Philippine ferry disaster off Leyte

Yet another ferry accident.

A Philippine ferry capsized earlier today just after leaving Ormoc.

CNN Report << Link

Ahh just deleted my post regarding this. Seems you posted a minute before me Dave. Happens all too often in my opinion. Not all end up in disaster but there is a lot of collisions

Yes, not the safest way to travel.

I caught the Cebu-Ormoc ferry on a few occasions many years ago, hardly inspired confidence.

Looks like 20% fatality in this case.

RIP to those who died, and respects to those affected.

My wife has just told me that my sister-in-law's mother died in the tragedy. I believe this is a list of some of the dead. My sister-in-law's mother is on that list...

So sad.
200 people on a commercial pump boat

Travel in the Philippines is fraught with danger, its about minimising your exposure to the risks. Obviously though this is how a lot of people travel round the philippines, I would say a 20% fatality rate is a touch on the high side for travelling somewhere though!! This seriously needs looking at. Trouble is its the same in alot of countries from egypt going east.

RIP to those that never made it.

I heard most of the casualties are young ones.

What gets me is not the big ferries, but seeing all the local people that get crammed into the small boats.

I remember taking Jollibee down to the harbour in Tacloban with my ex. Her relatives and 20 or 30 other people, perhaps more, were crammed onto a little tarpaulin covered motor boat for a trip of about 21 hours as I remember.

Almost makes Cebu Pacific seem civilised!

The Philippine Government does not learn or does not care about these all too frequent ferry/boat disasters, until something is done to regulate the business then we will continue to hear of these tragedies.

It is a crying shame

Such a shame!

Because of impending bad weather, there were no sailings available from Cebu to Ormoc, so my in-laws had to travel by plane from Mactan Cebu to Tacloban and then travel across Leyte to get to Ormoc. There were many coffins lined up on the ship which then took the bodies to Camotes.

The ship they used to transport the bodies was the one that my wife normally uses to travel the Cebu - Ormoc route, so she has said she will never travel on that ship again. I won't dissuade her and told her she must use FastCat as they have never had any fatalities.

My sister-in-law's mum's body is now at home with all her family and, in true Filipino tradition, the casket is open for anyone of any age to see. My sister-in-law was visibly upset in the photo I saw.

I never met the lady but, by all accounts, she was a fantastic grandmother, a grandmother that still worked in her own business. She had travelled the Camotes - Ormoc route for many years, buying supplies for her business.

I think I will be buying a life-jacket for my wife now.

Thanks Jim, I have done that.

This harrowing account from someone on board was just published recently on an local expat forum..

Myself, my wife and my mother in law were on the Kim Nir Vana ferry when it over tuned in Ormoc bay. The events that lead to the accident are as follows. I boarded the ferry at 10am for our return trip to Camotes because the ferry leaves at noon and I like a certain seat on the ferry, its upstairs on the left side first seat The seats farther back are Filipino size with no leg room so I like the front seat. The ferry only had about 8 people on it at that time and maybe 2 sacks of rice.

My wife and mother in-law were still out shopping so I placed a few bags on the seat behind me to save it for her. People started to arrive and more cargo was siting on the road waiting to be loaded. They place it all along the road to see how much there will have to try to balance the load.

At around 11am they started to load the ferry and it was really filling up with passengers. There are 3 ferries that service the island but 2 were broke down so everyone was on this ferry. At 11:45am the coast guard came aboard and like always went straight for the bridge where the captain is. A coast guard officer came back out and did a head count and said something about life jackets. The crew then handed out about 10 life jackets for us upstairs and there were around 80 people up there. I had a life jacket but I just held it in my arms. The coast guard came out of the bridge and i saw him roll up the manifest and put it in his pants pocket. They went off the ferry and the plank was brought in.

The ferry started to go backwards to retrieve the anchors. The ferry turned to the right while backing up like it always does. The anchors were hoisted up and off we were. The ferry then started to turn left while traveling forward to head to the island when all of a sudden something made a big snap noise, a large wave hit the left front of the ferry and the left front of the ferry started to rise.

I jumped out of my seat and wet to the very front of the ferry befor the bridge with a few more crew members and tried to balance out the ferry, we were very unsuccessful. The ferry did a bow up and roll to the right. It took from when the left front rose to being upside down in 5-7 seconds max. Once I was under the boat I swam out with my family to the surface, swam to the light of course.

We surfaced and I still was holding my life jacket for about 10 seconds until a man grabbed it out of my hands. We swam to the the outriggers to have something to hold on to. While I made sure my family was OK I heard a girl scream to me to grab her mom who was floating by face up, I grabbed her and brought her up against me. My wife grabbed her legs and held on to her. The women had foam coming out her nose and mouth. First thing i did was wipe off her face and did mouth to mouth on her about 5-7 blows stopped and did a few chest compression but in the water that's almost useless, I did a few more blows mouth to mouth and turned her head and she threw up some water and her eyes began to open. They were both rolled up into the top of her head but then began to roll down.

While this is going on I see a little boy floating by but under the water and I saw his yellow shirt, I grabbed him by his shirt collar and when he came to the surface he let out a scream. I handed him over to my wife and mother in law and they squeezed him in between them to keep him safe. The women started to come around and then could hold onto my belt. While doing all this the 3-4 foot waves were knocking us all over. I had my legs wrapped around the submerged outriggers. The girls daughter than swam over to us and we all just held onto each other until the rescue boats came.

The first boat to arrive was another large ferry that really couldn't do **** except trow life jackets and rings in to the water. A life jackets was thrown to us and I put it on the women. A few more small fishing boats came and took a few people and about 25-30 minutes later the coast guard started showing up. They started to retrieve the dead before the ones that were still alive. I of course yelled to them that they are dead, take the live ones first, he yelled back "they are people to", I said no **** but they are dead, dead is dead, soon more of the alive will be dead.

Finally a few more coast guard boats came and I handed off the women to them and the little boy. They gave me another life jacket and I placed it on the girls daughter. I then figured out she was very pregnant. Another rescue boat came and took her. My family and 2 others were the last alive that were taking off the ferry. The only one still there was the captain who was down to his briefs squatting on the top of the ferry crying. He and the crew were helping everyone. I saw him go into the water and pull many people to the outrigger. I saw around 6-8 dead bodies floating around where we were. The scene was panic to say the least.

A Canadian passenger was swimming when all of a sudden 2 guys grabbed him to try and save them selves and pulled him under water, they grabbed him my his pants but then his pants fell off and he surfaced but the 2 other guys did not. He was rescued in a tie shirt only, he doesn't were briefs he said. Once on land it was to total cluster feck. That story is next.





I just want to add that I am NO HERO, I was just a guy at the right place at the right time. I would hope anyone that could help someone does just that.

Very graphic detailing of his experience. A moments pause for the poor souls that didn't make it, sad indeed. The foam at the mouth I have seen before and is a sign of water in the lungs.

R.I.P.