NEWS REPORTS are extracted from various sources -
Malaysian, Singapore, UK, Australian Newspapers, BBC, CNN and Reuters to name but a few .....

Saturday, May 22, 1999

Shipwrecked passengers fly home

An injured passenger is taken by stretcher from the quayside at Penang Hundreds of passengers who escaped death when their cruiseliner burst into flames and sank off the coast of Malaysia have arrived home. The Sun Vista went down in the Malacca Strait on Thursday but all 1,104 people on board - including 136 Britons - scrambled to safety on lifeboats. The ship, owned by the Singapore-based Sun Cruises company, went down after being crippled by an engine room fire.
Passengers and crew, most of whom had lost their luggage in the disaster, were taken to the nearby resort of Penang to take stock. Each was given 800 Singapore dollars (£200) by the ship's owners, who also put them up in a hotel. The passengers have been given the option of flying home or continuing with their holiday either by air or on a different ship. Two flights containing former Sun Vista passengers landed at London's Heathrow airport early on Saturday morning. Several travellers criticised the ship's crew. Donald Miller, a human resources manager from Glasgow, said: "I heard a gentleman asking the captain if a mayday signal had been sent out, to which he replied there had been, and yet a tanker that passed our ship didn't stop."
Cabaret entertainer Matthew Shaw, 19, stayed with the crew to help passengers escape and left on an inflatable dinghy with the last of the crew members. Retired school teacher Shirley McKiernon, from Buckinghamshire, said she was the first passenger to spot the fire. She said: "I was very, very frightened throughout and it was a terrible experience helping tired and frail people get on board our rescue ship from our lifeboat." She said the crew had told her there was nothing to worry about when she reported smoke from the main funnel.
Saga - the holiday company which caters for the over-55s - had 27 clients on board the vessel, which was on a five-night cruise taking in Penang, Phuket in Thailand, and Singapore. All but two of the Saga customers have decided to carry on with the land-based part of their 15-night holiday.
Holiday company Tradewinds had 62 people on board and at least half these are staying on in the Far East. A further 18 Britons were travelling with long-haul specialists Kuoni, six were with British Airways Holidays and two travelled with Hayes and Jarvis. With the initial shock of the sinking having passed, survivors have been recalling tales of courage and camaraderie. Ironic sense of humour They said passengers sang the theme tune from the film Titanic to keep their spirits up as they evacuated the ship. But some of the British holidaymakers arriving back in London on Saturday said they were not happy with the crew's response to the fire.
Sun Cruises has defended its handling of the sinking and the delay in sending a distress call. Public affairs director Judy Choo said: "If you see smoke it does not necessarily mean you have to evacuate. "It could be something else. If the chicken is burning in the kitchen, you don't need to evacuate." The International Maritime Organisation has expressed concern at the vessel's inability to extinguish the fire.
An official inquiry will look at all aspects of the sinking, including crew standards on the Bahamian-registered vessel. An oil slick from the sunken Sun Vista is heading towards the Malaysian resort of Penang. The slick stretches for 12 miles (19 km) north of where the ship went down on Thursday evening. An official at Malaysia's Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, Ahmad Othman, said: "The spill is moving northwards and at this rate it would hit Penang in a couple of days." He said the rescue centre was using "mechanical methods" rather than detergents to clean up the slick.