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Ship carrying over 450 people sinks in China's Yangtze: state media
AFP
June 2, 2015, 9:49 am
Beijing (AFP) - A passenger ship carrying more than 450 people has sunk in the Yangtze river in central China, state media reported Tuesday.
The ship named Dongfangzhixing, or "Eastern Star", was headed from the eastern city of Nanjing to the southwestern city of Chongqing when it sank in the Jianli section of the river, in Hubei province, on Monday evening, Xinhua said.
The cause of the sinking was not immediately clear, but state broadcaster CCTV said it was an accident.
Eight people have been rescued, including the captain and chief engineer, who both said the vessel had been caught in a "cyclone".
There were 458 people on board when the vessel sank at 9:28 pm (1328 GMT), CCTV said, including 406 Chinese passengers, five travel agency workers and 47 crew members.
According to CCTV, the vessel -- which measures 76.5 metres long (250 feet) in length) -- is capable of carrying up to 534 people, and was owned by a firm that operated tours in the region of the Three Gorges dam.
Xinhua said rescue work was difficult due to bad weather, strong winds and heavy rain. CCTV said Chinese premier Li Keqiang was on his way to the site.
A total of 22 people, including eight foreigners, were killed when a tugboat sank on the river between the eastern cities of Jingjiang and Zhangjiagang in January.
After the January accident, the provincial government said the boat was undergoing trials without properly completing the required procedures and without first reporting the condition of the ship, as required by regulations.
Yangtze cruise ship tragedy could be ‘worst maritime disaster in China’s history’ with over 400 still missing
People's Liberation Army launches massive rescue operation involving 170 divers for 400 missing after vessel capsizes in Yangtze River during stormy weather, including what the captain described as a tornado
A survivor is helped from the overturned passenger ship in the Jianli section of the Yangtze River yesterday. The ship capsized after being caught in a storm. Photo: Xinhua
More than 400 people - most of them tourists aged from 50 to 80 - remained missing more than 24 hours after a cruise ship carrying 456 people capsized in the Yangtze River during stormy weather on Monday night.
The Dongfangzhixing, or Eastern Star, was en route from the eastern city of Nanjing to the southwestern city of Chongqing when it capsized around 9.30pm on Monday in the Jianli section of the river in Hubei province.
The national meteorological administration said a tornado had hit the area at about that time, but it's unclear whether it hit the ship.
The PLA was committing 170 divers to the search and rescue efforts, a commander told China Central Television last night.
The first batch of 13 divers sent to search for survivors said it had been very difficult to open the ship's doors underwater, especially given the poor visibility caused by the downpour.
Fourteen survivors and the bodies of seven people had been found as of 9pm yesterday, the Yangtze River navigation authorities said.
Satellite data released by the China Transport Telecommunication and Information Centre showed the ship had made a 108-degree turn at around 9.20pm. It then travelled for a further 10 minutes before capsizing.
The ship had been carrying 405 passengers, 46 crew members and five tour guides, the youngest of whom was only three and the eldest over 80, according to a list of passengers obtained by the mainland media.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (left) chairs a meeting to direct search and rescue work as he takes a plane to the site. Photo: Xinhua
"It could be the worst accident in China's shipping history," Yao Wenge, deputy chief of the Nanjing Municipal Maritime Safety Administration, said. "I have not heard of an accident that involves a larger number of passengers."
Zhang Hui, a tour guide from a Shanghai-based tour agency that was a major organiser of the trip, was one of 14 who survived.
The ship was sailing through a thunderstorm when it suddenly tilted at an angle of more than 45 degrees, he told the Xinhua news agency.
"I tried to tell my colleague that we were in big trouble. But before I was able to finish the sentence, the ship had capsized," he said.
He managed to grab a life jacket and climbed out of the window of his bedroom, whiich had filled with water up to his neck.
The 43-year-old, who did not know how to swim, floated in the stormy waters for the whole night before tides pushed him to the shore at dawn.
Rescuers save a survivor from the overturned passenger ship in the Jianli section of the Yangtze River. Photo: Xinhua
Not until Zhang was found by local residents did he realise he had floated some 90km to Yueyang county in neighbouring Hunan province.
One of those saved by the rescuers was a 65-year-old female passenger. She appeared to be frightened but conscious as she lifted her blanket and looked around as she was rushed to the ambulance.
A family member of passengers cries outside a closed office of Xiehe Travel in Shanghai. Photo: Reuters
Deng Zhibo, deputy chairman of a local hospital, said three survivors had been taken to hospital with minor injures including dislocations.
The cause of the sinking was not immediately clear, but the captain, who was rescued and then held in custody together with the chief engineer of the ship, told local newspaper Chutian Metropolis Daily the ship tilted towards its right side after encountering a tornado.
The ship capsized within one minute, he said.
Rescuers carry a body recovered from the capsized ship. Photo: Xinhua
The meteorological administration confirmed that the Jianli section of the river had recorded a tornado that lasted for 15 to 20 minutes.
The nearest weather station, 35kms away, recorded winds of up to 16.4 metres per second at the time of the accident.
Initial investigations found the ship, which is capable of carrying up to 534 people, was not overloaded and that it had enough life vests on board for the number of passengers it was carrying, state media said.
A surveillance camera on another ship on the Yangtze captures footage of the ill-fated Eastern Star (top left corner), less than 40 minutes before it capsized. Photo: Xinhua
The captain of another passenger ship that left port at around the same time as the Eastern Star on Monday pulled over temporarily at Chibi as the weather deteriorated, but the Eastern Star continued in an effort to arrive in Jingzhou by yesterday afternoon, Chutian Metropolis Daily said.
The heavy rain is expected to continue until Friday morning.
Rescue workers carry a body from the capsized passenger ship Eastern Star. Photo: AFP
The Yangtze River accident is possibly one of the worst tornado-related mishaps in modern Chinese history.
