http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/...a-crew-distress
MANILA – Three people were killed and more than 700 were rescued after passenger ship SuperFerry 9 listed before sinking off the Zamboanga Peninsula early Sunday morning, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) reported.

As of 10:30 a.m., reports said 714 people, three of them were injured, have been rescued but at least 200 passengers remain missing.

More than 500 passengers are now onboard onsite rescue vessels PN117, MV Ocean Integrity and MV Myriad, an advisory issued by the Aboitiz Transport System (ATS) said.

The PCG, meanwhile, is still trying to confirm the identity of the fatalities. PCG Zamboanga City station commander Abdulahid Utulam said two of the three people who died were: “isang bata at isang matanda (one was young, one was old).”

The ship was carrying 847 passengers and 117 crew members, stated Jess Supan, vice-president for Safety and Security of SuperFerry. Among them were 28 crew of Star Cinema ABS-CBN Film Productions, Inc.

Search and rescue operations are ongoing. The Philippine Navy and PCG in Zamboanga City have dispatched their vessels while the Philippine Air Force sent two choppers for the rescue operation.

Supan said the evacuation of passengers has been orderly. He added that there is a good chance all those on board the ferry will be rescued as all passengers have been given life vests. He added that the sea was calm.

The rescued passengers are expected to be brought to the Zamboanga City port area on Sunday where they will be given assistance by the SuperFerry management.

Abandon ship

The Iloilo-bound SuperFerry 9 left General Santos City at 8:45 a.m. Saturday.

The Superferry 9 issued a distress signal early Sunday as it tilted in heavy seas, authorities said. Around 2 .m., the ship’s captain, Jose Yap, told the passengers to abandon ship as a precautionary measure after the vessel tilted to the right.

Alvin Desta, one of the passengers and an employee of Star Cinema, called dzMM and said many of the passengers were roused from their sleep after they felt the ship tilt.

The Star Cinema crew on board the ship also included its art department staff. Tess Fuentes, operations director of Star Cinema, said the crew came from a shooting in General Santos City. The Star Cinema crew brought with them equipment, vehicles and costumes.

At 3 a.m., Fuentes said she received a call saying that all of the passengers had already been given life jackets.

The ship tilted around 35 degrees and not 45 degrees as earlier reported by a passenger. Authorities disclosed that some people "had jumped into the water in panic" as the ship was listing, the Agence-France Presse reported.

Hours later, authorities announced that SuperFerry 9 has already sunk in the vicinity of Batarompon Pt., West of Zamboanga Peninsula.

Utulam noted that the ship was 14 nautical miles away from Bangga Point in Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte and 50 nautical miles away (roughly five hours) from Zamboanga City when the incident occurred.

Cause unknown

According to Utulam, some SuperFerry 9 passengers said they did not hear any explosion inside the ship. It just tilted all of a sudden.

Supan noted that he does not know why the ship tilted, adding that an investigation will be conducted thereafter.

PCG commandant Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo said in an interview with dzMM that the weather was good when the ship left General Santos City. He declined to speculate what caused the ship to tilt.

Tropical storm Labuyo (international code name: Dujuan) has heightened the seasonal southwest monsoon winds, bringing rough weather across the country, according to the weather bureau PAGASA.

Deadly accidents are common especially during the typhoon season in the middle of the year.

Ferries, from large steel-hulled ones such as the Superferry 9 to small wooden dugouts with bamboo outriggers, form the backbone of mass transport in the archipelagic nation of 92 million people.

The world's deadliest peacetime maritime disaster occurred south of Manila in 1987 when a ferry laden with Christmas holidaymakers collided with a small oil tanker, killing more than 3,000 people. –With reports from ANC, radio dzMM, RJ Rosalado of ABS-CBN News Zamboanga, Ricky Velasco of radio dzMM, and Agence France- Presse

the Superferry 9...unusual passenger ship design

My sister is one of the survivors, she just called and told my surprised parents that she was aboard this ship on her way back to Iloilo after attending the wedding of her officemate.

