Tag: ferries

The ferry had over 500 passengers On Sep 27, 2011, the "Kirana IX" caught fire while docked in Surabaya, Java. The ferry had over 500 passengers on board when a truck overheated and caught fire. The Passengers on board panicked and stampeded towards the small exit gate while others jumped overboard into the water.The crew in vain attempted to calm the passengers, but eight people perished in the panic and were trampled. Many passengers were taken to hospital. The damage to the "Kirana IX" was limited to the truck and a small section of the vessel's deck. The crew was able to quickly extinguish the blaze before any serious damage occurred. The ferry was scheduled to sail to Kalimantan, Borneo.Source: Vesseltracker

Investigation will focus on the accident's possible cause An investigation into the recent ferry disaster has begun and will take about a month and a half to be concluded.This was said yesterday by the chairman of the inquiry commission, Judge Abuldhakim Ameir Issa, who explained: "We have begun our assignment with finalising logistics and members of the commission's meetings. The investigation will take us up to one and a half months."I hope the report will be ready for handing over to the President by the end of November this year."He said investigators of the worst maritime accident in the region were focusing on the accident's possible cause and would make their recommendations.Members of the commission include the Tanzania People's Defence Forces (TPDF) Navy Commander, Major General Said Shaaban Omar, Commander Hassan Mussa Mzee of the Zanzibar Navy (KMKM) as well as Messrs Abdallah Yussuf Jumbe, Abdallah Juma Abdallah and Salum Toufiq Ali.Others are Captain Hatib Katandula, Ms Mkakili Fauster Ngowi as well as Messrs Ali Omar Chengo and Shaaban Ramadhani Abdallah, the latter acting as the commission's secretary.Meanwhile, the director of the Zanzibar Sea Transport Authority (STA), Engineer Haji Vuai Ussi, has withdrawn last Monday's statement of suspending five ships ...

Maximise propulsive efficiency, reducing fuel consumption and emissions Three DFDS Seaways ferries are to be upgraded with Rolls-Royce Promas Lite systems to maximise their propulsive efficiency, reducing fuel consumption and emissions.Dover Seaways, Dunkerque Seaways and Delft Seaways serve the Dover- Dunkerque route across the English Channel. The three sisterships were originally designed for a speed of 26.5 knots, and have propellers optimised for that speed. The requirements for the current route are a service speed of 18-19.5 knots, with a few knots more available to recover delays, and responsive manoeuvrability in port. The ferries are equipped with twin screws and two engines per shaft. Normal sailing on the current route can be maintained on one engine per shaft (1+1), with 1+2 and 2+2 available if more power is needed.Rolls-Royce says that under these circumstances a substantial improvement in efficiency could be won by just fitting new blades to the propellers; blades designed to match the present operating profile. But it was decided to go a step further and adopt a Promas Lite solution, so gaining the advantages of new blades plus the additional efficiency improvement from hydrodynamic integration of the propellers and the existing rudders.The conversion work for each vessel ...

Killing at least two people An Indonesian ferry with more than 400 people on board collided with a barge and caught fire Monday, killing at least two, a search and rescue official said.The KM Marina Nusantara, travelling from Surabaya in eastern Java, collided with the barge as it approached the city of Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan province on Indonesian Borneo."The accident happened after 7 am this morning. So far, two people have died. We can't confirm how many are injured, but we are expecting more casualties," said Rusli Ansyah, head of search and rescue in South Kalimantan."The boat was carrying 443 people, some vehicles and other goods. Everyone has now been evacuated and some have been taken to hospital," he said.The Indonesian archipelago of more than 17,000 islands has a poor sea safety record, and fatal accidents are common.Thirteen people were killed when a boat sank Saturday off East Java province, and 25 people were killed off the resort island of Bali when their boat sank last week.Source : AFP

There were more than 1,000 passengers aboard the vessel A senior Zanzibar official said on Monday that the death toll from Tanzania's ferry disaster could rise significantly.The announcement comes after it emerged there were more than 1,000 passengers aboard the vessel when it capsized last week,Initial reports suggested the MV Spice Islander was carrying 800 people, well above the ferry's 600 passenger capacity.:"We were told that the total number of people who were in the boat were a little bit over 1,000 so we are expecting some more bodies between now and maybe tomorrow or day after."More than 600 passengers were rescued from the ferry.The leader of Tanzania's main opposition party CHADEMA, Freeman Mbowe, urges the Zanzibar government to take decisive measures to improve marine transport safety.:"This national tragedy should serve as a timely wake up call to the government that such an accident, which can be avoided, should not happen in the future."Iddi says South African divers are expected on Monday to start searching the wreck of the ferry at the bottom of the Indian Ocean for more bodies.:"We don't expect any survivors unless maybe they managed to escape maybe to Tanga or to Mombasa, but our hope to ...