The Dongfangzhixing, or Eastern Star, carrying more than 450 people, capsized during a powerful storm in Hubei province on Monday night.
A rare tornado occurred in the vicinity of the accident during the storm, the National Meteorological Information Centre said.
Radar data analyses show wind speed exceeded 117km/h at the time - enough to generate waves higher than 14 metres.
It remains unclear if the tornado caused the accident. And if it did, whether it hit the ship directly, or caused it to change course suddenly.
GPS data shows the vessel may have made a sudden U-turn before it capsized.
The triple-decked ship - whose draft, or the part below the waterline, measures just 2.5 metres - is susceptible to losing its balance in sudden manoeuvres.
One theory is the vessel could have tried to steer from its course to avoid the tornado, but lost its balance in doing so.
Its high centre of gravity - the result of a poor ratio between the parts of the ship under and above the water - is a common problem for modern cruise ships.
Experts have blamed such top-heavy design for Italy's Costa Concordia disaster in 2012.
Mainland news outlet Caixin, citing industry insiders, reported that the Eastern Star had been repeatedly modified by people other than its builder.
Some question if a direct hit from a tornado can indeed topple a ship more than 70 metres long. Scientists say that while extremely rare, it is not implausible.
"To get hit on a river by a tornado is like getting run over by a car on a sidewalk. The chance is very small," said wind engineering scientist Quan Yong, of Shanghai's Tongji University.
Tornados are rare on the mainland. Only 97 tornado accidents that caused casualties or financial damage were recorded from 1949 to 1990. There were on average less than three hits a year.
"The accident shows how vulnerable humans are in the face of nature," Quan said.
Professor Cai Wei, a ship design researcher with the Wuhan University of Technology, said the section of the Yangtze River where the accident occurred was an "A-level navigation zone".
This meant the maximum expected height of waves within the zone was up to 2.5 metres.
"All ships are built to return to their normal position after facing winds and waves, but if the wind speed exceeds its design limit, the ship will capsize," Cai said.
Mainland authorities have yet to conclude the cause of the accident, as it deals with growing concern as to why the ship was allowed to leave the harbour during the storm.
A man shows a photo of his father-in-law, who was on board the Eastern Star. Photo: TNS
Families of the Shanghai tourists missing since their ship capsized in the Yangtze River expressed outrage last night over what they said was the city government's failure to offer any response to the tragedy.
About 100 people gathered at the petition office of Zhabei district after the authorities told them to wait there for any updates.
One anxious relative, Ji Fumin, said he had not received any reply to inquiries about progress in the rescue operation, or what families should do at this stage. His wife, her sister-in-law and a friend were on board the ship.
"I heard the news from the media this morning and I went to the office of Xiehe Travel only to find its door closed and a notice saying we should call the Hubei Marine Affairs Bureau. But the bureau can't be reached by phone," Ji told the South China Morning Post. Xiehe is the company that organised the tour aboard the Eastern Star, which capsized during severe weather at around 9.30pm on Monday.
Ji said he went to the Shanghai municipal government and was told to check with the Zhabei authorities because the agency was located in that district.
"We have been waiting here for so many hours … Officials didn't give us any food or water during the day," he said.
Relatives said their frustration only grew after learning authorities in Nanjing , the provincial capital of Jiangsu where more than 200 passengers came from, acted swiftly by arranging for relatives to travel to Hubei province, where the accident occurred. Among the 456 people on board, 97 were Shanghai tourists, many of them aged above 50. Xiehe Travel had marketed the trip to the elderly.
At 3.30pm, two officials with the district government arrived to speak to the relatives, but the families said they offered nothing constructive. "The two officials didn't give their names or titles. They didn't give us any helpful information," said one man whose uncle and aunt were missing. "The officials said what they knew was also available on the internet and they didn't have more information. This is ridiculous."
Chen Lindi said her sister paid more than 4,000 yuan (HK$5,062) for a ticket in a first-class cabin and was travelling with her husband.
They both could swim, but the location of their room near the top of the ship meant it would have been deep underwater after the ship capsized. It was unlikely they could have escaped, she said. "My nephew called his mother at 9.05pm, and 25 minutes later, the accident happened," she said.
The travel agency's office in Nanjing was also shut yesterday, and a notice asked people to contact the ship company, Dongfang, for more information about the passengers, Xinhua reported.
Shanghai's Oriental Morning Post reported that each traveller had bought insurance, up to 200,000 yuan, according to contracts with the relatives.
In Chongqing , the families of the 47 crew members on board are also waiting for information. Dongfang has released the names of the crew.
By Jiang Jie and Catherine Wong Tsoi-lai Source: Global Times Published: 2015-6-3 1:28:01
Hundreds missing after ship carrying 456 sinks in storm
An aerial photo shows rescuers working over the capsized ship on the Yangtze River in Jianli, Hubei Province on Tuesday. Fourteen people were rescued by press time on Tuesday. Photo: CFP
Graphics: AFP/GT
Rescue efforts continued into the night Tuesday as a total 14 survivors were rescued from the capsized cruise ship carrying 456 people that sank in the Yangtze River in what is likely to be one of China's worst shipping disasters in decades.
The four-story Eastern Star, which departed from the eastern city of Nanjing in Jiangsu Province and was bound for Chongqing Municipality in Southwest China, sank almost instantly in 15-meter deep waters after being caught in a tornado at around 9:28 pm Monday in a section of the Yangtze River in Jianli county, Hubei Province.
The ship was carrying 405 passengers, five tour guides, and 46 crew. Most passengers were tourists from Shanghai and its neighboring province of Jiangsu, aged between 3 and 83, with most in their 60s and 70s.
Seven people were confirmed dead after they were recovered from the wreck or down the river.
