Survivors tell of life jackets being locked away

By ELLEN TIAMU
THE Commission of Inquiry into the sinking of the mv Rabaul Queen on Feb 2 was told that life jackets were locked and not accessible to passengers when the vessel started sinking.
At Tuesday’s hearing, only one witness out of the six survivors said he saw three people wearing life jackets.
Roderick Voit, 26, from East New Britain, told the inquiry he believed more lives would have been saved if the life jackets were easily available.
Student Alexander Buago from the North Solomons province said he did not see any of the survivors wearing life jackets.
Electrician Theodore Yep said he saw only three survivors wearing life jackets during the sea ordeal.
When asked by the lawyer assisting the commissioner, Mal Varitimos whether he saw life jackets on the vessel, he said he did but they were locked and could not be accessed when the vessel began sinking.  
The witnesses also said they could not distinguish the crew members from the passengers because they did not wear uniforms. It took between eight and 10 hours before survivors were taken on board the foreign ships summoned to the area by a distress call.
The nine big ships were anchored in a way so as to form a barricade towards the south eastern end of the disaster spot.
From there, they could spot survivors. Smaller boats rescued the survivors and brought them back to Lae.