Four approvals despite lack of lifejackets
Marine Department surveys from 2007 gave the OK to Lamma IV although the inspections showed there were not enough safety devices
The Lamma IV was approved by Marine Department surveys at least four times since 2007, even though inspections showed there were not enough lifejackets on board, the commission of inquiry heard yesterday.
Marine law requires ships to carry one lifejacket for each adult passenger at the boat's full capacity, plus another 5 per cent for children. But inspection forms, signed by department officials and presented to the commission of inquiry yesterday, showed inspectors found only 92 adult lifejackets, and no child lifejackets, although the vessel could carry 232 passengers.
The surveys were approved four times between 2007 and 2011, the inquiry was told.
The situation after 2011 is not clear because the format of the inspection form changed, and no longer showed the exact number of lifejackets.
Hongkong Electric's marine manager, Tang Wan-on, told the inquiry there had never been any children's lifejackets on Lamma IV before the October 1 ferry disaster.
Johnny Mok SC, who represents the Department of Justice, suggested to him that children's lifejackets might have been presented to inspectors during the annual surveys, but Tang insisted such lifejackets had never been on board.
In 2011, Lamma IV and its sister ship the Lamma II carried as many as 500 children, aged six to 11, to the Lamma power station for an activity day without any children's lifejackets, the inquiry heard.
Counsel for the commission Paul Shieh Wing-tai, SC said the department may have turned a blind eye to the situation. "It looks as though they've been signing off certificates, in different formats, with zero children's lifejackets," he said.
Tang said the department had never raised the children's lifejacket issue with the company.
There were more than 232 lifejackets on board when Lamma IV was involved in the fatal October 1 collision, but none had been placed in the open area of the upper deck, Tang said.
Instead, some lifejackets were kept in lockers and the crew's cabin under the main deck.
Tang, who was involved in the brand new ship's inspection when it was received from Cheoy Lee Shipyards in 1996, said the company accepted the boat even though he noticed it was missing a watertight bulkhead.
At the time he was "not too much concerned" about the missing bulkhead, he told the inquiry.
As long as Cheoy Lee built the vessel and the Marine Department approved it, there was no reason for the company to rejected it, he said.
