Marine expert says ferry accidents like the one on Macau-Hong Kong route are unavoidable
"Unless you sail in a pool, there will always be trash," former ship captain says little can be done to prevent maritime accidents caused by floating junk
Little can be done to prevent maritime accidents caused by floating junk similar to a high-speed ferry crash on Sunday, a maritime expert and former ship captain says.
“There are so many people living in the Pearl River Delta area. Unless you’re sailing in a swimming pool, you would never be sailing in waters free of trash,” said Tony Yeung Pui-keung, a training master who used to instruct captains plying the Hong Kong-Macau sea route on which Sunday’s accident happened.
The smash involved a high-speed jetfoil returning from Macau and left 124 of the 174 people on board injured. It is the latest in a series of such accidents in recent years.
“Even if it [trash] was as small as a 20cm nylon thread, it would be dangerous if it hit the water pump of a vessel sailing at high speed,” said Yeung, who before his retirement earlier this year was the manager of the local Maritime Services Training Institute.
READ MORE: Rubber tyre floating in sea suspected of causing Macau-Hong Kong high-speed ferry crash that injured 124 passengers
A jetfoil sails higher than four metres above sea level, he said, and if the vessel was “tripped over”, it would tumble and throw passengers out of their seats as was the case on Sunday.
On Monday, a rubber tyre was seen floating near the crash site and taken for examination. The Marine Department said yesterday that initial investigation showed the tyre was not linked to the case.
While 99 of the 124 injured passengers and crew had been discharged as of yesterday , six remained in serious condition while the others were stable. The injured were being treated at three hospitals.
READ MORE: 'Everyone was bleeding': at least 100 injured as high-speed Macau ferry slams into unknown object near Lantau Island
Yeung said the Marine Department’s “Water Witch” rubbish-collecting vessels would not be able to rid the open sea of rubbish due to their low height and the fact many dangerous kinds of floating trash were often half or fully submerged, making them difficult to spot.
Crew training and operations on the Hong Kong-Macau route were adequate, he said. For example, conversations between crew at night were recorded so they could be passed on to investigators after an accident.
Lo Kok-keung, a fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology, also saw little scope to prevent such accidents.
While all vessels on the route had radar, it could not detect smaller floating objects.
Installation of underwater sonar devices on the jetfoils would not be economically viable, he added, nor would replacing aluminium with steel in the vessel’s body, as speed would be compromised due to steel’s heavier weight.
In addition to improving rubbish collection at sea, Lo said the most effective way to keep the problem in check would be to have stricter law enforcement targeting those who dumped rubbish at sea.
