Milne Bay disaster office suspends operation of interisland boats

THE Milne Bay provincial disaster office has suspended the operation of all interisland boats until the end of the cyclone season.
Provincial Disaster Office coordinator Steven Tobessa said the effects of Tropical Cyclone Lucas was being felt in the province.
“I have (stopped) all boats and ships from going out to the sea,” he said. “The cyclone season started in November and will end in April.
“We will make sure that people on these boats who call themselves captains, engineers or whatever maritime position they have are competent.
“We will check their ratings and see which maritime school they attended to get those certificates,” he said.
Tobessa said a captain should have a master class five certificate and an engineer a rating of five.
“We are coming down hard on the boat owners because we believe that some crew members are not qualified to take passengers out to the sea endangering their lives,” he said. A foreign vessel rescued 13 people on Saturday after they had been drifting at sea for nine days when their boat developed engine problem between Kiriwina Island and Nomanby Island.
“We believe that the crew members of that boat were not qualified because after the boat developed engine problem, the engineer was unable to fix it,” he said.
An Australian aircraft sighted the boat on Saturday at 3pm north east of Rossell Island near the border with the Solomon Islands.
The New Zealand-bound cargo carrier ship MV Canhope picked up the passengers and dropped them at Misima Island on Sunday.