39 dead in Hong Kong ferry accident – 2 manslaughter charges for captains
The police officials of Hong Kong charged 2 captains with manslaughter after a ferry vessel collision last October, which claimed 39 lives in the city’s worst maritime disaster in decades. The Sea Smooth high speed passenger ferry crashed into the Lamma IV pleasures craft, carrying around 120 people on a company trip to watch national day fireworks.
The 2 captains, 56 and 54, were each charged with 39 counts of manslaughter and are going to appear in a magistrates’ court later in the day. The captains were arrested along with 5 crew members after the 1st of October crash among their 2 vessels, with authorities pointing to possible human error as the cause of the incident.
Investigators have pored over the collision, attempting to piece together how such an incident could have happened in a city that prides itself on its state-of-the-art transport infrastructure.
The examination looked at the Lamma IV vessel’s structural soundness, why it started taking on water so quickly, whether there was adequate safety equipment on board and whether the captain followed the rules of the sea.
Source: http://www.vesselfinder.com/
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