The death toll from Chinese cruise ship reaches 431, with 11 missing

It turned out that the death toll from the disaster of China’s Eastern Star ferry which occurred at the night of June 1 in the Yangtze River has reached 431 out of 456 passengers and crew, with 11 people still unaccounted for. Only 14 were rescued or escaped. Since 1948 when the Kiangya steamship blew up on the Huangpu River and killed over 1,000 people, this is going to be recorded the worst ferry disaster ever.

○ Difficulties expected for investigation

It is expected that an extensive investigation on the accident will be conducted as Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered to make a thorough investigation at the ruling Communist Party`s Politburo Standing Committee. As it turned out, however, that not only a “black box,” which records communication contents, status of the ship and its speed but also “automatic alarming device” that informs emergency to other ships in the neighborhood were not installed in the Eastern Star, a scientific investigation to find the cause of accident appears to be difficult.

While most investigation seems to have to depend on the testimony by captain and crew, it is unclear whether affected families would accept the investigation results. In particular, the investigation appears to focus on matters such as the reason why sailing was pushed forward even with seven times of warning for bad weather by meteorological authority, the lawfulness for several times of ships remodeling since its construction in 1994 and how the ship had been able to keep sailing even though it failed to pass its safety inspection two years ago.

○ Memorial ceremony to be allowed for affected families

According to traditional custom, the Chinese authority has set June 7 as the “7th day” when Chinese people mourn the dead so that they can express their regret by offering a silent prayer and blowing horns at the places the dead bodies were taken care of. On the day, the access to the site will be allowed for the affected families. It is known that TV broadcasting companies have been ordered by State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of the People’s Republic of China to temporarily stop airing entertainment shows from Sunday during the prime time to create an atmosphere for mourning.

On the wall of Yusha elementary school at Jianli, Hubei province adjacent to the accident scene, a number of yellow ribbons with written lamentation were hung, which reminded Paengmok harbor of Sewol ferry accident in April 2014.

○ Timely salvage of the ship and recovery of bodies

After 72 hours of golden time, Chinese army and Ministry of Transportation began to salvage the ship from Thursday night and to right and raise it from 7 a.m. the following day. With China Central Television airing live, two hours and 50 minutes after two 5,000 tons crane vessels and a 169 tons crane began to right and raise, the four-story ferry began to appear on the surface. The authority installed nettings at 200 meters from river’s downstream to prevent dead bodies and their belongings from being lost.

While taking actions for the ferry disaster this time, the Chinese authority received some complaints as it failed to provide information of accident and victims to affected families in a timely manner and didn’t listen to their ideas for rescue work. Some governmental media praised Prime Minister Li Keqiang for timely arrival at the accident scene and exercising his leadership, which invited criticism from netizen who said “This is not the time to praise anyone.”

bonhong@donga.com