OCEAN RESEARCHER V

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Wrong course caused sinking

On Mar 25, 2015, the office of maritime and port affairs made public the findings of its investigation into the causes of the sinking of the "Ocean Research V" on Oct 10, 2014, in which two researchers were killed and 25 people were injured. Confirming the initial assumptions, analysis of the data revealed that the accident was caused by a pilot error. The research vessel had sailed that day from the port of Anping, Tainan, with 45 people on board, including 37 researchers and 18 crew members, bound to Kinmen but had turned back because bad weather. It hit a reef off the islet Jibei in the Penghu archipelago at 4:44 p.m., then a second at 4:52 p.m., the violent impact causing a big hole in the hull of the ship quickly sank. Hsu Shih-chieh [許世傑], a researcher at the Academia Sinica, and Lin Yi-chun [林怡君] assistant engineer at the Research Institute of Taiwan from the ocean, were killed in the accident. Images taken of the damaged hull, which still lies forty meters deep, and information gathered from the voyage data recorder, showed that it had started to divert from the correct course at 4.15 p.m., about half an hour before the first grounding, and that therefore navigational instruments should have allowed the captain and his second to take the necessary action to avoid the rocks, but the two men did not respond.

Human error caused sinking of Taiwanese research ship

The sinking of Taiwanese maritime research vessel "Ocean Researcher V" has been attributed chiefly to human error, according to a Maritime and Port Bureau report released on Mar 2, 2015. Most members of the Committee for Investigation of Marine Casualties agreed that human error was the main contributing factor to the disaster. Investigators found that the crew members did not follow correct procedures during the return voyage, which required the use of nautical charts to map the ship position, and they did not make full preparation for the possibility of a disaster. Adjustments to the ship's course were not made when it deviated off course, which led to the tragedy. Neither the captain nor the crew realised the ship went off course due to bad weather and failed to adjust course in time. If they had made the adjustments in time, the accident on Oct 10, 2014, when the ship hit a reef and sank off Taiwan, certainly would not have happened. Two of the 45 people on board the vessel died.

Captain of lost research vessel released on bail

Huang Yu-fa, the captain of the "Ocean Researcher V" was released on US$3,288 bail on Oct 11, 2014. He was questioned by prosecutors in Penghu County in connection with the death of two researchers who were killed in the shipwreck. The two victims died of drowning during rescue efforts conducted by the military and the Coast Guard Administration. 24 more were injured. The two dead have been identified as Hsu Shih-chieh, a research fellow with Academia Sinica, and Lin Yi-chun of the Taiwan Ocean Research Institute. The 24 injured have been sent to hospitals in Penghu and Chiayi, and none of their injuries was life-threatening. The cause of the accident was under investigation. The task force, set up with the ministry's National Applied Research Laboratories, will focus on handling follow-up issues related to the ship's demise and cooperating with prosecutors in looking into the cause of the wreck. Weather conditions had turned ugly on Oct 10 after having been acceptable when the research ship set sail from Tainan on Oct 9. There were also questions about the competence of the crew, which is contracted out and rotated on a three-month basis, suggesting a possible lack of experience with the vessel.