PHUKET: A religious ceremony was conducted to console the spirits of dead passengers in a recent tour boat tragedy while the search resumed for two people still missing on Wednesday.
The Buddhist ceremony took place at the Ao Chalong pier early Wednesday morning to bring peace for the spirits of the dead and boost the morale of the grieving relatives present along with local and Chinese authorities.
The navy deployed divers to the location where the Phoenix capsized off Koh He to retrieve a body trapped under the shipwreck. Officials also conducted patrols to search for two people still missing.
Noraphat Plodthong, governor of Phuket, said the death toll was at 45 and 43 bodies had been identified. Forty-two people survived the sinking of the tour boat. Most of the passengers on the Phoenix were Chinese tourists.
Funerals were being organised at local Buddhist temples on the instructions of relatives, he said.
(Video YouTube/TomoNews US)
RAdm Charoenphol Khumrasee, deputy commander of the 3rd Fleet, said searches for missing people were continuing in the sea off Krabi, Phangnga and Satun provinces, based on the location of the latest two bodies recovered near Phi Phi island in Krabi.
Puripat Teerakulpisut, a regional director of the Marine Department, said the two missing people might be trapped under the shipwreck, and that the careful movement of the wreck would take time.
Mr Puripat said the boat was 45 metres under water. A crane would be imported from Malaysia and scuba divers would assist in attempts to move the boat.
It would take 10 days to prepare the equipment and the salvage would take 15 days. Concerned officials would carefully set the shipwreck upright and pump water out of it. They would try their best to preserve evidence, Mr Puripat said.
The Phoenix sank in rough seas off Phuket last Thursday together with a yacht and a jet ski nearby. Forty-one people from the two latter boats were rescued.
Video shows the chaotic moment survivors of a capsized boat off the coast of Phuket, Thailand were rescued at sea. https://t.co/aauU5aiExA pic.twitter.com/fHSIBOUPc9
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