A total of 12 people, including the captain and the chief engineer, were recovered from the water near the ship or downstream.
Zhang Hui, a tour guide from Shanghai, was found by rescuers 20 kilometers downstream from the wreck at about 6:50 am Tuesday.
Two people, including a 65-year-old woman and a 21-year-old crewman, were rescued from inside the capsized ship, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
More than 4,000 people and 110 vessels are part of the search and rescue efforts, Chinese Transport Minister Yang Chuantang said at a news conference in the evening, including officers from the People's Liberation Army, the armed police, firefighters and the public security bureau. Local officials and residents also participated in the operation.
Yang said divers were called in to join the rescue, as the team expanded the search area further downstream.
In an e-mail sent to the Global Times, the China Meterological Administration said the tornado was an abrupt convection and was level 12 or above. It lasted for 15 to 20 minutes. The main body of the cyclone stayed on the surface of the river.
The incident happened "so fast that the captain did not even have the time to send out a distress signal," said Wang Yangsheng, a senior official with the Yueyang Maritime Rescue Center.
A report by news portal Caixin said the ship made a sudden turn shortly before it sank. But it was not clear whether the change of direction was caused by the wind or the crew's maneuvering to avoid the headwind.
The ship's captain and chief engineer, two of the survivors, were taken into custody for questioning by local police, Xinhua reported.
Members of the Yueyang Blue Sky Rescue team told a Global Times reporter at the scene that they had recovered three bodies on Tuesday. They believe there could be more survivors as there were responses from inside the ship when they knocked on the upturned hull during the rescue. Rescuers have been injecting oxygen into the ship.
Chinese President Xi Jinping Tuesday urged national and local rescue teams to launch an all-out rescue mission. Premier Li Keqiang arrived at the scene at noon Tuesday to direct the rescue work.
Li urged all rescuers to "carry out search and rescue work at all cost and properly handle the aftermath."
Related government departments are also required to keep the public informed with regular transparent updates on the rescue and investigation.
The Ministry of Transport, the China National Tourism Administration and other departments have been ordered to mobilize all resources available to speed up the search and rescue work.
The upstream Three Gorges Dam was closed three times to lower water levels downstream to aid the rescue.
Family members of the Eastern Star crew wait for information about their loved ones on Tuesday at the ship company's headquarters in Chongqing. The ship carried 456 people when it capsized Monday night, with a crew of 46. Photo: IC
By midday Tuesday, nearly 100 relatives of passengers of the ship were anxiously waiting for updates outside the office of Shanghai Xiehe Travel Agency, organizer of the cruise trip.
The office was shut on Tuesday, left with a note that people in charge had set out for the site.
"It's a chartered ship from Xiehe Travel Agency. But our company has run this travel route for more than a decade. Every 20 days, we have a ship setting out from Nanjing to Chongqing. We've never been involved in any accident," a staff member surnamed Zhang, who works for ship owners Chongqing Eastern Shipping Corporation, told the Global Times.
Seventy-year-old Chen, brother of a passenger on board, told the Global Times that he arrived as early as 7 am and had been waiting at the Xiehe office for five hours.
His nephew, who was sitting beside Chen, expressed deep remorse to have paid for sending his parents on the trip. "It's all my fault. I sent them to their deaths," he lamented.
Navigation along the Yangtze can be hazardous, although shipping safety has greatly improved after the Three Gorges Dam was built, a shipping expert told the Global Times.
Ni Dandan in Shanghai, Xing Xiaojing and Liu Yang in Beijing contributed to this story
Questions of tragedy
Was it a tornado?
China Central Television reported that the surviving crew members of the capsized Eastern Star ship said the vessel encountered a tornado before it quickly turned over and sank. Many doubt the likelihood of a tornado over the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, though this area did experience heavy rain on Monday.
The China Meteorological Administration Tuesday confirmed that a tornado had indeed hit this area. Based on meteorological data and on-site inspections, a tornado with a diameter of less than one kilometer was formed on the river. The speed of the wind was over 12 degrees (more than 32 kilometers per hour), and the tornado lasted about 15 to 20 minutes, the administration said.
In a dramatic turn, local newspaper Hubei Daily published an apology on its official Sina Weibo account Tuesday saying its earlier report on the cause of the ship's sinking was wrong. The newspaper reported earlier that the State Council had ruled that "heavy wind and rain" caused the tragedy. "The report was originally based on the initial analysis of some experts which were neither accurate nor authoritative," Hubei Daily said.
Is Eastern Star a safe ship?
The Eastern Star is 76 meters long, 13 meters wide and weighs 2,200 tons. It is one of the passenger ships owned by the Chongqing Eastern Ship Co which plies along the Yangtze River. It is designed to withstand winds of up to 8-10 degrees. Sources told caixin.com that the ship had gone through modifications, which could have surpassed standards.
A shipbuilding industry insider said the Eastern Star's design and maneuverability was expected to be above average since it met A-class standards in design. It is possible that the ship encountered a 12-degree tornado which overwhelmed the ship's design. But the crew's response in the face of an emergency is also important, the source told caixin.com.
Foreign cameramen work at the site of the overturned passenger ship in the Jianli section of the Yangtze River in central China's Hubei Province. Photo: Xinhua
A gag order was imposed on many mainland journalists over one of the country's worst maritime disasters, while members of the foreign media were taken on an official tour of the accident scene but many sites were kept off limits to them.
The Communist Party's Publicity Department issued an urgent gag order early on Tuesday morning, within 12 hours after news broke of Monday night's ferry accident on the Yangtze River.
The message was quickly passed down to propaganda departments on the provincial and city levels, and swiftly forwarded on to newsrooms, editors and journalists of traditional media outlets across the mainland.
