Tag: Tanzania

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 ...

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 ...

187 bodies had been recovered and 619 people had been rescued The Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), Efthimios E. Mitropoulos, has expressed his profound sadness for the loss of life in the sinking of the ro-ro ferry Spice Islander I off the coast of the United Republic of Tanzania on 10 September."We are shocked at the number of lives lost and have offered any help and technical assistance which may be required," Mr. Mitropoulos said, adding that IMO was willing to provide assistance in investigating the cause of the accident and, following on from that, in working with the United Republic of Tanzania to prevent further such accidents occurring.Mr. Mitropoulos commended the work of the Dar es Salaam Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) sub-centre (which was commissioned by IMO in 2009) in coordinating the rescue. The sub-centre confirmed to IMO on Monday (12 September) that, so far, 187 bodies had been recovered and 619 people had been rescued.While IMO regulations, such as those contained in the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), do not apply to ships trading on domestic routes, IMO has worked with a number of countries and non-governmental organizations to improve ...

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.

Training package including navigational, engine room and GMDSS simulators Transas Middle East has successfully accomplished the project to supply a training suite including navigational, engine room and GMDSS simulators to Dar Es Salaam Maritime Institute (DMI) in Tanzania.Under the contract, Transas has upgraded the Dar Es Salaam's navigational simulator to the newest generation Transas Full Mission Ship SimulatorNTPRO 5000 with 270 degree horizontal field of view and rear visualisation channel.New generation navigational simulator boasts visualization system offering the highest level of realism featuring wind-generated sea state and variable swell model with user selected sea state spectrum, accurate vessel and wave interaction, full scene and environment reflection, and three dimensional bow waves and propeller wash and associated floating object interference.New grounding, synchronous rolling, broaching and other modeling features provide unsurpassed quality of training. Integrated VHF and Intercom solutions, voice communication are available for debrief and assessment. Particular attention was paid to radar. Transas now has reached another level in accurate and realistic radar picture presentation. This has been achieved by years of experience and strong industry feedback.The project also included supply, installation and commissioning of a Full Mission Engine Room Simulator, Steam boiler and Gas Turbine simulators and a PC based ...