Divers hoping for a miracle find only bodies in ferry

DIVERS found bodies in lifevests bobbing in airpockets of a giant sunken ferry in the Philippines yesterday, and an official said it would be a miracle if any of the hundreds of missing had survived.

The MV Princess of the Stars had more than 860 people on board when it ran aground and capsized in huge swells off the cost of Sibuyan Island during a typhoon last Saturday.

There are fears that hundreds more bodies may be trapped within the seven-storey vessel after survivors said many did not make it off in time.

One spoke of children rolling around on the floor as the ship tilted.

“They may have been caught wherever they were at the particular time that the vessel changed its position,” said navy spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Edgard Arevalo.

He said divers saw up to 15 bodies in one part of the ship.

“When they tried to enter the vessel they saw several corpses floating in the airpocket,” Arevalo said.

Three bloated corpses were cut free from a tangle of cables and brought to the surface. One, believed to be a crew member, was still clutching his radio.

“It will be a miracle if we find survivors,” said Lieutenant Commander Inocencio Rosario, who led a team of divers.

Retrieval efforts were hampered by a lack of search lights, the ship’s large size and unstable conditions.

Officials plan to bore a hole in the side of the vessel to retrieve more corpses.

Drilling will have to be done cautiously because the ship, which is resting upside down with only the tip of its bow above water, is estimated to have about 100,000 litres of bunker fuel still on board.

A slick of oil had formed around the ship, but local officials said it did not represent a leak.

So far, 48 people have been found alive out of 865 passengers and crew on board and 70 bodies have been counted, the coastguard said.

Decomposing corpses keep washing up on surrounding islands, including 22 on one island, forcing ill-equipped communities to quickly bury them.

The sinking of Princess of the Stars may be the Philippines’ worst maritime disaster since 1987 when the Dona Paz ferry collided with an oil tanker killing more than 4,000.

Sulpicio Lines, which owns Princess of the Stars, also owned Dona Paz.

It offered to fly one family member per victim to Manila from Cebu, where the ship was meant to dock, to help identify recovered bodies.