"Regarding the sinking incident of [the Dongfangzhixing, or Eastern Star] tourist cruise ship, no province, prefecture or city will send reporters to the scene. Those who have arrived shall be called back immediately," read the gag order, which journalists shared on social media platforms. "All media should run Xinhua stories and use [China Central Television] footage."
Many of the mainland journalists who had rushed to the scene in Hubei province's Jianli county to cover the accident, were forced to abort their trips.
The gag order was confirmed by several journalists, who said the message was passed down to them by their editors either by email or phone early on Tuesday morning.
"I had to cancel my high-speed ticket. I was called back by my editor before I even stepped on the train," said one frustrated journalist who requested anonymity.
"I wanted to go ahead anyway by using my personal leave because I wanted to witness the incident and write a personal reflection on my blog, but even that was not possible," another reporter said.
Major newspapers in Guangzhou yesterday splashed the news with similarly worded headlines, stories and photos portraying the disaster. The reports highlighted the difficulties of the rescue without questioning the rescue efforts' efficiency and other unresolved issues surrounding the accident. Foreign journalists were taken on an official tour of the disaster scene, where they were allowed to snap pictures and interview rescue divers.
Professor Qiao Mu, dean of Beijing Foreign Studies University's Centre for International Communication Studies, said it was the authorities' practice to first exercise control over the media in the case of any public crisis regardless of the event's sensitivity.
"The Wenzhou high-speed rail crash and Wenchuan earthquake were not sensitive events either, but they controlled them anyway," Qiao said.
"The regime fears any movement that might draw attention to … inefficient monitoring, which could threaten their authority."
Relatives of Shanghai tourists missing on the Eastern Star want authorities to arrange a trip to the site. Photo: Reuters
Family members of missing Shanghai tourists lashed out on Wednesday at inaction by local authorities, demanding the city government organise a trip for them to the site of the capsized Eastern Star on the Yangtze River.
A Zhabei district official said on Wednesday afternoon that trips would be organised for them "in the next two days", but some relatives were not convinced.
"We can't trust you anymore," said Shen Ruifu, a relative of one of the missing. "We need action, not promises."
More than 50 relatives gathered at an office building on Datong Road, the meeting place designated by the Zhabei district government for family members of the missing.
Of the more than 450 people on board the ship when it went down, 97 were tourists from Shanghai.
The Shanghai Xiehe Travel Agency, which organised the cruise, is also based in Zhabei.
"We are anxiously expecting a clear answer from the government - will they or won't they organise a trip to where the vessel sank? Or is it that they just don't want to do it," said Jin Weifeng, whose father-in-law was one of the missing tourists.
"We can go by ourselves but it's obvious that the authorities should take the responsibility to coordinate everything in the face of the big tragedy."
The Zhabei authorities have deployed dozens of officials and medical staff to take care of the families, but relatives said they had little response to their requests.
"They just tried to prevent us from complaining and protesting," said Wu Siying, whose 51-year-old mother was missing. "They treat us as enemies rather than people who need their help."
Zhang Wenzhong, whose uncle and aunt were missing, said he was beaten by a security guard at the gate of the municipal government's office in People's Square yesterday when he and 20 other family members sought answers from the government.
"We are not asking the impossible," he said. "Our request is simple but the government doesn't care about us at all."
The lack of action is in contrast with authorities in Jiangsu and Fujian , who have already arranged trips for families from their jurisdictions.
The Shanghai government also tightened its grip on local media in the aftermath of the disaster. Local media were not allowed to publish stories about the reactions from the families, according to three sources with Shanghai's state-owned media organisations.
Students in Zhuji, Zhejiang province, pray for the passengers of the Eastern Star at a candlelight vigil yesterday. Photo: Reuters
Rescuers began cutting their way into the capsized Eastern Star cruise ship last night as bad weather hampered their search and the chances of survival faded for the more than 400 passengers and crew who are still missing.
Salvage workers cut a rectangular hole about half a metre wide on the ship's hull - which is still visible on the surface - for divers to enter, Xinhua reported.
There is no way people could hang in there in a capsized ship for that long
PROFESSOR YOU QINGHUA
Fourteen survivors and 26 bodies had been found as of last night. No survivors were found yesterday.
The passenger ship was carrying 456 people when it capsized on the Jianli section of the Yangtze River in Hubei during stormy weather on Monday night.
The capsized ship had been surrounded by three large salvage vessels, and two more were on their way, state media reported yesterday.
Professor You Qinghua, from Shanghai Maritime University, said there was only a "slim" chance that any of the missing could have survived.
Premier Li Keqiang pays his respects to the dead after arriving at the scene of the rescue efforts yesterday morning.Photo: Reuters
"The survivors rescued from the ship [on Tuesday] already said they felt breathless," he said. "People can survive after being trapped in debris for 72 hours following an earthquake. But there is no way people could hang in there in a capsized ship for that long."
The search-and-rescue mission would continue and another 180 divers had been sent to join the 183 already on site, a transport ministry spokesman said yesterday.
Chen Xiang was among the first batch of divers. The diver from the PLA Navy's South Sea Fleet said low visibility underwater hindered the search.
"I could not see anything and could rely only on touch," Chen said. "The water was muddy, and the current was strong. It was dark and cold."
Chen said it took him 15 minutes before he could reach the second deck of the ship. Something heavy and sharp hit him on the shoulder as he tried to enter a room, forcing him to give up his search.
Staff at a Jianli funeral parlour had prepared "a large number" of coffins, local official newspaper Changjiang Daily reported.
Premier Li Keqiang bowed in silent tribute to the dead as he arrived at the scene of the rescue yesterday morning.
Questions remain over why the ship made a sudden turn 10 minutes before capsizing and whether a tornado recorded in the area at the time of the accident had directly hit the ship.
The ship's captain and chief engineer, who both survived, are in police custody.