She said that it was sudden, she slid off her bunk when the ship listed. There was no storm, the sea was just moderate, she was sound asleep when the ship listed and she slid off her bunk.

According to her there was no coordinated effort on the part of the crew to evacuate the passengers, some of the crew did assist but others also abandoned ship ahead of the passengers!

We're just happy that she survived.

As I see it the SHIP'S DESIGNS tends to easily tilt.

It was a ship that was meant to sink from the start.

It is possible that Aboitiz compromised the design just to increase passenger capacity.

The taller the ship and the more weigh at the upper decks tend to lower the stability of the ship.

The ship's submerged bottom and the weight of that submerged bottom helps the recover from the usual tilting.

That principle works best when the weight is centered on the middle (across the bow and stern) of that submerged buttom. But when the center of the weight destroyed or it shifited to either of the sides, that stability becomes unstable.

Add to that the weight of the passengers on top.

When the weight at the bottom part shifted to its right, the weight of upper deck that tilted to the right pushed the ship to fall on its right.

The pull of the unbalanced weight below worked together with the pushing of the weight of the upper decks.

One passenger even said that ship was tilting even before it left the port. From these i believe that the cargoes at the bottom was not stacked properly. The weight was uneven. Also, a heavy cargo or the combination of lighter cargo that shifted to the right when the waves tilted the ship a bit started the tragedy. The uneven weight at the cargo bay at the bottom caused an instabvility and further tilted the ship. Then the faulty ship design (too many top decks / too much height / plus passenger weights ) helped pushed the ship to its side.



But as you can see the ship didnt sink instantly when it tilted. This is because when the sugmerged part increased, it helped stabilize the tilting.

But unfortunately, water started to get in and lowered the bouyancy gradually until it finally sank.

The bottomline, the modified ship's design is faulty as per my simple assessment.

Its a combo ship for passenger/cargo configuration. I believe the design is safe enough or else it would not be declared seaworthy or would have sunk a few days after launch.

Either the hull developed a leak or cargo shifted .

The question is, CAN WE TRUST MARINA ON THIS?

We have to consider the fact that corruption is not an unusual thing in the govt.

Imagine, the Aboitiz wanting to expedite the approval of the ship's design and clearance?

How much was the money that changed hands under the table?

The thing is, if MARINA will simply clear the case and not conduct a thorough invesgtigation and come up with a BELIEVABLE RESULT, then the red tape angle is worth looking into.

Anybody in his right mind will clearly see that if it was a good design, the ship will simply pull back to its center even when tilting badly.

But since the design was changed or the margin for safety on the design was exhuasted just to accommodate more passenger decks, the ship gave in to the slightest of expected scenarios like tilting due to an improperly placed or stacked cargoes in its cargo bays.

It is just unfortunate that the Philippine Maritime fleet suffered another total loss. Although it is good to say that this tragedy is way better than the sinking of Dona Paz and Princess of the Stars due to less numbers of casualty and also considering the weather for search and rescue operations, it should create an eye opener to look deeply into what has transpired and what lessons are learned from all the tragedies. It is just ironic that most sea tragedies occured in the Philippines just went into statistics, but no corrective actions were ever implemented into preventing such mishaps in the future. There are so many Interntional conventions and standards already in place in the owrld shipping, but I think our local shipping industry is yet to implement it, or enforcement is lacking. One significant convention that needs to be implemented in the ISM Code, that provides guidelines on how governments, companies, and their ships can safely operate. This code comes hand in hand with the SOLAS regulations. The government of he Philippines must now step boldly into enhanced implementation of safety and envirnonmental protection codes to our local shipping. They should now put the right people with right knowledge and expertise in the right maritime positions of responsiblities, instead of putting "political appointees" without maritime and shipping knowledge.

Semper Paratus!!!

The explanation presented by the captain is unbelievable.

