Traveller: Normal for crews to collect extras

By ELLEN TIAMU
A RESIDENT in Madang says it is common for crew members of passenger vessels to collect extra fares from passengers for themselves.
Pius Bugatar said he had travelled on many passenger vessels and had noticed the trend, especially during peak periods such as Christmas when school children and people on holiday tra­velled home and back.
He said it was during such times that many ships would be filled to capacity so that crew members could make some money for themselves.
He was responding to reports presented to yesterday’s Commission of Inquiry into the sinking of the mv Rabaul Queen on Feb 2 in Lae, Morobe province.
Many survivors reported an overloaded vessel.
A manifest produced before the inquiry last week in Port Moresby by ship owner Peter Sharp showed that 376 people were aboard the vessel when it sank.
Of that, 237 survived.
Survivors who had testified at the inquiry claimed there were more than 500 passengers on board when the Rabaul Queen sank in rough weather and high seas in Finschhafen, Morobe, last February.