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A ferry with more than 350 people on board sank early Monday near a southern Philippine island, killing at least 18 people, officials said. Rescuers rescued hundreds more, while a fleet of coastguards and warships searched for those still missing.
The M/V Trisha Kerstin 3, an inter-island cargo and passenger ferry, was sailing from the port city of Zamboanga to southern Jolo Island in Sulu province with 332 passengers and 27 crew members when it apparently encountered technical problems and sank after midnight, coast guard officials said.
The ferry sank in good weather about a nautical mile from the island village of Baluk-baluk in Basilan province, Coast Guard Cmdr. Romel Dua.
“There was a coast guard security officer on board, and he was the first to call us and alert us to deploy rescue vessels,” Dua said, adding that the security officer survived.
Rescuers saved at least 316 passengers and crew members recovered 18 bodies, authorities said. Coast guard and navy vessels, as well as a surveillance plane, an air force Black Hawk helicopter and fleets of fishing boats conducted search and rescue operations for about two dozen people believed to be missing off the coast of Basilan, Dua said.
One of the rescued passengers, Mohamad Khan, said the ferry abruptly tilted to one side and took on water, throwing people, including him and his wife, who was holding their six-month-old baby, into the sea in the darkness. He and his wife were rescued, but their baby drowned.
“My wife lost our baby and we were all separated at sea,” a distraught Khan told a volunteer rescuer, Gamar Alih, who posted a video of Khan’s remarks on Facebook.
As Khan recounted their ordeal, his wife cried.
The cause of the sinking is unclear
Alih, a Zamboanga village councilor, told The Associated Press that he volunteered to help with the search and rescue because some of his relatives were among the ferry passengers. They all survived.
Coast guard and navy vessels, as well as a surveillance plane, an air force Black Hawk helicopter and fleets of fishing boats were conducting search and rescue operations off Basilan, Dua said.
Basilan Governor Mujiv Hataman said several passengers and two bodies had been brought to Isabela, the provincial capital, where he and ambulances were waiting.
“I get 37 people here on the pier. Unfortunately, two died,” Hataman said, speaking by cellphone from the Isabela pier.
The cause of the ferry sinking is not immediately clear and an investigation will be conducted, Dua said, adding that the Coast Guard cleared the ferry before it left Zamboanga Port and there were no signs of overloading.
Accidents at sea are common in the Philippine archipelago due to frequent storms, poorly maintained ships, overcrowding and uneven enforcement of safety rules, particularly in remote provinces.
In December 1987, the ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with a tanker truck in the central Philippines, killing more than 4,300 people in the world’s deadliest peacetime maritime disaster.