"If the voyage data recorder [the black box of the ship] shows the captain made the turn in the stormy weather instead of losing control [after the ship was hit by strong winds and tides], it would be fair to say he bears responsibility for the tragedy," You said.
Chen Yuanjian, a director of the ship's operator, a Chongqing company called Dongfang, admitted the ship's structure had been modified.
He said this was done only to meet updated standards from the shipping authorities, website The Paper reported.
Chen Yiylong, a captain from the company, said he did not believe the captain of the Eastern Star would have abandoned his passengers to escape.
Rescue workers atop the Eastern Star search for more bodies in the capsized cruise ship in the Jianli section of the Yangtze River on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters
The captain of a passenger ship that was near the Eastern Star when it capsized on Monday night said his vessel narrowly escaped the same fate, according to a mainland media report.
The captain, identified only by his surname Li, told the Shanghai Morning Post that his passenger ship, the Jiangning, was sailing through the Jianli section of the Yangtze River at about 9.30pm on Monday, when the Eastern Star capsized.
Li said the Jiangning's radar indicated "something was wrong".
A storm descended so he decided to slow down, weigh anchor and wait for the bad weather to pass.
But the Eastern Star, which was travelling in the same direction as the Jiangning, continued on down the river, according to the report.
"The Eastern Star proceeded about 200 metres farther when the Jiangning anchored," the report quoted Li as saying.
As the storm grew stronger, Li thought the Eastern Star would turn back, but it disappeared from sight and he could not get a response from crew members on the vessel over the radio communication system.
"I thought that the Eastern Star had returned to safety," he said.
The Jiangning continued on towards Chongqing about one hour later when the storm died down.
As the rescue efforts entered their second day yesterday, survivors of the Eastern Star offered their accounts of the tragedy.
One of them, 52-year-old Xie Lin, told Xinhua that he was excited to be on board the ship for a 12-day cruise with his wife, but things went very wrong at about 9.30pm on Monday as strong waves hit the ship, tossing him around his cabin.
"Strong waves threw me into the air and at that time, my only thought was that I wanted to see the sky and get out," Xie said.
The ship turned over on its starboard side, Xie said, but he was pushed by waves to the port side of the ship.
"I really had to get out," he recalled. A few minutes later he managed to escape the sinking ship. Xie grabbed a life preserver and he saw another survivor from Tianjin floating in the water.
"The water was very cold and I was just wearing shorts. I also could not see clearly what was around me because of the heavy rain. I could only grab onto the life preserver as tightly as I could," he said. "I think I am very lucky for being able to survive."
Xie and the Tianjin man saw a small boat and yelled for help, but to no avail. It was only after 10 minutes that marine police came to their rescue.
"We saw a flashlight and yelled for help. And we heard the marine police saying that we would be saved," he said.
But Xie's wife was missing and he was forced to give his son the news.
"I called my son, telling him that his mother had probably died," Xie said. "It's a huge tragedy."
Chen Shuhan, a 21-year-old crewman on the Eastern Star, was alone in an air pocket inside the capsized hull and in complete darkness when rescuers found him.
Chen, a gas fitter, was checking the ship's main engine when the weather deteriorated outside, the Chongqing Morning Post reported.
As the ship began taking in water, Chen donned a life jacket and found a spot where he could breath. After the ship capsized, everything went dark, a moment Chen described as terrifying.
Rescuers searched the hull three times in the low visibility, before they found Chen. They then spent 20 minutes trying to calm him down.
A doctor at the hospital where Chen had been admitted said his condition was stable and he was conscious, but he needed to remain under medical observation for a few days.
Rescue workers stand on the hull of the capsized Eastern Star ferry. Photo: Reuters
Powerful currents, poor visibility and low water temperature were among the difficulties and dangers facing rescue divers who continued to search for survivors and bodies two days after the Eastern Star cruise ship capsized on the Yangtze River.
More than 200 divers were involved in the search yesterday. As of 7pm yesterday, 14 survivors and 26 bodies had been pulled from the water.
Ding Jianxin, a diver with the PLA Navy's East Sea Fleet, brought two bodies to the surface during his dive at about 11am.
"I was very afraid," the 27-year-old said after his first rescue dive since joining the navy eight years ago.
"But when I thought about how so many family members were anxiously waiting on the shore … I had to go underwater despite my fear."
Ding said he found the first body on the ship's first level. "He was stuck at the window, apparently trying to escape," Ding said.
After bringing the body to the surface, Ding resumed his dive without taking a break. It was during this dive that he found a second body on the ship's second level.
Fellow diver Chen Xiang, from the PLA Navy's South Sea Fleet, said it was so dark divers could only feel their way forward along the 1.2-metre-wide corridors to enter the cabins.
Chen said the poor visibility meant the divers had to proceed slowly to avoid snagging their equipment. The dive from the surface to the ship's second level took about 15 minutes. And once the divers made their way into the corridors, they had to go even slower.
" could not see anything and could only rely on touch," Chen said. "The water was muddy, the current was strong. It was dark, and cold."
Adding to the difficulty of the search was the complicated environment within the cabins. Chen was hit on the shoulder by an unknown sharp and heavy object when he was inside a second-level cabin, forcing him to give up his search after about 20 minutes.
Speaking on the nearby pier after the morning dives, the deputy head of the North Sea Fleet's rescue detachment, surnamed Wang, said the main difficulties faced by the divers were the fast current, poor visibility of just 10cm to 20cm, and the low water temperature.
Wang said only four or five cabins on the bottom level had been searched by his team, while most of the cabins on the starboard side of the upper level had been cleared.
He said divers would leave a glow stick by the window to mark that a cabin had been searched.
Wang said his team of 54 divers had conducted two rounds of dives since arriving at the rescue site on Tuesday afternoon.
