Issued by: Department of Transport
18 August 1997
On the afternoon of 4 July 1997 the bulk carrier LOSINJ, some 80 nautical miles to the East of Kosi Bay, came upon a liferaft with three survivors in it. The survivors were from a South African yacht, the TICKLED PINK, which had sunk, in a severe gale on a voyage from Madagascar to Richards Bay on the evening of 30 June 1997, some 100 nautical miles East of Cape Vidal.
Two of the survivors, on sighting the LOSINJ, swam towards it. Some of the crew of the LOSINJ realised that the two men were in difficulty and jumped into the sea to help them. One of the survivors drowned and after continued attempts to resuscitate him, was declared dead. The survivor on board the LOSINJ reported that a third survivor was unconscious and on board the liferaft. The ship inspected the liferaft and sighted no body on board. It search and reported it's findings to the South African Search and Rescue Authority (SASAR). SASAR put two helicopters into the search on 5 July 1997 and they failed to find the third survivor.
The remaining survivor was hospitalised at Richards Bay, but he regrettably died approximately one week later.
The search and rescue (SAR) operation of 5 July 1997 drew coordinators attention to a reported flare sighting late evening on 30 June 1997. The survivor's statement concerning a ship that they had attracted using flares and a draft plot revealed that the sinking of the TICKLED PINK and the reported flare sighting were one and the same.
This prompted the SASAR organisation to hold a formal debriefing of the SASAR role players to answer two questions. The questions being:
a. why was a SAR operation not initiated with the sighting of the flare? and b. what was the role of the ship signalled by the survivors?
The debriefing found that the ship involved was the 177 m long Liberian flagged bulk carrier KAGARLYK bound for Richards Bay. on the night of 30 June at 23:09 the master of the ship altered course towards a flare that had been sighted and on approaching the position, saw a faint flashing light which could have been from a torch or a liferaft canopy light. Soon thereafter the light disappeared and there was nothing to be seen. This is in agreement with the survivor's statement which said that the ship had altered towards them and approached them after firing two flares. He further stated that it was soon after this that their liferaft capsized into the sea. They scrambled back on board the liferaft but found that all the equipment was lost.
The master tried to stay on scene in the dark. However, his ship was in ballast and in the severe weather conditions was difficult to manoeuvre. The ship and the capsized liferaft drifted apart during the night and at daylight the liferaft was nowhere to be seen. At 11:39 on 1 July 1997 the KAGARLYK resume her voyage for Richards Bay.
The master of the KAGARLYK reported the flare sighting to the South African Search and Rescue (SASAR) authorities who, following procedure, went into an alert phase. The SAR coordinator attempted to substantiate the flare sighting with some additional information but was thwarted by the virtually impossible communication between shore and ship. It is procedure for the SAR coordinators to attempt to find some other information to confirm a sighting and only after such evidence do they put the resources of the organisation into operation. In this case, even after repeated attempts, the SAR coordinator was not able to communicate with the Master of the KAGARLYK. The flare sighting was treated as a first notice of distress placing the SASAR organisation on alert. However, because the flare sighting could not be substantiated, the organisation remained at an alert phase and was never lifted to a distress phase.
Another yacht, the "SEA WITCH", was in difficulty in the same gale off Kosi Bay. She communicated with the SAR authorities on a few occasions during the night but never declared a distress. On the morning of 1 July 1997 she informed the authorities that all was well and she was returning to Durban. This message could have been misinterpreted as coming from the same vessel that fired the flare and the alert phase was closed down.
For further information please contact the Director Shipping Competence, Captain Bill Dernier at Pretoria telephone (012) 309 3698.