Official: 12 killed as ex-Wash. state ferry capsizes in Tanzania
ARUSHA, Tanzania (AP) - A Zanzibar official says 12 people were killed in a ferry accident off the coast of Tanzania's island region of Zanzibar.
Mwinyihaji Makame, a deputy minister in the office of the president, said Wednesday it remained unclear how many passengers were on board, but witnesses said the ferry carried more than 200 people when it sank.
BBC News said the capsized ferry is the MV Skagit, a passenger-only ferry that serviced the Seattle-to-Vashon Island run before it was sold to Tanzania along with the MV Kalama.
The ferry was leaving the Tanzanian port city of Dar es Salaam and was headed for Zanzibar, which is popular with tourists.
Makame said a rescue effort was on and that police were investigating what caused the accident.
Last September more than 200 people were killed when a crowded ferry traveling between two islands of Zanzibar sank off the East African coast. Officials described it then as the worst accident in Tanzania's maritime history.
Mwinyihaji Makame, a deputy minister in the office of the president, said Wednesday it remained unclear how many passengers were on board, but witnesses said the ferry carried more than 200 people when it sank.
BBC News said the capsized ferry is the MV Skagit, a passenger-only ferry that serviced the Seattle-to-Vashon Island run before it was sold to Tanzania along with the MV Kalama.
The ferry was leaving the Tanzanian port city of Dar es Salaam and was headed for Zanzibar, which is popular with tourists.
Makame said a rescue effort was on and that police were investigating what caused the accident.
Last September more than 200 people were killed when a crowded ferry traveling between two islands of Zanzibar sank off the East African coast. Officials described it then as the worst accident in Tanzania's maritime history.
What's the problem, KOMO?
Too lazy to spell 'Washington'?
I don't live in 'Wash."!!
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People who live here are proud of our State and its name.
This sis just disrespectful--unless you have outsourced your reporting...did you guys offshore this to India/??
@spiffyjumper:Â How many times are you going to complain about them calling it "Wash."? Quit posting useless comments....
OK.. I've had it. WHO at KOMO is so lame as to keep using "WASH" as an abbreviation these days? It's making me crazy.
Have you seen photos of conductors shoe-horning passengers into the trains that run in India and China?
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Granted trains won't capsize but I'm sure there's a designed capacity limit for fire and safety reasons.
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I'm thinking if countries don't observe recommended capacity limitations on their rail, then they might not observe them on their water vessels either.
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I would be interested in knowing what the design capacity of the MV Skagit was.
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 @ChestersGorilla WSF operated the MV Skagit at a limit of 250 passengers, and cancelled her sailings during high winds.
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She went down - in high winds - carrying 280.
 @Islander Ouch...  That must have been a helluva sudden sustained gust.  I would think the captain would have turned her into the wind as soon as she started listing.
In many of these cases where these ferries capsize its because the ferry holds 100 people. They put 800 on it hanging from every spot possible, then it capsizes. I have no evidence to show this was the case here, but I think the majority of these tragedies are caused like this.
 @marvin The BBC is reporting that the passenger load was around 280, and in high winds. WSF operated the M/V Skagit at a limit of 250, and frequently cancelled sailings during high winds.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18890691
Interesting to see the cause of this one. BTW, nice to be back now that the commenting changes have finally arrived. Hopefully this will lead to a better experience.
I know a little too much about this boat - only by chance.
It was originally built as a 1 story oil rig tender. The second level was added to convert it to ferry service. Originally a Korean company wanted to use to shuttle people to some honeymoon island. A friend in NY at an investment bank - was called in to take a look at financing the project. Marine engineers told them the vessel wasn't a good design. The second level made it a high risk to capsize and not right itself so they wouldn't fund it.
Years later he ends up living on Vashon riding the same vessel. In stormy conditions Vashon people had to all be on the lower level to reduce the risk of capsizing.  A work around for safety for sure but really not a good design in the first place.
No More, "thumbs down" with the new comment section... :(.
 @HeesBonafide I liked the old comment forum better - you could both reply to a commenter & thumbs up or thumbs down them
@HeesBonafide The one thing I didn't like about the thumbs down, was it seemed like you needed a "ton" of thumbs up to move up a point, while only needed a handful of thumbs down to move down a point
Ok it seems the thumbs up is for each story & not accumlative "likes"
@HeesBonafide I don't know, maybe that's a good thing. You know the trolls feed off that stuff as well as the low ratings. They really got nothing of the sort to reach for now, so maybe they'll back off.
Condolences to the victims.
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I'd also like to add that this new commenting system sucks.
 @CWUwildcats I agree, the new system suck royally.
@CWUwildcats ,I agree, I am a little disappointed in the change in the comments section.
@Dave Lancaster; @CWUwildcats  @HeesBonafide I agree with you all that this new comment board sucks, and also don't like the removal of the thumbs down option!
 @KevinC I appreciate the 'no thumbs down' feature. All it took once was one post I made about a hot-button issue that riled up the regulars, and I was forever branded with the dreaded minus by my name.  This is much better.  WAY better. Thanks!!! Â
 @Hagar There's no way to block your posts from being seen by particular users. But we now have much better moderation tools available to us, and I would encourage you to flag any problematic posts or users.
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Please also feel free to email us at webteam@komonews.com if you want to let us know about any particular problems.
 @KevinC Hey Kevin I am just looking at this for the first time, but is there a way that a user can block posts from certain people when they are reviewing these messages? I have had a few that just harassed me with the same political garbage, sometimes not ever remotely relevant to the topic at hand. Same thing over and over again, following me from one story to another. It got to the point where I was not coming around as much. After 2700 posts. I guess that was their goal - to stifle my voice. It worked. Thanks!
@KevinC Actually I think not having the "thumbs down" is probably a good thing. As I pointed out to someone else, the trolls feed off that stuff as well as the low ratings. They really got nothing of the sort to reach for now, so maybe they'll back off. I've even commented on the KOMO posts on Facebook and really the likes seem to be more of an encouragement for better comments and you really don't see any of the bad or flat out dumb comments there. I really see that happening here. The thumbs down only encourages bad commenting. We should only allow likes to encourage good commenting. I think that will keep a more healthy forum here.
 @Linda32  @Dave The "thumbs down" option is something we're always evaluating. With the old system we found that it often stifled discussion, as groups of users could discourage posts with opposing viewpoints by mass down voting down any post from a particular user. We hope that instead users who disagree with a comment offer up their own comment in response and add to the discussion.
Rode on this ferry when I was young and while it was obviously older it was in good repair and had no issues. Pretty obvious the issue lies with the agency operating it in Tanzania.
@dg54321 That'a a pretty ignorant thing to say...I don't think anything is "obvious" yet, especially based off a few summarizing paragraphs. Likely? maybe...but obvious I think not.
Overloading is an issuer in Africa, India and many other areas. Â In addition, i find it disturbing that Tanzania officials called this the worst maritime accident in their history; when, it was only last year that the same thing happened. I blame it on the country (Tanzania) and they should be in huge trouble for this.
@ChrisP I think if you re-read this, it was last years accident they were talking about.
 @Seattle58  @ChrisP regardless, officials in Tanzania are so corrupt
Amazing how a ship can be in service for decades in America with no problems. Then put it into the hands of a third world country with no regards for safety, and Bam...12 people are dead. I'm glad to have been born here.
@Magic 8 Ball It is called governement regulations. It is the part of government that makes sure low lifes don't put the public in danger. Like the EPA that keep our rivers clean and our air breathable.
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I know you did not mean for to point that out but is one reason we pay tax dollars.