Thailand Tragedy at Sea

"This operation, they added staff from the Marine Corps and Air and Coastal Defense Command, about 30 people. This is why I think there were not enough life=jackets."

"We have not found any dead yet. The 31 sailors remain missing persons. We have not found anyone dead from where the incident occurred and from the search area."

Navy Commander Adm. Choengchai Chomehoengpset

"[A big wave] took me, threw me under the ship. The ship went vertical and pulled me down."

"I struggled to get up and held on to someone who had a life-jacket."

Ship sinking survivor

"The waves are still high and we cannot search for them from the horizontal line."

"We have to fly the helicopters and search for them from a bird's-eye view instead."

"Our top priority now is to rescue all the sailors. We will plan to have the ship salvaged later."

Adm. Pokkrong Monthatphalin, navy spokesman

Courtesy Royal Thai Navy

 

A Thai warship sank on Sunday and by Monday night 75 sailors from the HTMS Sukhothai corvette were rescued, while 31 were missing in the high waves that caused the accident in the Gulf of Thailand. The turbulence had decreased since the sinking on Sunday night, but waves remained high enough to endanger small boats. 

The warship had been deployed on patrol some 32 kilometres from the Bangsaphan district pier in Pachuap Khiri Khan province where it had been on a regular patrol for the purpose of lending assistance to any fishing vessels in distress. And that's when it turned out that the warship itself needed help and none, given the weather, was immediately forthcoming.

 

 

The country's Meteorological Department had issued a weather advisory for the area a few hours before the accident occurred. The advisory was meant to warn that waves in the Gulf of Thailand were expected to be 2 to 4 metres in height, accompanied by thunderstorms. All ships "proceed with caution" warned the advisory; small craft warned not to venture to sea until Tuesday.

The Sukkhothai had been built in a Tacoma, Washington shipyard and in 1987 was commissioned. It had a maximum displacement of 959 tons, with a length of 788 metres, roughly midsized for a corvette as an armed vessel typically in use to patrol close off-shore waters. 

On Sunday evening strong winds blew seawater onto the HTMS Sukhothai, knocking out its electrical system and making control of the ship difficult. Three frigates and two helicopters were dispatched by the navy, equipped with mobile pumping machines to try to assist the disabled ship, removing the seawater, but due to the strong winds the strategy could not be carried through.

With the loss of power, more seawater flowed into the vessel -- the cause of it listing and finally sinking. Sailors who were rescued spoke to the media, interviewed by Thai TV stations, from a makeshift rescue centre on shore. One of the sailors explained that he had to float in the sea for three hours before being rescued. The ship, he said, had been buffeted by waves three metres high, complicating rescue efforts.

 

Normally, the ship carried 87 crew and officers. Another survivor said that as the vessel was listing, the waves swept people away. Eleven of the rescued sailors were taken to hospital for treatment. The search was being conducted in a 15-square kilometre area surrounding the sinking site. Thailand's far southern area has been experiencing storms and flooding recently, while northern and central Thailand are in the throes of their coldest temperatures of the year.

 

Some survivors of the warship's sinking were found after hours at sea  Thai Navy, Twitter