I've rode ships of the same size that was being hit by typhoon winds much much stronger than 10 knots.

The waves that hit the ship would shoot up even above the deck's height.

There was tilting. That beating started at the mouth of Manila Bay and ended when it got out of the Mindoro Straight.

But the ship was like riding as if it was graciously dancing with the ocean waves.

The ship was one of the Gothong Lines then that was stationed at pier 10, if im not mistaken.

Is it the "MV Our Lady of Sacred Heart"?

Now, compare the design of that ship to the Super Ferry 9.

Also, the Superferry was tilting even before it left port. So, THERE WAS NEGLIGENCE OR COMPLACENCY ON THE PART OF THE SHIP CREW.

They should have fixed the ballast even before it left port.

Normally, strong winds and big waves and improperly stacked cargoes will still not be enough to bring it down.

The ballast when filled with water will submerged the ship a little down further to keep it's center of gravity and have a stronger stability. This will stabilize the ship and will help the ship to easily pull back to its center when hit by big waves or strong winds.

Also, the height of the ship is lessened which further stabilizes the ship since the correct center of the gravity is maintained more easily.

With the Superferry, the height was compromised for more passenger decks.

The tilting was not immediately fixed while the ship was still docked or while it was still at calm waters.

As for the chains, i believed either some were not really chained or the chain was not enough to hold the vans when the initial tilting happened.

To summarize;

1.) The initial tilt was not fixed even while docked or at calmer waters.

2.) 10 knot wind pushed the ship to tilt even more.

3.) The tilt moved some unsecured vans or cargo to move to one side of the cargo bay.

4.) The unbalanced ballast tank pushed the ships bottom up, while the weight of towering decks further pushed to ship to fall to its side.

5) Then,.... DISASTER.

If i would compare the scenatio to the Superferry i would slap the captain in total disbelief that a 10 knot wind overwhelmed the giant ship.

It all, there was negligence that triggered the disaster.

But in general, it's MARINA's fault from the start since it allowed a wrongly designed passenger ship to set sail.

The ship's design now was not the original, I suspect.

Also, in case the design is proven safe, then it's negligence on the part of the crew in fixing the tilting even before the collaboration of negative factors managed to take its toll on the ship.

:btt: I am not sure how and where did the Master (Captain) got his statements that it was the wind ( and my gosh...we are only talking about a 10 knots wind speed) this is even less than a "Sea Breeze" when you are near a shore. If we are talking about a gale force wind or more, that will be quite reasonable, but on a stable ship, whatever forces are acting on it, it will always be upright. I have nothing against the Master, nor I would like to questions his competence, but as a Licensed Master Mariner myself, his reasons are really unfounded.

Just as a basic Seamanship knowledge, ships regardless if size and shape, are subject to several forces acting on it. Some of the natural forces of Physics that are acting on a ship are Bouyant Force and Gravitational Force, while the internal physical forces moving longtitudinal along the hull are the shear forces and bending moments, and on a transverse situation will be the metacentric force. I am not going to elaborate further on the longtitudinal forces as when a ship list, it is always the trasnverse forces acting on it. In a layman's term, in order to balance (Stability) out a vessel, despite several external forces acting on it (Wind, waves, curent, gravity, internal weight..etc) for as long as the relationship between Gravity and the transverse metacenter of the vessel remains positive (GM) it will not capsize. A vessel will tilt/cpasize if the so called GM becomes negative. The factors that can easily affect the GM are internal movement of weights/cargo of vessel, and from time to time the external forces. A situation of negative GM is always contributed when a vessel is in a tender condition where the weights are placed above the metacenter of the vessel. Of course, this can be countered by placing a greater weight below the metacenter. From what I discussed, one assessment that I can provide regarding the capsizing of the SF 9 is a movement of a dynamic weight inside the vessel. From the looks of it, as the vessel is a combination of roll on roll off, container, passenger vessel, it might have been involved in cargo shifting that contributes its list.