"We have not slept a wink in more than 30 hours," he said.
Rescue diver Guan Dong told how he had taught a 65-year-old female survivor how to use diving equipment after he and his teammates found her.
The woman successfully made it to the surface.
Among the rescuers was a member of the Beijing Blue Sky rescue team who had postponed his wedding to join the effort, mainland online portal Sina.com reported.
Wang Xiaohui received the rescue order several days before his planned wedding, and he applied to be part of the mission before telling his fiancée, the report said.
Rescuers are seen on the cruise ship Eastern Star that capsized late on Monday in the Jianli section of the Yangtze River in central China's Hubei Province. Photo: Xinhua
The Dongfangzhixing, or Eastern Star, was carrying more than 450 passengers and crew when it capsized in the Jianli section of the Yangtze River in Hubei province on Monday night.
So far, 14 people have been rescued and 26 bodies found, but the fates of hundreds of others remain unknown.
As rescue workers continue searching for survivors, the public is seeking answers to what caused one of the mainland's worst maritime disasters.
The State Council has repeatedly reassured family members it will launch a comprehensive investigation into the accident.
Satellite data suggests the cruise ship made a 108-degree turn at about 9.20pm.
Marine equipment expert Professor Yao Zhenqiu, of Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, was quoted by news portal The Paper as saying the ship could have capsized after losing stability. A sudden U-turn can destabilise a vessel.
The Chutian Metropolis Daily reported that Eastern Star's captain was about to drop the anchor to stabilise the ship before it capsized. By then, all other ships in the vicinity had already done so amid bad weather conditions.
Both the ship's captain and its chief engineer made it to safety unharmed. They reportedly did not try to evacuate passengers. Internet users have asked why the two men were rescued first.
Also, no alarm was raised after the ship capsized, which raised the question of what the warning protocol was.
The meteorological department had issued a yellow rainstorm warning at the time of the accident.
According to the Yangtze River Administration of Navigational Affairs website, vessels that are involved in accidents after failing to obey alerts, face up to 10 days' suspension.
The captain told state-run Xinhua that the ship was hit by a tornado. The meteorological authorities said a tornado was in the vicinity at the time, but it remains unclear if it hit the ship.
News outlet Caixin reported that the Eastern Star, built in 1994, had undergone several significant modifications.
Rescue workers carry a body from a sunken ship. Photo: Reuters
The Yangtze River accident is possibly one of the worst tornado-related disasters in modern Chinese history.
The Dongfangzhixing, or Eastern Star, carrying more than 450 people, capsized during a powerful storm in Hubei province on Monday night.
A rare tornado occurred in the vicinity of the accident during the storm, the National Meteorological Information Centre said.
Radar data analyses show wind speed exceeded 117km/h at the time - enough to generate waves higher than 14 metres.
It remains unclear if the tornado caused the accident. And if it did, whether it hit the ship directly, or caused it to change course suddenly.
GPS data shows the vessel may have made a sudden U-turn before it capsized.
The triple-decked ship - whose draft, or the part below the waterline, measures just 2.5 metres - is susceptible to losing its balance in sudden manoeuvres.
One theory is the vessel could have tried to steer from its course to avoid the tornado, but lost its balance in doing so.
Watch: Authrorities continue the search and rescue mission for surviving passengers
Its high centre of gravity - the result of a poor ratio between the parts of the ship under and above the water - is a common problem for modern cruise ships.
Experts have blamed such top-heavy design for Italy's Costa Concordia disaster in 2012.
Mainland news outlet Caixin, citing industry insiders, reported that the Eastern Star had been repeatedly modified by people other than its builder.
Some question if a direct hit from a tornado can indeed topple a ship more than 70 metres long. Scientists say that while extremely rare, it is not implausible.
"To get hit on a river by a tornado is like getting run over by a car on a sidewalk. The chance is very small," said wind engineering scientist Quan Yong, of Shanghai's Tongji University.
Tornados are rare on the mainland. Only 97 tornado accidents that caused casualties or financial damage were recorded from 1949 to 1990. There were on average less than three hits a year.
"The accident shows how vulnerable humans are in the face of nature," Quan said.
Professor Cai Wei, a ship design researcher with the Wuhan University of Technology, said the section of the Yangtze River where the accident occurred was an "A-level navigation zone".
This meant the maximum expected height of waves within the zone was up to 2.5 metres.
"All ships are built to return to their normal position after facing winds and waves, but if the wind speed exceeds its design limit, the ship will capsize," Cai said.
Mainland authorities have yet to conclude the cause of the accident, as it deals with growing concern as to why the ship was allowed to leave the harbour during the storm.
Students in Zhuji, Zhejiang province, pray for the passengers of the Eastern Star at a candlelight vigil yesterday. Photo: Reuters
Rescue workers have retrieved dozens of bodies from the capsized Eastern Star cruise ship as any hope of finding more survivors fades.
Fourteen people are known to have survived the sinking of the ship on Monday night during a heavy storm on the Yangtze River.
Sixty-five bodies have been recovered, state media reported on Thursday. More than 370 people are missing.
Rescuers began cutting their way into the capsized Eastern Star cruise ship last night, but the work was suspended on Thursday due to persistent bad weather that has hampered the rescue effort from the start.
The passenger ship was carrying 456 people when it capsized on the Jianli section of the river in Hubei province.
The upturned ship had been surrounded by three large salvage vessels and two more were on their way, state media reported yesterday.
Professor You Qinghua, from Shanghai Maritime University, said there was only a "slim" chance that any of the missing could have survived.
"The survivors rescued from the ship [on Tuesday] already said they felt breathless," he said. "People can survive after being trapped in debris for 72 hours following an earthquake. But there is no way people could hang in there in a capsized ship for that long."
