Two Finns in lucky escape from Thailand speedboat accident
Seven dead and at least 15 missing in new blow to Thai tourist trade
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A speedboat accident that occurred around dawn local time on Tuesday, close to the Thai island resort of Ko Samui, has left seven people dead and perhaps as many as twenty missing, believed drowned.
At least two young Finnish tourists were on board the canopied boat, which was returning from a monthly "full-moon rave" party on the nearby island of Ko Pha-Ngan. They were outside on deck when the boat suddenly capsized, and were thrown into the water, but neither was injured.
There were no confirmed reports on Tuesday of the involvement of any other Finns.
The immediate cause of the accident is thought to be overcrowding on the boat. Although intended to take only a maximum of 30 or 40 persons, the boat was allegedly carrying 54 tourists. A large wave hit the vessel and it turned over. Local officials said four of the dead were foreign tourists and three were Thais. The captain of the boat, who had initially eluded police, later surrendered himself.
According to subsequent reports from the Reuters news agency, the number of missing has been reduced from 20 to 15, and the search is continuing. The website of the Samui Hospital, which treated some 30 survivors, said the missing included a Swede, a German, two Americans, two Britons, two Australians, and four Thais. The bodies of three Britons and an American were identified by Wednesday morning.
Speaking from the Finnish Embassy in Bangkok, the Ambassador Heikki Tuunanen said that the number of missing was high because of strong currents in the area that hampered the search for bodies.
The two Finns reported home almost immediately, saying that they had been in the vessel and had been tossed into the water. Numerous other boats were returning to Ko Samui from the other island at the time, and it is believed some of these picked up the survivors.
The Finnish Embassy, perhaps cautioned by the problems associated with the early hours after last month’s tsunami, was at pains to point out that it had no information on other possible Finnish casualties, but apparently all of the young people about whom the Embassy received enquiries are safe.
Ambassador Tuunanen said he believed that a good many Finns would have been at the rave - which is a regular event and is attended by thousands or even ten thousands of young people each month. Most of the victims are thought to be in their 20s. Reuters suggested that there was some confusion at the time of the accident (around 5 a.m.), as many of the survivors were still drunk or high after the alcohol- and drug-fuelled beach gathering.
Ko Samui is a popular resort island on the Gulf of Thailand, with tours arranged from Finland by Aurinkomatkat and Finnmatkat. Aurinkomatkat had contacted all of its 67 clients on the island by Tuesday.
The place is also popular with backpackers and independent tourists, and has been heavily crowded of late, as tourists have deserted the Andaman Sea beaches and islands of Western Thailand that were affected by the Boxing Day tsunami catastrophe, seeking alternative accommodation from the Gulf Coast instead.
Quite apart from the loss of life, the accident is expected be a further long-term blow to the important Thai tourist industry, which is already reeling after the resorts of Phuket, Khao Lak, and Ko Phi Phi were smashed by the waves of December 26th. More than 5,000 died in Thailand, around half of them foreign tourists.
Nearly 200 Finns who were holidaying in Thailand at the time are dead or listed as missing as a result of the tsunami, making it the largest peacetime loss of life to affect this country in the last hundred years.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 26.1.2005 - TODAY |
 Two Finns in lucky escape from Thailand speedboat accident |
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