The licences for the captains of the two speed boats, ‘Asahiron’ and ‘King Tide’, which were both involved in the recent mishap on the Essequibo River, have not been suspended, nor were the captains sanctioned, since the incident was based on a “life and death” situation where one was abruptly dispatched to rescue the other, Maritime Administration (MARAD) has stated.
“Both vessels had [a] licence so it was nothing really that we could have found, nobody was sanctioned, nobody did anything wrong… the second boat had four passengers, it had the captain, the bowman, and two others, technically with the two other passengers from the boat it was a bit overloaded but that was not why it sank, it sank because the bow had a puncture and it started to take in water,” explained John Flores, a Captain attached to MARAD, when contacted.
He had previously told Stabroek News that an investigation into the mishap had revealed that the bow of the rescue-vessel, ‘King Tide’, had suffered a puncture during the transferring of passengers from the ‘Asahiron’ which had experienced engine failure.
“Well, we investigated it, but it was based on the facts that we went on… apparently the boats were banging up together… so it got punctured somewhere along the line while it was helping the other boat… that is what the captain reported to me… we had an inspection afterwards and we saw that the bow like it split.”
One of the passengers, Chris Gopaul, had also told this newspaper that he was grateful to the captain of the King Tide who had quickly assessed the situation and diverted into the mangroves located at the edge of the river, in order to take the passengers to relative safety.
Gopaul had noted that the water in that area was waist-high at the time.
The mishap which occurred two weeks ago in the vicinity of the Leguan Island, and involved both speed boats which were en route to Supenaam, had left passengers terrified. A baby and a few other children were present in the boat at the time.
They were subsequently transferred unto a third boat and were safely taken to the Supenaam Stelling, all together thankful that no lives had been lost.
