Kimbe, located on the island of new Britain and Lae, on the northeastern coast of the country of the island of Papua.
The ship, owned by the shipping company for Star Ships, sank 16 kilometers northeast of Cape fortification, in the Vitiaz Strait, and about 80 kilometres from the port of destination.
Up the area where the wreck happened reached eight merchant ships to participate in the work of rescue.
Los 219 survivors were located so far, are divided between five of nine ships total, said the Australian maritime safety authority in a u000acommunicated.
Furthermore, the executive director Office of the maritime agency of Papua New Guinea, Nurur Rahman, dropped to 193 the number of castaways rescued alive and noted that apparent health problems among them had not been appreciated.
"Seems that the survivors have no major health problems, but at the moment I don't know the details, if there are men, women or children, my priority is to rescue all the people as possible", said Captain Rahman Efe by telephone from Port Moresby, the capital papuana.
El Captain Rahman said an undetermined number of passengers still "expect water to be rescued" by ships that track area and which until then had not spotted any dead body floating on the water.
Authorities papuanas pointed out that they are unaware of the number exact passengers travelling aboard the MV Queen Rabaul, although according to the maritime agency, "the reports indicate" u000a"that the boat went over 300 passengers"
Nor the shipping company has confirmed the number of people travelling in your boat or provided details on the causes of the wreck, although police papuana told the Australian ABC that the greater part of the passage was composed of students and teachers who graduated recently.
El, Foreign Ministry, Australia pointed out that the shipping company reported that it was unlikely that travel aboard a foreign passenger.
Still the Government of Australia said in a note that tries to find out if there national among the passengers because it's a destination close to Australians travelling for tourism or for work.
After being informed of the wreck, the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, told reporters in the city of Melbourne who in this maritime accident could have killed many people and which is confirmed will be a "major disaster".
The u000apapuanas authorities have sent to the area of the wreck two helicopters from Lae, while Australia six ships and several aircraft reconnaissance and rescue to help in the rescue.
El Captain Rahman told Efe that day there have been strong regular winds in the area during this time of the year, although these do not have hampered rescue tasks.
Rahman pointed out that the causes of the accident will be investigated, but stressed that the priority was to "rescue the maximum number of persons".
The town of Kimbe, considered a paradise for scuba diving, has several shipping services that connect with various Papuan ports, among them what focus Star Ships, one of the largest shipping companies in the country.
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