By refusing to invest in an ageing fleet This weekend the tiny islands of the Zanzibar archipelago made it on to the news pages of newspapers in the west rather than their usual spot in the travel sections. Early on Saturday morning, the MV Spice Islander, a ferry carrying more than 800 people and provisions bound for the island of Pemba capsized, killing nearly 200 people. But what the headlines failed to mention was that this loss of life could have been avoided if the Tanzanian government had chosen to put the interests of its own citizens before those of visiting tourists.The Zanzibar archipelago in Tanzania is made up of two islands, Unguja - or Zanzibar for tourists - and its poorer, less-visited cousin Pemba, to which the MV Spice Islander was travelling. There are only four or five ferries every week to Pemba, most of them are unreliable.Last year I took a trip from the isles to the mainland port of Pemba, not on a ferry but on a small dhow (traditional sailboat) to see how people are forced to take these boats on in the absence of regular ferries, even though it is illegal to ferry passengers on ...

Police are still searching for survivors A legal aid organization is planning to sue Zanzibar's government and others involved for negligence in what is called East Africa's worst maritime disaster in 15 years. Police are still searching for survivors following the sinking of a ferry Saturday in which at least 190 people drowned.Relatives jostle to identify the bodies of their relatives who perished in a ferry tragedy that occurred on its way to Pemba on a picture board at the Maisara grounds in Zanzibar, September 11, 2011.Zanzibar Police Commissioner Mussa Ali Mussa tells VOA police are focusing on the waters between Tanzania's coast and Pemba, one of three islands that comprise the semi-autonomous Zanzibar archipelago."We are using helicopters to survey the whole area from Tanga to Pemba so as to check out whether we have any dead bodies or we have survivors in that area," said Mussa. "The wind moved from the incidence area to that area - from Pemba to Tanga."Commissioner Mussa tells VOA that investigators need to determine the cause of the accident."I think this is very, very early now to draw a conclusion that the incident was due to the overcrowding or overloading or something like that," ...

Hundreds more feared dead The accident happened in deep sea off mainland Tanzania on 10 September at around 1am.It started sinking in an area plagued with heavy currents in the swirling waters.The ferry, M.V. Spice Islanders, was heavily overloaded with 600 passengers with some refusing to board when it was leaving the mainland port of Dar es.Zanzibar Police Commissioner Mussa Alli Mussa said: "Some 260 passengers have so far been rescued."We have recovered several bodies but I can't give you the exact death toll at the moment because the situation is very volatile."Thousands of people massed on the docks of Stone Town on Zanzibar, an island near Pemba, waiting for news.One man was screaming that he had lost 25 members of his family, including his sisters, his wife and grandsons.Many of them said they were furious the ship had been allowed to leave port so overloaded.Rescuer Suleiman Amis, 32, said: "Many of us got here about 2.30 am this morning."We sent out some boats to search for the survivors, but we did not find them until very, very late."We have friends who we know took that boat and we want to go back out to find them as soon as ...

An overloaded boat capsized of the coast of Zanzibar An overloaded boat capsized of the coast of Zanzibar, killing at least 158 people. 521 people have been rescued.

Hopes of finding more survivors were fading following the capsizing of an overloaded passenger Rescue boats, helicopters and divers searched for any remaining survivors but hopes were fading fast of finding anyone alive in the submerged wreck.Zanzibar has vowed to punish those responsible for the overloading of the MV Spice islander ferry, which had more than 800 people on board. Nearly 200 perished when the vessel sank.Mohamed Aboud Mohamed, Zanzibar minister of state, told a news conference that the death toll was 197, with 619 survivors. The ferry was loaded with over 200 more people than it was licensed to carry."The government will take stern measures against those found responsible for this tragedy, in accordance with the country's laws and regulations," he said. "We will not spare anyone."The accident was the worst maritime disaster in the history of Zanzibar, Tanzania's semi-autonomous archipelago and popular tourist destination.In 1996, a Tanzanian ferry sank on Lake Victoria with as many as 1,000 aboard. Only 114 survived.The government charged the captain and eight officials with the murder of 615 people.The Spice Islander began its voyage in Tanzania's commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, where it was loaded with passengers, motor vehicles, bags of food and ...