Marine Operation Force boat carrying the 22 survivors to the Rampayan jetty.
The capsized catamaran located by SAR team near Rampayan.
KOTA KINABALU: The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) rescued 22 people, including tourists, after their catamaran boat capsized off the coast of Kota Belud on Thursday evening.
MMEA Sabah and Labuan Regional Director First Admiral (Maritime) Mohd Zubil Mat Som said that all the passengers, including 12 Chinese tourists, four tour guides, four boat crew members and two local villagers, were picked up by a Royal Malaysian Police Marine Operation Force boat yesterday at about 8.30am.
“All the boat passengers and crew members have been rescued by search and rescue team around 8.30am. They are all safe,” he told a press conference at the MMEA headquarters here yesterday.
According to Mohd Zubil, the boat and its passengers were on the way back from Mantanani Island to Kuala Abai, Kota Belud.
“Investigation revealed that the boat departed about 3pm from Mantanani but about one hour later into their journey, the boat experienced a leak before it eventually sank,” he said.
Mohd Zubil said that the passengers were then left floating in their life jackets at sea for at least 16 hours before being rescued near Tanjung Dudar, some 24 nautical miles north of Kuala Abai yesterday morning.
He added that the MMEA was notified of the incident following an emergency call made from the boat, saying that there were problems on board.
“We were informed of the leak and the boat was taking in water and sinking,” said Mohd Zubil.
Due to the lack of information on the whereabouts of the boat, a search and rescue (SAR) operation was launched about 7.15pm on Thursday which involved five vessels, namely MMEA’s KM Memmon, KM Berani, Kilat 39 and Penyelamat 10, and the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) KD Ganas.
Mohd Zubil said that the skipper of the boat made contact with the MMEA about 10pm again on Thursday night using one of the Chinese tourists’ handphone after the boat’s communication tools were no longer usable.
“The boat had already capsized by then but all passengers were accounted for as we have advised them to stay together by tying themselves together with ropes.
“The skipper also informed us that they are near Beting Rampayan, near Kampung Rampayan Laut and all of them are accounted for. However, at that time, we were informed that there were 24 of them,” he said.
Mohd Zubil said that he then directed the search vessels to scour the area as reported by the skipper.
“There was some miscommunication with the skipper as he was already disoriented in the dark. We fired up flares that lit the sky and the skipper acknowledged seeing the flares but due to vague directions given by the skipper, we could not locate him.
According to Mohd Zubil, search and rescue at sea in the night was difficult especially when search was done using a boat, the height of eye was low and the darkness made it more difficult to locate a missing person as only his or her head was above the surface of water.
Mohd Zubil then said that communications with the skipper were lost after 11pm, but various other agencies have started to deploy their assets to conduct the SAR operation.
He said that the MMEA itself had a helicopter on standby in Tawau and flew to Kota Kinabalu early yesterday morning to assist in the SAR mission.
The Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) C-130 aircraft, a Royal Malaysian Police Air Wing Cessna aircraft and several vessels from the Marine Operation Force (MOF) also took part in the SAR at first light yesterday.
“The Penyelamat 10 vessel found the sunken boat about 6am this morning (yesterday) near Rampayan and about two hours later, about 8.10am, the passengers of the capsized boat were spotted near Tanjung Dudar, some four nautical miles away from the boat’s location, by the police’s Cessna aircraft.
“They were then picked up by an MOF vessel and arrived at the Rampayan jetty slightly after 9am where they were immediately attended to by medical personnel before they were brought to the Kota Belud hospital,” he said.
Mohd Zubil also said that all passengers were reported to be safe albeit exhausted.
He added that later checks confirmed that only 22 of them were involved instead of the 24 as earlier reported by the skipper.
However, he said that a thorough investigation would be conducted into the matter as he did not rule out the possibility that the boat overloaded.
“When a boat is overloaded, and when faced with bad weather as it did when it capsized, it is more vulnerable to problems,” said Mohd Zubil, adding that at the time of the incident, waves were reported to be between 2.5 to 3.5 metres high with winds of up to 50kph.
The SAR was called off at 10am yesterday when all the passengers arrived safely at the Rampayan Jetty.
Also present during the press conference was Naval Region 2 Commander Rear Admiral Datuk Khairul Anuar Yahya.
Meanwhile, Mohd Zubil also expressed his gratitude and appreciation to the other agencies that took part in the SAR operation.