Sabah catamaran tragedy: Cops confirm six people currently missing
KOTA KINABALU, Jan 31 ― Discrepancies with the passenger list have resulted in an inaccurate tally of missing people who had boarded the capsized catamaran, Sabah police have revealed.
Sabah police commissioner Datuk Ramli Din confirmed today that further investigation into Saturday’s accident has found that six people, including a 10 year-old girl are currently missing.
“We have found out our interviews with the survivors, that one of the passengers on board had his 30-year-old wife and 10-year old daughter on the excursion, but only his name was recorded.
“In another discrepancy, we found that the same person has been listed twice, due to a spelling error, or that he didn’t give his full name. So now, we are again, looking for six people, but different names,” he said.
Yesterday, Ramli told reporters that another China tourist, Li Qun, who was supposed to have taken the trip to Mengalum island had cancelled it at the last minute upon seeing the high passenger load.
Search and rescue operations have been scouring the west coast of Sabah up to 3,000 nautical miles in search of the missing people. It was originally reported that five were missing.
The boat, with 28 chinese tourists, and three crew members had disembarked illegally from a jetty in Tanjung Aru water village towards Mengalum island, where it hit bad weather and capsized, some eight nautical miles before reaching its destination.
The skipper and a crew member were found, followed by 23 chinese tourists more than a day later, but three of the tourists had died.
“I won’t dispel the possibility that there might be more changes in the number or identities of unaccounted people as the investigation continues,” he said
