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Tuesday, May 25, 1999

Many questions for ship's crew

Extracted from an article by By Hilary Chiew - KUALA LUMPUR:

Investigators are posing about 200 questions to the Sun Vista's deck and engine officers in an extensive probe to get to the bottom of last Friday's disaster. The areas being looked into include the vessel's ownership and operating history, construction specification, operations on board, circumstances of the voyage, conditions of navigation equipment and installation, certification and inspections, emergency and life-saving arrangements and equipment, summary of testimonies by the crew and passengers and the rescue operation.
The technical aspects focused on the electrical system and fire-related safety installations like the carbon dioxide or inert gas fire-fighting systems. The probe, headed by the Marine Department northern region director Jamaluddin Yusof, is expected to go into the circumstances of the sinking in great detail.
Crucial to the investigation at this stage are the circumstances leading to the engine-room fire and subsequent efforts to put out the fire which reportedly broke out at around 2pm on Thursday. Jamaluddin said investigation into other aspects such as validity of important certification of safety were stalled as "it seems there is more questioning needed on the cause of the fire as initial testimonies had given rise to more doubts." "There are contradictory testimonies at this point and the committee needs to verify some of these facts, which means we will recall the officers for further interviews. "The investigation, therefore, is still concentrating on the sequences leading to the emergency and it may continue until next week," he told The Star yesterday.
Jamaluddin was in Lumut yesterday to obtain detailed information from the Maritime Enforcement Co-ordinating Centre (MECC) on the sequence of events leading to the sinking of the 30,440-tonne luxury liner in 60m-deep waters off the coast of Perak. The MECC in Lumut was monitoring the progress of the mishap and relaying messages to and from the Maritime Rescue and Co-ordinating Centre in Port Klang after the latter was alerted by its Falmouth counterpart of the distress call made by the cruise ship at about 6.30pm on Thursday. It was reported yesterday that the committee would be enlarged from the present three members to five as the investigation was getting technical and that the probe would be completed by Friday. Jamaluddin was quoted as saying some senior crew members had tried to conceal certain facts on how the fire had apparently caused the ship to go down.
So far, the committee has questioned skipper Capt Sven Bertil Hartzell, chief engineer Bacelar Guilherme, first officer Thein Maung, electrical engineer Krishna Mohan and third engineer Ravi Kumar Nair. It is expected to interview five other crewmen. Capt Hartzell said sea water was gushing into the lower compartments of the 11-deck ship, causing it to list to one side. He claimed that searing heat from the blaze could have melted parts of the ship, allowing it to take in water. The Marine Department has no immediate plans to salvage the vessel as it does not pose any danger to navigation.