There was a "big sound of an explosion" after the two vessels in the Lamma ferry disaster crashed, a passenger told the commission of inquiry yesterday.
Lamma IV passenger Chan Wing-hang, 54, said the lights went out and he suspected the explosion was caused by water rushing into the engine room.
Other passengers who testified yesterday said Lamma IV suddenly accelerated before the collision with the Lamma ferry Sea Smooth. No horns were heard, they said. Screams, shrieks and crying were heard in a recording played at the hearing.
Chan, an engineer at Hongkong Electric, was sitting on the deck with his wife, daughter and son. He said he felt a strong impact five minutes after the boat left Lamma Island and his family fell to the floor. He went into the cabin for a lifejacket, then heard an explosion. He couldn't open his eyes as "lots of things and people" were pressing on him. "I sensed that I needed to push [them] away," he said. "I tried my best to get hold of my wife … she did not know how to swim."
The couple escaped through a cabin window. His son, Chan Lap-kei, 26, who also testified yesterday, called the police shortly after the collision.
Housewife Cheng Yin-bun, 48, who lost her husband Chan Wing-kei in the accident, said she saw Sea Smooth moving towards Lamma IV at high speed. "I yelled, 'Don't ram into us!'," she said in a police statement. Her elder son Chan Kam-hei was unconscious and bleeding heavily after the crash. She tried to rouse him and grabbed her husband's shirt collar with one hand, holding onto the vessel with the other. Water rushed in, and she saw her husband fall into the sea. Her younger son, Chan Kam-ho, and another passenger, Lam Muk-lin, said Lamma IV suddenly sped up shortly before the crash.