Bottom line, the possibility is that Master and Chief Mate did not practice proper cargo stowage, and trim stability calculations prior to departure. There might be other reasons like possible failure to secure loading doors that possibly provide water ingress, but all in all, summing up reasons, it is more of a Human Error, than a force majeure. We cannot blame it on the design, as the vessel had been in service for quite a while.

Just my ten cents............Semper Paratus.....OOOOHHHRRRAAAHH!!!!

Semper P;


I am very thankful for your contribution on this particular discussion.

You have given us all the better understanding and clue to the mystery shrouding the S9 disaster.

Before i proceed let me emphasize that I am writing this reply simply because I wanted to get your reaction on this to understand the case better and with due respect to your status.

I would have not dared question the design of the ship since these ships were built and design by experts. Probably Janapese technology. The only reason why i have a doubt is that this ship had undergone remodelling to suit Aboitiz needs.

That might have included redesigning the top layers of the ship to carry more passengers.

If the ship had been redesigned, as it would have been under the usual practice of local businessmen in their attempt to maximize profit even if it compromises passenger safey, the stability of the ship with regard to the metacenter has been greatly lessened.

I believe the problem started with the improperly stacked cargo and the failure of the crew to balance the weight by working on the ships "ballast tanks" to counter the tilting or listing.

When the ship entered rough waters and hit by wind shears, the already unstable ship listed even further.

Now, the weight of the (heavy) upper decks started to push the ship to list even more.

Worse, the ballasts that was still filled with air that (and has less weight, the shape itself tells us which part is heavier, than the upper part of the ship) comprises the lower part of the ship.

Now, with all the negative factors working together, the downward push of the heavy upperdecks, and the upward push of the lighter bottom brought the ship down.

The S9 would have been saved had the crew fixed the ballast while still is clamer waters.

Adjusting the draft, (submerging the ships bottom to stabilize it) woud have given the ship the better fighitng chance against wind forces and the waves, including the sudden tiltings.

To summarize, the S9 succumbed to the collaboration of negative factors when a HUMAN ERROR gave the FAULTY DESIGN the trigger it needed.

Let's see the photo below;



top: upward thrust of buoyancy (B ) and downward thrust of gravity (G ) allow a stable ship to right itself when heeled

bottom: with a metacenter (M ) below gravity, forces of gravity and buoyancy are further apart and will cause an unstable ship to capsize when heeled





Reference:

METACENTER:
The intersection of vertical lines through the center of buoyancy of a floating body when it is at equilibrium and when it is floating at an angle. The location of the metacenter is an indication of the stability of a floating body.

SHEAR FORCE:
Force acting on a substance in a direction perpendicular to the extension of the substance, as for example the pressure of air along the front of an airplane wing. Shear forces often result in shear strain. Resistance to such forces in a fluid is linked to its viscosity. Also called shearing force.

TRANSVERSE:
Situated or lying across; crosswise.

BOUYANCY:
is the upward force on an object produced by the surrounding fluid (i.e., a liquid or a gas) in which it is fully, or partially immersed, due to the pressure difference of the fluid between the top and bottom of the object. The net upward buoyancy force is equal to the magnitude of the weight of fluid displaced by the body. This force enables the object to float or at least to seem lighter.

GRAVITATIONAL PULL:
downward pull towards the earth by the latter magnetic field force

BALLAST TANK:
is a compartment within a boat or ship, that holds water. A vessel may have a single ballast tank near its center or multiple ballast tanks typically on either side. A large vessel typically will have several ballast tanks including double bottom tanks, wing tanks as well as forepeak and aftpeak tanks. Adding ballast to a vessel lowers its center of gravity, and increases the draft of the vessel. Increase draft may be required for proper propeller immersion.

DRAFT:
(or draught) of a ship's hull is the vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of the hull (keel), with the thickness of the hull included; in the case of not being included the draft outline would be obtained. Draft determines the minimum depth of water a ship or boat can safely navigate.