2017 Mengalum Island boat accident
[13] Local authorities said the Chinese tourist survivors has been adrift in the sea for 10–30 hours but did not give any explanation for the cause of the tragedy.
According to one survivor, Fan Li Xia, she and other passengers held onto the body of a dead friend for as long as they could while treading water.
[13] Most of the survivors are treated in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu and were traumatised over the incident with counselors and psychiatrists have been appointed to help them.
[14] The authorities also explained to media that the chance to get the remaining missing victims alive are decreasing as the life vests they wearing cannot last up to six days in addition to the extreme cold and heat in the sea.
The boat was designed and built in 2007–2008 for a research project in eastern Sabah waters of Semporna belonged to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), with a local name of "kahumbu" in Bajau language.
In his statement, the diver said: I saw the catamaran being towed after water had leaked into its hull while carrying passengers to Sapi Island sometime last year.
[10] On 31 January, the number of missing victims are revised to six (including one boat crewman) from earlier reports which stated there are two passenger with duplicate names.
[11] One missing victim are found on 4 February are confirmed as one of the unidentified woman passenger (later identified as Yang Jia Yi).
[23] Most of the victims are found in weak conditions with they being huddling together in rough waters in their life vests and forming human chains.
[24] The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) said the search area has been expanded by about four times from 1,500 to 2,400 square nautical miles of the South China Sea off the Sabah state to find the remaining victims.
[5][7][25][26] A Brunei oil company of Shell Petroleum Co Sdn Bhd (BSP) and Chinese authorities also participated in the search.
The Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) with four vessels: KD Ganas, KD Serang, CB 203 and CB 204, the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) with a C130 aircraft and the Marine Police has deployed four vessels, such as the PA 12, RH 29, RH 51 and PSC 1, and its Air Unit, two helicopters, the 9M-PHH and 9M-PHK.
[28] Until 30 January, the other victims still cannot be found as the search mission faces challenges due to rough sea condition and strong wind for the monsoon season, but the Malaysian authorities give assurance to Chinese counterpart that the issues were not the excuses and problem for them to stop their operations.
[43] This was also supported by the Tanjung Aru Baru village committee chief leader, Matsah Sahat who expressed a similar view on the issue on which he photograph the approval letter given by the state government as evidence to local media.
The village community chief added the tour company pays RM1,000 a month to the committee for the use of the jetty, and employs some 15 locals to work as boatmen and security guards, as stipulated by the agreement.
The overloading of passengers also happened at Jesselton Pier, and I was vigilant about keeping safety standards, including using an engineering consultant to check on it.
[43]Due to the tragedy, the pier with benches and table from which the boat depart has been demolished by the Kota Kinabalu City Hall and all tourism activities in the jetty has been stopped immediately.
[45] Despite a warning to stop further activities, the business going as usual for the boat operators in Tanjung Aru according to the Sabah Tourism Assistant Minister.
[1] The probe previously found that weak law enforcements and laws that being broken as the main cause of the tragedy in addition to the boat being wrongly depart during rough sea conditions with the State Tourism Assistant Minister told that “the probe found almost all boat operators in the area did not have proper licences with the tragedy should serves as a reminder to everyone”.
[1][2] 13 March has been fixed for the re-mention of the case with the catamaran boat owner Leong Vin Jee received six charges.
[52] Leong together with two other: Chung Ket Siew, the catamaran tour company owner and Sharezza Salian, one of the surviving boat skipper were slapped with various charges for negligence.
[53] On 7 April, families of the tourists victims have engaged their lawyers to file petitions claiming for compensation from involved quarters, including the tour operator.
The duo were jailed for two years while Chung being placed on a two-year good behaviour bond with all three were also ordered to pay a cost of RM3,000.
[74] The party president was appalled with the family current situation and feel that locals should have been given the same attention as the other victims who are mostly foreign tourists.
