Bangkok, Thailand
CNN
—
Thai Navy officials said Tuesday there were not enough lifejackets for everyone on board the warship that sank early Monday morning in bad weather in the Gulf of Thailand, killing at least six people.
Twenty-three people remain missing and 76 have been rescued after the sinking of the corvette HTMS Sukhothai, Royal Thai Navy Commander Cherngchai Chomcherngpat said at a press conference.
Cherngchai said the ship had 105 people on board when it sank, 30 more than usual.
Additional officers were on board as the ship was participating in a salute to the founder of the Thai Navy, the admiral said, adding, “Usually more life jackets have to be added for the additional officers. I have to,” he added.
The crew was “fully aware of the problem of not having enough lifejackets to add 30 officers. ‘, said the Admiral.
Some without life jackets tried to escape on inflatable rafts. Some of them were stowed in corvettes, others were dropped by rescue helicopters and other ships.
Of the 30 people not wearing lifejackets, 18 were rescued and the rest are still missing, he said.
“The presence or absence of a life jacket does not affect survival,” he added.
He said the ship sank after sea water entered and disabled its power system.
Waves were 3 to 4 meters (10 to 13 feet) high at the time, and the water temperature was about 29 degrees Celsius (84 degrees Fahrenheit).
Around 8:45 pm on Sunday, water entered the front of the 252-foot (76.8 m) warship, Cherngchai said.
The flooding lasted for more than three hours, eventually shutting down the ship’s engines and electrical systems, rendering efforts to pump water out.
Rescuers aboard helicopters attempted to lower the water pumps onto the ship, but their efforts were thwarted when the ship began to list heavily.
The Admiral dismissed suggestions that the nearly 40-year-old ship may not have been in the proper shape to handle the high seas, saying it has been upgraded several times in recent years.
