Vanuatu ferry sinks with more than 30 people missing
The MV Matui went down in bad weather between Ambae and Santo. The prime minister’s office says marine warnings appear not to have been heeded and raises the possibility of overloading.
At least one person has died and more than 30 remain missing after a ferry sank off the coast of Vanuatu, the office of Prime Minister Jotham Napat has said.
The MV Matui, an inter-island ferry, went down in bad weather on Friday while sailing between the islands of Ambae and Santo in the north of the country, according to New Zealand's public broadcaster RNZ.
Who is accounted for
Of the dozens of crew and passengers on board, 15 have been accounted for alive, Napat's office said in a statement posted on Facebook. Search and rescue operations were continuing.
The change in the search
The government said search efforts "in open waters" were being scaled back, with efforts moving to a search along the south-east coast, where currents may have carried survivors.
That shift is significant. A move from open-water search to shoreline search is the point at which an operation stops looking for people in the water and starts looking for people who may have reached land — or for what the current has brought in.
What the government says caused it
The prime minister's office was unusually direct about the likely causes, in a statement issued while the search was still under way.
The sinking "appears to be the result of strong winds and marine warnings not being heeded", it said, "and possibly of negligence including overloading of the vessel".
It added that a full investigation would follow to establish the facts and prevent a repeat.
The statement frames that as an appearance rather than a finding, and commits to an inquiry.
The route
Ambae and Santo are both in the north of Vanuatu, and the MV Matui was making the crossing between them when it sank.
No response yet
Vanuatu police, the country's Maritime Safety Authority and the ferry's operator, Tui Shipping Agency, did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Reuters reported.
The operator has not given its account of the overloading question the government has raised.
Where it stands
One confirmed dead, 15 accounted for alive, more than 30 missing, and the search redirected to the coastline. The number of people originally on board has not been stated.
The government has committed to a full investigation once the search concludes.
