They won’t make a movie about this in Hollywood (4 photos)

Category: Ships, Fires and Catastrophes, PEGI 0+

5 December 2016

28 years ago, on December 20, 1987, the largest maritime disaster in history occurred, almost three times the number of victims of the Titanic, which was insanely promoted by Cameron.

(The screensaver shows the ill-fated Dona Paz in the port of Tacloban three years before the disaster. Apparently, even then her condition was far from brilliant.)

The Philippine cargo-passenger ferry Dona Paz, making a regular trip from Manila to Tacloban, collided with the Vector tanker, which was carrying more than 1,000 cubic meters of gasoline.

During the collision, gasoline vapors exploded, rupturing the tanks and causing a powerful fire on the tanker, which immediately spread to the ferry. In addition, hundreds of tons of burning fuel leaked into the sea, spilling over several hectares around the ships in distress. The passengers and crew of the Donya Paz were left with only one choice - to burn alive in the cabins and on the decks or in the blazing water. It’s scary to even imagine what was happening on the ship at those moments. "Dona Paz" sank an hour and a half or two hours after the collision, and another half hour later the completely burnt-out "Vector" sank to the bottom.

For an unknown reason, none of the ships sent an SOS signal. The radios may have been damaged by the impact and explosion, or they may not have worked before. Therefore, on the shore they learned about what had happened only eight hours later, and only then did the rescue operation begin. It was possible to save 24 passengers of the ferry, who received serious burns, and its entire crew died. Of the 13 members of the Vector crew, two were saved. 108 charred and shark-eaten bodies were found in the water, of which only 20 could be identified.

The owner of the ferry, Sulpicio Lines, initially stated that its crew consisted of 58 people, and, according to the tickets sold, there were 1,585 passengers on board the ship. However, the investigation showed. that at the time of the disaster there were a lot of people on the ferry who had bought “wrong” tickets, or without tickets at all, and that their number was several times greater than the number of “official” passengers.

The investigation lasted for more than 10 years and ultimately revealed that the ship, designed to carry only 1518 passengers, took 4341 people on board! According to survivors, all the interior spaces, including the cargo holds, were filled with people. For the vast majority of them, there were no means of escape on the ship, however, in the current situation they would hardly have helped. Thus, minus the few survivors, the total number of victims of the disaster was 4,386 people.

The main cause of the tragedy was the disregard for the crews of both ships to their duties. Neither “Vector” nor “Donya Paz” had anyone following the course, there were no navigational instruments, and “Vector” did not have a license for maritime transportation at all and was actually sailing illegally. Immediately before the collision, there was only one person on the captain’s bridge of the ferry, who was doing no one knows what; the rest of the officers were sitting in the cockpit, watching TV and drinking beer. And after the collision they were seized with panic; no action was taken to extinguish the fire or fight for the survivability of the ship.

Philippine President Corazon Aquino declared the incident a national tragedy, the country plunged into mourning, but measures to restore order in maritime transport, if taken, did not produce results. After the Dona Paz incident, ferry accidents occurred many more times in the Philippines. The most recent of these occurred less than six months ago, when the capsizing of the overloaded ferry Kim Nirvana led to the death of 62 people.

("Dona Paz" in 1980, then this ship built in Japan was called "Don Sulpicio". The name of the shipowner is written on the side in large letters.)