Extreme weather: ship carrying 458 people capsizes in Yangtze River

[AndrewJin]

Several minutes ago, an 85-year-old woman was rescued.

 

[Roybot]

Grim news, RIP!

 

[AndrewJin]

The passenger list
实时更新：“东方之星”乘客名单和船员信息_央广网
The oldest is around 85 year old, the youngest is born in 2012.
Most passengers are born in 1940-1950, attending a 8-day Yangtze River Cruise. They finished visiting Red Cliff Battlefield and the tragedy happened when they were on their way to Jinzhou Ancient City.

 

[TaiShang]

Update: Weather reports say the ship capsized on Monday was overturned by a Beaufort 12 cyclone. Map below shows location of the accident.

Update: Chinese Navy sends over 140 diving soldiers for rescue mission in Jianli, Hubei

Ten facts in the 12 hours after ship capsizes in Yangtze River

1. Eleven people have been pulled from water, 10 of them alive. Three survivors have been sent to hospital. They are Tan Jian, 42; Cheng Lin, 50; and Jiang Kang, 37.

2. Rescuers are exploring the bottom of the ship where they have heard noises. Divers knocked on the ship wreck underwater and got reply from inside. After cutting through the bottom rescuers found two passengers trapped inside. A body has been retrieved believed to be of a tourist guide.

3. Seven people swam to the shore from the wreck site and alerted the police, according to the captain and crew members. Divers have arrived to carry out underwater search and rescue.

4. According to maritime experts, the first four hours is crucial to finding survivors. The current situation does not look very optimistic as 12 hours have passed since the passenger ship overturned.

5. The ship carried 458 people, with 406 domestic tourists, five travel agency workers and 47 crew members. 97 are from Shanghai, 204 from Jiangsu, 11 from Zhejiang, 43 from Tianjin, 23 from Shandong, 19 from Fujian and 8 from Anhui.

6. Since tourists did not purchase their tickets based on real names, it is difficult to get accurate information about passengers. It is believed that most of the passengers are seniors aged 50-80 organized by a travel agency from Shanghai. When the tragedy happened, most people onboard were about to sleep. The cruise tour was expected to last about 10 days at more than 2,000 yuan per ticket, according to relatives of the passengers.

7. The ship, named dongfangzhixing or Eastern Star, belongs to Chongqing Easter Shipping Company. It was headed to Chongqing from Nanjing. It is a mid-sized ship and is 76 meters long and 11 meters wide. It can resist wind up to level 10 on the Beaufort scale table. Initial investigations found that the ship was not overloaded and was equipped with life jackets. Those rescued all wore life jackets.

8. The ship is submerged upside down in 15-meter-deep water at Damazhou Waterway in Jianli county, Hubei province, about 301 kilometers from the shipping route at the middle reaches of Yangtze River.

9. Hubei issued the yellow alerts on rainstorms on the day the tragedy happened.

10. The State Council described the ship wreck as the Eastern Star Ship Wreck Caused by Strong Wind and Heavy Rains. Hubei provincial meteorological agencies said that radar analysis found the existence of a cyclone due to the fierce wind accelerated to level 12 on the Beaufort scale table in an instant.

 

[Aepsilons]

May Heaven shine forth mercy. Our prayers go out to our family and friends in China.

 

[VALKRYIE]

My condolences for the dead and missing.

 

[Götterdämmerung]

This is horrible, RIP to the dead and speedy recovery to the injured.

 

[Penguin]

Rivers are sometimes more terrible for vessels than seas, take the ferries that capsize all over South east Asia I wonder why? less salt content? @Penguin @Capt.Popeye

Overloading, most often, I would ASSUME. That and insufficient safety features, either in shipdesign or ship operations.

 

[Kylin]

Overloading, most often, I would ASSUME. That and insufficient safety features, either in shipdesign or ship operations.

The ship was designed for more than 500, less than 500 people was on board. The captain may have to bare some responsibility for not accurately assess the situation but rare and unpredictable weather phenomenon was the major reason.

 

[XiangLong]

So far from what I have heard, was that the captain + some 11 other survivors were able to swim safely ashore. From there on, authorities were notified and rushed to the scene. From what the police has been able to get from the captain himself, was that the ship was designed for some 536 people, of which a significant smaller number of people were on board at the time. So far, nothing indicates that there was any foul play. Although, I do know that the Chongqing-based ferry service was in a bad financial state.

 

[Penguin]

The ship was designed for more than 500, less than 500 people was on board. The captain may have to bare some responsibility for not accurately assess the situation but rare and unpredictable weather phenomenon was the major reason.

Yeah but what if all those on board go and stand on one side of the ship rather than spread out evenly (just hypthetically)?

 

[TaiShang]

Yangtze tragedy: 110 vessels deployed in massive rescue effort

A massive rescue effort is underway along a section of the Yangtze River in Hubei Province after a ship carrying over 450 people capsized and sank late on Monday night.

China’s Ministry of Transport has said that more than 3000 people and 110 vessels have been dispatched to save the passengers trapped inside ship.

The ministry added that over 180 divers are being deployed for the underwater search operations.

The ship, Eastern Star, was on its way from the eastern city Nanjing to Chongqing Municipality when it sank in a storm in the Jianli section of the Yangtze River.

Experts from the National Meteorological Administration confirmed on Tuesday that a cyclone had struck the area at the time the ship sank. So far, it is reported that only 14 people have been rescued, while five dead bodies have been recovered.

Most of the passengers are believed to be aged between 60 to 70 years. That along with the fact that over 20 hours have passed since the ship overturned is leading to fears that fatalities might significantly rise.

In a statement issued earlier in the day, Chinese President Xi Jinping had called for no efforts to be spared to rescue the passengers.

By the afternoon, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived at the site of the tragedy to oversee the rescue operations.

Li told rescuers to save the lives of the passengers at all costs, and urged local authorities to mobilize all forces for that purpose. He has also called for regular and transparent updates.

 

[Azizam]

Rest in peace.

 

[AndrewJin]

Yeah but what if all those on board go and stand on one side of the ship rather than spread out evenly (just hypthetically)?

It's a cruise. At that time(9pm) most people were in their cabin, 2-4 people per room. It all happened too fast, most people had no time for life jacket. And it was in a crazily rainy night, I was in the provincial capital, very extreme weather.

 

[TaiShang]

Divers test their limits in shipwreck rescue

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On the morning of Wednesday, June 3, several frogmen from the Chinese armed forces take a rest after pushing themselves to their limits in hours of stressful rescue dives. A total of 140 divers have been working day and night in search and rescue efforts after a passenger ship carrying 456 people sank on the Yangtze River Monday night.

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A diver plunges into river. A total of 140 frogmen from the Chinese armed forces have been working day and night in search and rescue efforts after a passenger ship carrying 456 people sank on the Yangtze River Monday night.

A diver plunges into river. A total of 140 frogmen from the Chinese armed forces have been working day and night in search and rescue efforts after a passenger ship carrying 456 people sank on the Yangtze River Monday night.