Samsa: Hout Bay boat accident avoidable
2012-10-25 10:03
Johannesburg - The skipper of the sightseeing boat Miroshga which capsized earlier this month near Hout Bay in Cape Town held only a basic competency certificate, Beeld reported on Thursday.
The certificate did not entitle the skipper to carry passengers, according to a preliminary report from the SA Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa).
Samsa is still completing its investigation, but its initial report revealed the main causes of the incident, in which Welsh tourist Peter Hyett and Hangberg resident and crew member John Roberts died.
According to the report, released on Wednesday, of the eight causes listed in its conclusion, seven were the direct result of negligence or inexperience, and thus avoidable.
Samsa found that the crew was under-qualified, and that poor decision-making, infrastructural shortcomings, technical failures and weather conditions all contributed to the disaster, the newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, Wilma Muller, a businesswoman from Edenvale on the East Rand, who was on the Miroshga with her family around two weeks before the tragedy, has said that she observed a number of worrying things during the pleasure cruise.
"The captain battled to start the boat. There was a lot of fiddling about with wires. And only my 6-year-old son was given a life jacket. For the rest of us, we were told it was unnecessary," she said.
- SAPA
