MV Doña Paz

The Doña Paz, 1984 in Tacloban City, Philippines

• Himeyuri Maru
• Don Sulpicio

The Philippine ferry Doña Paz was a ferry the ferry company Sulpicio Lines. Your collision with a tanker cost on 20 December 1987 on 4,300 people's lives. It thus is the most serious shipping accident in peacetime.

Misfortune course

The Doña Paz collided on the way from Leyte to Manila near Mindoro in the Strait of Tablas with the small tanker Vector, which was owned by Caltex Philippines and carried a cargo of 8800 barrels of petroleum products. There was an explosion and a subsequent fire, which spread quickly. The ferry sank within two hours, the tanker two hours later. Only 24 passengers on the Doña Paz and two crew members of the vectors could be saved from Don Claudio. They had diving swim among the flames. None of the lifeboats could be suspended.

The following inquest came to a number of victims of 4317 passengers, 58 crew members of the Doña Paz and eleven crew members of the Vector. Officially, the ferry carrying more than 1518 people. The Doña Paz was not equipped with radio. The boxes with life jackets on the ferry were locked. It was also noted that the crew of the Vector was not qualified and that the approval of the tanker had expired. It took eight hours for the authorities learned from the disaster and another eight hours until a search and rescue operation started off, which turned out to be in vain.