Captain at fault in ferry disaster: inquiry

The captain of a ferry who sailed toward the eye of a typhoon committed a disastrous error of judgment that left nearly 800 people dead, according to an official probe in The Philippines.
The Board of Marine Inquiry into the June 21 tragedy — the country’s worst maritime disaster for 20 years — has formally blamed the captain and called for the ferry company to be stripped of its franchise.
The 23,000-tonne Princess of the Stars, carrying 850 passengers and crew, capsized after hitting a reef off the central Philippine island of Sibuyan at the height of Typhoon Fengshen. Only 57 passengers and crew survived the disaster.
The inquiry has now found that the ship’s captain, Florencio Marimon, “miscalculated” the risk of continuing the trip to the central island of Cebu while the storm raged.
It blamed human error for the disaster — Marimon is missing, presumed dead — and the inquiry recommended that Sulpicio Lines’ franchise be suspended.
“There was a failure of the master to exercise extraordinary diligence and good seamanship thereby committing an error of judgment,” the inquiry found.
It also found Sulpicio Lines liable for failing to stop the captain sailing into the typhoon.