Vanuatu searches a coastline for more than 30 people after MV Matui sinks

Search teams in Vanuatu were working a coastline on Monday rather than open water, looking for more than 30 people still missing after the inter-island ferry MV Matui sank on Friday between Santo and Ambae. The prime minister's office said on Sunday that 15 people had been accounted for alive and that one body had been recovered. Local reports put a second death in the water that could not be brought in because of the sea state.

The ship, run by Tui's Shipping, left Santo at about 6 a.m. on Friday for Ambae, a crossing of roughly 96 kilometres. Luganville MP Matai Seremaiah said it went over about 9.30 a.m. A crew member swam ashore and raised the alarm. Help, by several local accounts, took more than 30 hours to arrive in force. Prime Minister Jotham Napat's office took over the search on Sunday after the prime minister said he could not reach senior officials.

The office statement was blunt. The loss appeared to come from strong winds and marine warnings that were not heeded, and possibly from negligence including overloading. Vanuatu Meteorology and Geo-Hazards Department director Levu Antfalo said his office had issued a marine strong-wind warning at 5 a.m. on Friday: southeast winds of 26 to 30 knots and seas up to three metres in northern waters. He also said the weather service can warn and cannot order a ship to stay alongside.

Mark Turnbull, an Australian pilot and doctor based on Gaua in Torba province, was among the first in the air. Survivors told him they had held onto a 1,000-litre agricultural tank that had come off the ferry. Five people on that tank died the first night, they said. On the second day the remaining group split up. Turnbull called it a miracle that anyone lived.

Vanuatu has 83 islands and fewer than 350,000 people. Inter-island boats are the road network. When a warning and a sailing time collide, the gap Antfalo described becomes a body count. Twin four-year-olds were among those reported missing. Life jackets were already a question in the first witness accounts.

Monday's shift from open-water search to coastline search is an admission about currents. After three days, people still alive are more likely to be in the wrack line than in the original sinking box. The useful next disclosure from the prime minister's office is a reconciled passenger list. Forty-seven on board is the working figure. Fifteen alive and one or two dead leaves a hole larger than 30. Until names are published, that hole is the story.