PHUKET: Three navy boats left port on Thursday morning to retrieve the body of the 47th and final victim from the tour boat Phoenix, which overturned and sank last Thursday.
HTMS Thonglang, HTMS Hua Hin and HTMS Panyi departed from tambon Wichit at 5.45am with navy divers, local rescuers and their Chinese counterparts. It was raining slightly and waves were 2-3 metres high.
Officials would stick to their old plan at the location of the sunken vessel. Divers would use blowers to clear sand away from under the shipwreck in two dives, and then free the trapped body. Chinese divers would bag the body and bring it to the surface.
Eighty-nine tourists plus guides and crew were aboard when the tour boat capsized off Phuket last Thursday, almost all of them Chinese nationals. Forty-seven tourists died; 46 bodies have been recovered to date.
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