About 80 family members, frustrated by the paucity of information coming from authorities, hired a bus to make the eight-hour journey from Nanjing to Jianli county in Hubei, where the ship sank.
The protesters later broke through a cordon of 20-25 paramilitary police who had tried to stop them at a roadblock.
The sunken cruise ship Eastern Star is seen on the Yangtze River in this undated picture before it capsized in Jianli, Hubei. Photo: Reuters
Early on Thursday, the deputy police chief of Jiangsu province, of which Nanjing is the capital, told the relatives they could go to the disaster site only in the daytime.
He promised to arrange buses for them to view the boat in the morning, but said journalists were barred from the trip.
The search-and-rescue mission would continue and another 180 divers had been sent to join the 183 already on site, a transport ministry spokesman said yesterday.
A woman, whose husband is on the Dongfsngzhixing, shouts at a Nanjing Bureau official before a meeting between relatives and Nanjing local government official on June 4. Photo: Simon Song
Nanjin deputy mayor Hu Wanjin (right) speaks with relatives of the victims on the Dongfangzhixing. Photo: Simon Song
Chen Xiang was among the first batch of divers. The diver from the PLA Navy's South Sea Fleet said low visibility underwater hindered the search.
"I could not see anything and could rely only on touch," Chen said. "The water was muddy, and the current was strong. It was dark and cold."
Chen said it took him 15 minutes before he could reach the second deck of the ship. Something heavy and sharp hit him on the shoulder as he tried to enter a room, forcing him to give up his search.
Premier Li Keqiang pays his respects to the dead after arriving at the scene of the rescue efforts yesterday morning. Photo: Reuters
Staff at a Jianli funeral parlour had prepared "a large number" of coffins, local official newspaper Changjiang Daily reported.
Premier Li Keqiang bowed in silent tribute to the dead as he arrived at the scene of the rescue yesterday morning.
Questions remain over why the ship made a sudden turn 10 minutes before capsizing and whether a tornado recorded in the area at the time of the accident had directly hit the ship.
The ship's captain and chief engineer, who both survived, are in police custody.
"If the voyage data recorder [the black box of the ship] shows the captain made the turn in the stormy weather instead of losing control [after the ship was hit by strong winds and tides], it would be fair to say he bears responsibility for the tragedy," You said.
Chen Yuanjian, a director of the ship's operator, a Chongqing company called Dongfang, admitted the ship's structure had been modified.
Relatives of missing passengers pushed through a police cordon near the scene of the disaster demanding news about their loved ones. Photo: Reuters
He said this was done only to meet updated standards from the shipping authorities, news website The Paper reported.
Chen Yiylong, a captain from the company, said he did not believe the captain of the Eastern Star would have abandoned his passengers to escape.
The owner of the ship that capsized has been ordered to suspend operations of a second boat and carry out safety probes on its entire fleet.
An official at the Changjiang River Administration of Navigational Affairs said the Chongqing Eastern Shipping Corporation would need to halt operations of its Eastern Pearl ship, which was built to the same design as the Eastern Star.
"We’ve already ordered the Oriental Pearl to come to dock and instructed the crew and passengers to leave the boat," the official, who was part of the emergency response unit, said.
Rescuers paying a silent tribute to recovered victims of the capsized Chinese cruise ship in Jianli, Hubei. Photo: AFP
Other boats in the fleet could still operate, but the company would have to send teams of experts aboard to carry out checks.
A senior manager at Chongqing Eastern Shipping Corporation declined to comment.
The Eastern Star had passed inspections by the authorities in Chongqing last month, the People’s Daily said.
But according to documents from a local maritime watchdog, it was held by authorities due to defects in 2013.
The Nanjing Maritime Safety Administration had investigated the Eastern Star as part of a safety campaign into passenger ferries and tour boats and held the ship along with five other vessels, according to three documents on the bureau’s website.
The documents gave no details of the defects, but said the issues were reported to the Chongqing maritime safety bureau.
Xinhua reported that all boat operators on the Yangtze river should prepare for the impending flood season, pay close attention to the weather and improve their emergency response measures.
Additional reporting by Reuters, Agence France-Presse
Relatives of passengers in China's Yangtze River ship disaster accuse police of beating them
Date June 5, 2015 - 1:42AM
Sue-Lin Wong and John Ruwitch
Relatives of a missing passenger aboard a capsized ship cry on the banks of the Jianli section of Yangtze River in Hubei province, China on Thursday. Hundreds of passengers are still missing. Photo: Reuters
Shanghai/Jianli, China: Relatives of passengers missing in the sinking of a cruise ship on the Yangtze River have accused Chinese police of beating them when they sought more information on the disaster.
Uniformed police trailed dozens of relatives who took to Shanghai's streets on Wednesday in the hope of petitioning the city government, later ushering them into a building where they were prevented from speaking to the media, the family members said.
Rescue workers carry a body recovered from a capsized cruise ship in the Yangtze River in southern China's Hubei province, on Thursday. Photo: AP
Scuffles between police and relatives broke out, according to video footage circulated on the Internet which showed police hitting and wrestling family members.
"I saw all of this unfold before my own eyes," Huang Jing, 43, who had family on the ship, said
A woman who said her husband Qin Jianping, and father-in-law, Qin Zhengming, were on the ship said: "Why are they using taxpayers' money to bully us? Why are all these police here?"
Local residents pray at a candlelight vigil to pay their respect to the victims of the sunken cruise ship on the Yangtze River, at a public square in Jianli, Hubei province, China. Photo: Reuters
Police were not immediately available for comment.
The Eastern Star cruise ship capsized in a storm on Monday night with 456 people on board. Only 14 survivors have been found while authorities have recovered 75 dead bodies. More than 300 people are still missing and it could be the country's worst maritime disaster in nearly 70 years.
