Thread: Dive boat sinks off Phuket, 7 missing

Police patrol boat TOR 221 and the Royal Thai Navy Third Command along with staff from the charity foundation of Kusoltham brought to shore a body of a woman found about 20 kilometres away from the popular sunset view point of Promthep Cape on the south side of Phuket Island. The body was believed to be one of the missing Austrian divers. The Phuket Governor Preecha Rungjan held a meeting with all related agencies to get up-dates, instructing search and rescue teams to speed up operations searching for 6 other missing people, then yesterday afternoon he went on a navy plane to get an aerial view of the location where the diving boat is believed to be sunk. A so-called war room acting as centre of command and information has also been set up at the provincial hall to provide any information and assistance survivors or families of tourist divers may need. A representative from Dive Asia Company told the meeting that experienced scuba divers and special equipment have been sent out to assist the search. Benno Brandon, a Director of Dive Asia Co, told Andaman News earlier that the boat was well equipped and only 4 months old. He said it had proper radio and radar communications, but the accident occurred swiftly and in the dark plus a rainy storm or freak wind.
Officials from Austrian and Japanese Embassies came down to Phuket to look after their affected citizens. Some German and Austrian survivors requested to return to their countries and the Tourist Police have reportedly arranged with Immigration officials to facilitate convenient journeys for them. At 8am today, the Royal Thai Navy has sent up a helicopter to continue searching the area.
We also got a report that on Sunday March 8th, a local fishing boat sank near Bon Island just south of Rawai, on the south side of Phuket. There were three people on board and one is still missing.




Now we have an update on the fate of scuba divers who went missing after their boat sank in Thailand's waters. Thai authorities have recovered five bodies, and identified one as a tourist from Austria. Two people remain missing.
Thai authorities identified the body of 51-year-old Gabrielle Jetzinger.

Four other bodies were recovered on March 11 and two tourists remaim missing.

Jetzinger's body was recovered on March 10 16 kilometres from the shore of Phuket, in Thailand, near where the boat capsized on its return from well-known diving site of Similan.

Her husband came from Austria and identified his wife after seeing some of Jetzinger's belongings. The four other bodies were recovered inside the boat but could not be identified.


The missing include Japanese, Swiss and Austrian nationals and a Thai cook. Some 23 people, mainly foreigners, were rescued after being found
drifting on a life raft. Phuket and the Similan island are well-know tourist destinations, especially for divers.

Police said the navy and marine police are continuing to search for the missing tourists.

The boat was hit by strong winds and waves and sank on Sunday March 8.




The Thai navy is searching for six foreign tourists missing at sea after their boat sank in heavy seas near the southern resort island of Phuket.

A Thai crewman is also unaccounted for.

The boat, carrying 30 people on board, lost contact on its return from a well-known dive site off the Similan islands on Sunday night.

The tour company alerted the authorities when it failed to return to port.

Naval and police vessels searching the area found 23 people drifting on a life raft, 19 kilometres (12 miles) off the coast.

They included the boat's skipper.

[Chatree Leechuay, Boat Captain]:
"It was very stormy last night and the waves were very big."

The missing include two Swiss, two Austrians, a German and a Japanese.

Naval and police boats, backed by helicopters, are scouring the seas for the missing passengers and crewman.

Phuket is Thailand's biggest island, and one of the kingdom's top tourist resorts, attracting scuba divers from around the world.




Four more bodies of foreign divers were discovered in the sunken boat in Phuket while the family of an Austrian diver collected the body from hospital.




The Austrian Consul from Bangkok led the family of Gabrielle Jetzinger, who died in the boat accident in Phuket on Sunday night, to collect her body from Wachira Hospital in Phuket city on Wednesday morning. Mrs. Jetzinger was among seven people who were missing after the accident. Her body was found on Tuesday morning. After that the family was led to Phuket police for legal procedures and to confirm her belongings such as a watch and ring. A TAT official in Phuket said the family wishes to have a simple Buddhist service for her in Phuket. Meanwhile Japanese Embassy officials are also working with police to have the family of a victim confirm the identification according to police processes yesterday afternoon. At about 4 pm yesterday Andaman News also got confirmation from Phuket Governor Mr. Preecha Ruangjan that scuba diving teams from Dive Asia have discovered the sunken boat with four people trapped in their cabins. Two were believed to be Austrian and two were Swiss nationals. The team however has to wait until this morning (Thursday) to recover the bodies from the boat due to its bad condition. This leaves two people missing: one Thai and one Japanese. This morning 4 scuba divers and staff from Kusoltham Foundation left Rasada port with a marine police boat TOR 814 to rescue the 4 bodies. It is expected to be a tough job due to the deep water.