An inaccurate message from Chinese authorities took rescue workers away from the scene of a sinking fishing boat, in a disaster that killed at least three people and left five missing.
Family members of some of the crew of the Taiwan-flagged Chang Shun Fa spoke out for the first time yesterday, criticizing rescue workers failing to double check the information in the Chinese reports before turning back.
The bodies of captain Lin Chun-hsing (林宗興), ship engineer Pan Fu-ching (潘福慶) and a crewman believed to be Chinese were later recovered near the wreckage.
Pan’s wife said her husband froze to death waiting for rescuers who did not show up. Items recovered from his body were dry and showed no signs of water damage.
“He was awaiting rescue in a lifeboat,” she said. “They didn’t come and he froze to death ... his body never touched the water.”
Lin’s daughter accused rescuers of failing to mount an efficient rescue operation within the first 72 hours of the accident. Coast Guard Administration officials were alerted immediately after the fire broke out, she said.
“Why did this failure take place?” she asked.
The coast guard received word of Monday’s fire at 5pm, from crewmembers’ familes who had received telephone calls from the crew about the accident. Coast guard vessels arrived at the scene at about 7pm, but were soon called off after receiving a message that the eight crewmen had been rescued.
A Chinese official had told Lienchiang County Commissioner Yang Sui-sheng (楊綏生) that the eight had escaped in a life raft and had been picked up by a Chinese fishing boat.
Yang forwarded that message to the coast guard.
The incorrect message given by China was later confirmed by a official surnamed Lu (陸) at Taiwan’s National Rescue Center, information provided by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers showed.
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