‘Outrageous’: families of Hong Kong ferry crash victims fume over coroner’s remarks

Relatives of the 39 victims in one of Hong Kong’s deadliest maritime disasters expressed anger after the coroner overseeing an inquest said it was “impractical and unrealistic” for them to expect inspectors could have spotted a missing watertight door if they had examined the ship’s structural drawings.Coroner Monica Chow Wai-choo said on Thursday, the second day of the verdict, that the Marine Department’s officers would not have detected the missing watertight door on the underdeck of the sunken Lamma IV on the annual survey, as the regulatory requirement did not include a review of the structural drawing.The victims’ relatives had long contended that the absence of a watertight door, which was originally designed in the drawings from Cheoy Lee Shipyards, was the main reason for the ship’s rapid sinking and the tragic loss of lives on October 1, 2012.Coroner Chow on Tuesday ruled that the watertight door was not a requirement when the vessel was built in 1994 and 1995, and marine officers were only responsible for conducting an initial survey to check whether the ship was in line with regulatory standards, with maintenance checks performed on an annual basis.A more comprehensive review is required every two years and a full examination every four years.“The expectation of the next of kin that ship inspectors conducting periodical surveys should routinely consult the approved structural drawings in order to reverify compliance with the vessel’s original construction is, in my view, impractical, unrealistic and inconsistent with the purpose of a periodical survey,” she told the relatives.