Over 100 still missing after ferry disaster

SYDNEY: Fears were growing yesterday for more than 100 passengers still missing from a ferry that sank off Papua New Guinea.

A total of 246 people have been picked up from where the MV Rabaul Queen went down on Thursday on its way from Kimbe in West New Britain to Lae on the main island.

No bodies have been reported recovered, and with authorities saying 372 boarded the ship, one explanation is that passengers were trapped below decks when it sank in rough seas 16km off Finschhafen. The Australian high commissioner to the island nation, Ian Kemish, said he expected more rescues as the operation progressed.

“It’s a fair bet that the very severe weather that’s being experienced in some parts of Papua New Guinea played a role in the sinking,” Kemish said. The offices of Rabaul Shipping in Kimbe and Lae are closed for fear of retribution from the families of those who might have drowned.

There were unconfirmed reports that the Rabaul Queen put to sea despite gale warnings. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority, the first to pick up the ferry’s distress call, is helping Papua New Guinea’s Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre with the logistics of the rescue.

The safety authority said there were 246 survivors when bad light stopped the rescue operation on Thursday and that they had been taken to hospitals in Lae.

Australian national broadcaster ABC reported from Lae that only three of the survivors had been seriously injured in the sinking.

Rabaul Shipping managing director Peter Sharp said the ship had been in radio contact and there was no indication prior to the sinking that it was in trouble.

“We’re stunned and utterly devastated by what has happened,” Sharp told Australia’s Herald Sun newspaper. – Sapa-dpa