'Lamma IV's seats were secure, missing door never meant to be there': Shipbuilder

The head of the company that built the Lamma IV ferry involved in the fatal National Day collision told the inquiry into the disaster its seats were not designed to withstand a collision.

The seats were secured firmly to its deck, Ken Lo Ngok-yang said.

Rescuers and survivors of the vessel's collision with the Sea Smooth off Lamma Island had previously told the commission that most of the upper deck seats became detached after the crash, trapping passengers as the ship sank. Some of those trapped eventually died. The commission-appointed naval architect, Dr Anthony Armstrong, mentioned in his report that the seats were loosely secured.

But Lo, the director of Cheoy Lee Shipyards, which built both the Lamma IV and Sea Smooth, vigorously defended his company yesterday, insisting that the seats were adequately secured and still useable even after 16 years. "If you rock your seat all the time, the seat … will crack or fall apart," he said. "For this type of vessel, I don't think anybody would have assumed that [seats would withstand collision]. This is not a requirement."

The veteran shipbuilder said seats were usually secured by screws to a fibreglass deck with bedding compounds to prevent water from seeping in and causing the screws to rust. Lo also addressed Armstrong's report that a missing watertight door had led to the flooding of three compartments and contributed to the speedy sinking of the ship. "It was never meant to have a door on it from day one," he said.

But counsel for the commission Roger Beresford pointed out that on the drawings of the ship, a "W.T. Door" marked the access opening of the aft bulkhead, suggesting that a watertight door had been included in the plan.