Divers Locate the Last Missing Victims of Raja 4 Sinking
[Brief] Divers have located the last two missing victims of the sinking of the car ferry Raja 4, which went down just off the coast of Koh Samui, Thailand on August 1.
11 out of the 16 people on board survived and were rescued without injuries, and three bodies were found in the days after the casualty. Two men - a truck driver and one seafarer - remained missing until Monday, when divers from a private salvage company located their bodies in between trucks on the sunken ferry's vehicle decks, according to the Bangkok Post. The victims' remains were not raised immediately due to challenging subsurface currents, but another attempt will be made on Tuesday.
The Raja 4 went down carrying three trucks loaded with garbage and electronic waste, according to the paper. The salvage plan calls for recovering the waste for safe disposal.
Raja 4 capsized near the popular resort island of Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand on August 1. At about 2045 hours, she left the pier at Koh Samui, bound for the mainland port of Don Sak. She encountered high winds and rough surface conditions at about 2200 hours, and she capsized about two nm off the coast.
The Koh Samui police force sent two patrol boats to conduct a search and rescue operation, and despite the foul weather, they located and saved seven crewmembers and two truck drivers. Two additional survivors were found on Koh Taen Island the following day.