China's government often seeks to control information in the wake of high-profile disasters, concerned about challenges to its authority and hypersensitive about its image.
Workers prepare a crane to lift upright the capsized cruise ship in the Yangtze River in Jianli county in southern China's Hubei province, on Thursday. Photo: AP
But the Eastern Star disaster also has coincided with the most sensitive day on China's calendar, the June 4 anniversary of the bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests around Tiananmen Square.
The family members have been growing increasingly impatient with the government, saying they have received few answers to questions about their loved ones on board the ship.
Some family members took matters into their own hands on Wednesday and hired a bus to take them from Nanjing city, where the cruise originated, to Jianli county in central Hubei province where the ship capsized.
Diver Guan Dong speaks at a news conference after receiving a first-class merit for rescuing a 21-year-old sailor from the capsized ship Eastern Star on the Yangtze River by giving him his diving gear, on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters
When they arrived in Jianli they tried to walk to the site of rescue operations, but were stopped by police who had accompanied them from Nanjing. Authorities later said they could visit the area in organised groups but reporters and cameramen could not accompany them.
"I can't rule out that even among Chinese journalists there are people who want to smear the government," Hu Shining, Nanjing's deputy police chief, told the relatives who had walked with reporters in tow to try to get to the river's edge.
Restricted access
Paramilitary soldiers ride boats near the site of a sunken ship in the Jianli section of Yangtze River. Photo: Reuters
Most journalists have been blocked from visiting the hospital where the survivors have been admitted, and local reporters have been told to take their cue from state-owned Xinhua news agency and China Central Television (CCTV).
While the government has arranged brief visits to see rescue efforts for select foreign and domestic media, official briefings have been restrained.
In China, such media control usually breeds suspicion that authorities may be trying to cover up bungling or shielding corrupt officials.
But authorities have promised there will be no cover up. "We will never shield mistakes and we'll absolutely not cover up (anything)," Xu Chengguang, the spokesman for the Ministry of Transport, said on Wednesday night.
However, a meeting of the Communist Party's ruling inner core on Thursday called for "strengthening public opinion work", which usually means getting the media to toe the government line.
The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television did not respond to a faxed request for comment on media restrictions.
Zhan Jiang, a journalism professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said China had made progress since it obscured the extent of the SARS epidemic in late 2002, but that CCTV and Xinhua still maintained their monopoly on sensitive stories.
"Other media cannot get access. This is a problem. You can imagine this is a result of the current system of stability maintenance," Zhan said.
But relatives of the missing said official interference may not be limited to restricting information.
A few of the relatives in Shanghai who were part of a news sharing chat group said they suspected police were pretending to be family members and were posting messages and photos, mainly about government rescue efforts.
"Why would a grief-stricken family member be posting such positive messages about what a great job government officials are doing in Jianli?" said one man whose mother is missing.
The Shanghai police were not immediately available for comment after office hours.
Rescuers cut three holes into the overturned hull of a river cruise ship in unsuccessful attempts to find more survivors on Thursday, as the death toll in the Yangtze River disaster reached 77. (June 4)
Nectar Gan in Jianli, Andrea Chen and Lawrence Chung
Hoists lift the capsized cruise ship in the Yangtze River. Photo: Reuters
Rescue teams have righted the Eastern Star cruise ship, after it capsized in stormy weather on the Yangtze River on Monday night, as relatives of the more than 300 passengers and crew still missing complained of slow progress to learn the fate of their family members.
The decision to right the ship was made at about 8pm last night after President Xi Jinping - chairing a meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee - ordered an increase in search efforts and "a thorough investigation" into the disaster.
The transport ministry said the decision was made to right the ship after it assessed that there were no survivors.
"In a situation in which the overall judgment is that there is no chance of people being alive, we could start the work of righting the boat," transport ministry spokesman Xu Chengguang told a news conference late on Thursday.
The work on rolling the ship upright was completed on Friday morning, Xinhua reported.
An aerial view of rescuers working on righting the capsized cruise ship Eastern Star in Jianli, Hubei. Photo: Reuters
Salvage workers had cut their way into the hull on Wednesday night but later found no survivors.
Fourteen survivors and 97 bodies had been found as of Friday morning. The ship was carrying 456 people when it capsized on the Jianli section of the river in Hubei province.
Rescuers, many from the military, worked through the night to right the ship.
More than 200 divers have groped through murky water after cutting through the hull, searching every cabin on board, but have found no more survivors.
Rescue workers spent the night lifting the vessel. Photo: Xinhua
The weather is expected to improve on Friday, after days of heavy rain, which should help rescuers.
Four bodies were found in the Yueyang section of the river in neighbouring Hunan province after salvage workers on Tuesday expanded their work to cover 220km of the lower reaches of the river.
Yin Yanxiang, whose 56-year-old sister was on board with a tour group from Changzhou , Jiangsu province, questioned the efficiency of the rescue operation. "Why did they wait until the third day to cut the hull?" asked Yin, 68.
Another woman surnamed Chen, 73, from Nanjing, whose husband, 78, was in a third-class cabin, agreed: "The rescue was way too slow."
Relatives of the victims hold a candlelight vigil for the victims on the cruise ship Eastern Star. Photo: EPA
Louis Szeto Ka-sing, a Hong Kong-based marine engineering expert, said the salvagers should have cut into the ship as soon as they had arrived. "They should have cut the hull and injected oxygen into it much earlier to rescue the passengers there who might have been alive," he said. It was almost impossible for the divers to enter cabins three to four floors' deep, he added.
An expert who took part in rescue efforts after a TransAsia plane plunged into the Keelung River in Taiwan in February noted that it took more than two hours for mainland authorities to be notified of the Eastern Star's distress.
"This was a serious lapse in shipwreck crisis handling by the [Eastern Star's] crew," he said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
