Dive boat tragedy

BANGKOK, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Six foreign scuba divers were missing on Monday after a boat sank off the sea between Thailand%26#39;s Andaman coastal provinces of Phuket and Phang Nga.

At about 08:30 a.m. local time, a Thai Navy base in Phuket was alerted by a tour operator that its boat, which was carrying totally 31 foreign scuba divers to do scuba diving at Similan Island of Phang Nga, failed to arrive at the Thachalong port in the city of Phuket province as its scheduled at 02:00 a.m. local time.

Hence, the Navy boat was sent to search for them. Of the total,25 divers have been rescued and sent to a hospital after drifting on the sea, the website by Thai- language newspaper Thai Rath reported.

But, some six were missing.

The 31 foreign scuba divers are from Japan and others from the Europe.

At 28 metres must have taken a mighty big wave to sink it. It was might stormy last night though%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;

鈥hotobucket.com/albums/鈥ive-asia-0-l.jpg

Dive boat tragedy

Rex, what was the weather like?

Not much more on Phuketgazette:

http://www.phuketgazette.net

Dive boat tragedy

I have just read they say it was heavy rain, wind and high seas. Very sad, 7 still missing

Very stormy last night. The missing 6 were Swiss/Austrian/Japanese and German and also a Thai crewmember making 7.

Sounds like missing Australians have been reported as Austrian by some sites.

Two Australians are among seven people missing at sea after their dive boat sank off the Thai island of Phuket.

Thai marine police on Monday launched a search for six foreign visitors and one Thai after the boat sank en route to Phuket from the Similan Islands, a popular scuba-diving destination in the Andaman Sea.

';We%26#39;re still searching for the missing,'; Marine Police Lieutenant Colonel Wanlop Phuangbaka said on Monday.

Among the missing were two Australians, two Swiss, one German, one Japanese and one Thai, Wanlop said in a telephone interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA).

Thai fishing boats on Monday morning rescued 23 survivors, including 15 foreign tourists and eight Thai staff, who were found drifting at sea after the dive boat sank, about 22km offshore from Phuket.

The dive boat, named Choke Somboon, sent out a distress message at 11pm on Sunday (0300 AEDT Monday) as it was returning to Phuket, one of Thailand%26#39;s most famous beach resorts, about 600km south of Bangkok.

Contact with the boat was then lost, Wanlop said.

Dive Asia, the owner of the boat, asked that a search-and-rescue operation be launched on Monday morning.

The Gazette has listed the names of the 7 missing people%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;

www.phuketgazette.net/dailynews/index.asp鈥?/a>

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