http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/world/asia/ship-reported-sunk-in-chinas-yangtze.html?_r=0 A cruise ship filled with more than 400 mostly elderly passengers went down on the Yangtze. Apparently there has been a great deal of bad weather and the river was experiencing heavy flooding.
Both the captain and the chief engineer managed to make it out alive. What good luck, right? http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/06/china-ship-accident-yangtze-river-150601222832322.html
Don't read too much into the crew getting off on this one yet. They would have been above deck when it rolled. Given the weather I'd assume most passengers were below. What I'm hearing is that it was possibly hit by a tornado. There wasn't even enough time to get off a Mayday. The first emergency notifications came from survivors as they reached land. So far the initial reports are a lot of elderly and a lot of young passengers, and the ship wasn't overloaded. Hopefully it'll turn out to be just one of those things that happen and only mother nature is to blame, but we'll see. Latest reports I'm hearing is that they're reaching survivors. Hopes and prayers go out to all.
The captain being towards the top of the ship I can see, but I'd expect the chief engineer to be down in engineering.
That caught my attention as well, but for now I'll assume he was up on deck for a smoke break or other legitimate purpose (or he ran like hell and knew where to go as the ship began to roll), and luck was with him. It seems like we've had a rash of overloaded, maintenance issue, operator error accidents in recent years, and too many cowardly captains who saved themselves first. So our minds tend to start the blame game early. I think it's too early just yet in this case. This is still unfolding.
Occasionally Chief Engineers have to have hours of rest and sometimes their cabins are on the same level as the masters so don't be too quick to condemn someone
I will admit that my opinion was initially shaped by the fact that they were incarcerated. On reflection, that is probably not a reliable indicator in China.
They don't take your photo in China when you get arrested they tissue type you in case you match a relative looking for an organ
This is the Chinese river cruise ship Eastern Star. An Inland waterway purpose built ship, most likely not capable of withstandig gale force storms.
From what I have seen and heard on the TV the weather conditions claimed by the Captain might not be the same as those experienced by the rest of the locale.
