SuperFerry 9

SuperFerry 9 was a ferry owned by the Philippines-based carrier Aboitiz Transport System Corp (ATSC) and operated by their SuperFerry division. About 9am Sunday September 6, 2009, she sank off the south-west coast of Zamboanga Peninsula with a total of 971 passengers and crew aboard.

The ferry was travelling from the southern city of General Santos City to Iloilo City in the central Philippines and capsized on the other side of the peninsular from Zamboanga City.

On Tuesday 8 September 2009 the last missing passenger was reported rescued and more uptodate figures were provided by disaster response officials. The last survivor, a woman suffering serious injuries, was picked up by a passing fishing vessel shortly after the Superferry 9 sank on Sunday, the Office of Civil Defence in Manila said. On Monday, rescuers also plucked out from the sea another woman who had spent over 24 hours in the Sulu Sea with only her life vest to keep her afloat. “All 968 passengers and crew of the Superferry have now been accounted for, including nine fatalities”, the civil defence office said. The civil defence figures were corrected the following night by the ship owners.

As of 6pm Wednesday 9 September 2009, “961 crew members and passengers have been accounted for. Regretfully, there are 10 fatalities. 10 names in the official manifest cannot be physically matched but we also have 10 persons rescued and physically accounted for, whose names are not in the manifest”.

On September 6, 2009, SuperFerry 9 sank off the southwest coast of Zamboanga peninsula with 971 people on board. The ferry was travelling from the southern city of General Santos to Iloilo City in the central Philippines and capsized approximately 150 kilometres from Zamboanga City.

Below is a timeline of events (all times local).

• At 8:45 a.m. on September 5, 2009, SuperFerry 9 left General Santos City bound for Iloilo City.
• Between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m. on September 6, 2009, a distress signal was sent by Captain Jose Yap that the ship was listing to the starboard side. An hour later, he ordered the passengers to abandon ship. Captain Yap was among those rescued in the disaster.
• At 5:20 a.m. the MV Myriad, a cargo ship also owned by Aboitiz, arrived at the scene of the incident to render assistance. After an hour, half of the passengers had already been taken off SuperFerry 9 and had boarded several life rafts.
• According to regional military commander Major General Benjamin Dolorfino, about two hours later, two assault navy boats guided by two OV-10 bomber planes and two Huey helicopters arrived and began to pluck survivors from the ferry and the sea.
• SuperFerry 9 sank sometime around 9:00 a.m., almost five hours after the first distress call was sent.

Initially the Coast Guard reported that the ship developed generator problems as soon as she left for Iloilo. According to Coast Guard chief Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo, initial reports said that the generator of SuperFerry 9 fluctuated several times. Passengers had reported loud heavy crashing noises and suggested cargo containers had moved in the hold damaging the hull.

On September 7, 2009, a military pilot reported an oil slick in the area where SuperFerry 9 sank. A containment ship was dispatched to the area. The vessel is believed to have settled on the seabed some 18 kilometres offshore at a depth of about 5000 metres.

As a result of the sinking, Marina issued a suspension order September 7, grounding the whole fleet of ATSC. The company, however, successfully contested the whole of fleet order.

source from Wikipedia