UPDATING All Day, Every Day
A fisherman found missing expat Sescha Bading ''clinging to a rock'' in Chumpon Marine Park, his friend, Frank Jostik, said today. Mr Bading was being taken to hospital to have his condition checked. A major search had just begun.
Original Report
PHUKET: A desperate search has just begun for a German businessman who fell off the night ferry between Chumpon province and Khao Tao in the Gulf of Thailand last night.
The missing man, Sescha Bading, managed to telephone a friend, Frank Jostik,to tell him that he had tumbled into the water.
Today Mr Jostik said all his calls to emergency numbers failed to produce any action. Finally this morning, he heard that a Chumpon police boat had begun to search.
''He has been in the water for six-and-a-half hours,'' Mr Jostik said. ''It's very frustrating.
''There have been reports from fishing boats, apparently, of sighting someone in the water. But nobody has stopped to pick him up.''
Mr Jostik runs a dive business on Khao Tao and says his wife is in a yachting business with Mr Bading. The two had known each other for more than 10 years.
''The captain of the night ferry has confirmed that Sescha went on board the ferry at 11.30pm and saw him carry his bag into the sleeping area, but didn't see him again,'' Mr Jostik said.
Mr Jostik said that the distress call came from his friend not long after 11.30pm. ''The vessel has to go through the Chumpon marine park before reaching open water, so he may still be in that area.''
It was frustrating trying to sound the alarm at night after receiving the distress call from his friend, Mr Jostik said.
''I called all the emergency numbers,'' he said. ''They either didn't answer, or if they did answer, they said it was not their area or somebody else's problem.''
Lieutenant Noppachai Kerboonkaew at Pak Nam Police Station in Chumpon confirmed today that the disappearance of the 53-year-old businessman had been reported.
''We have informed Marine Police,'' he said. ''The ferry is actually a modified fishing vessel.''
Marine Police told a Phuketwan reporter that they were waiting for further information from police at Pak Nam before making a search.
Lieutenant Noppachai said his superior officer had mentioned the man was missing to the Army but a proposed helicopter search had yet to begin.
The skies were clearer this morning than they had been overnight, Lieutenant Noppachai said.
How does a guy fall of a ferry unnoticed?
Posted by Tommy on August 7, 2013 08:58