At about June 1 2 1 30, the tourist passenger ship "Oriental Star" capsized and capsized in Damazhou Waterway, Jianli County, Jingzhou City, Hubei Province. Jiangsu Wurun Shipping Company intensively receives the signals sent by ships every 2 seconds, and stops sending the signals at 2 1: 28: 49 that night.
Wu Jianqiang, a tourist from Tianjin, said in an interview that it happened when he fell from the teacup to the bottom of the boat. "The whole time is only 1 minute. Too fast! " He was the first person to send out a distress signal.
At 23: 5 1 that night, the maritime department called the police after receiving the man overboard. At this time, nearly two and a half hours have passed since the passenger ship capsized.
2. Is the passenger ship out of service?
The passenger ship "Oriental Star" belongs to Chongqing Oriental Steamship Company. Built in 1994, the ship is 2 1. It belongs to the "old ship" that has been used for more than 15 years. The middle has been decorated, but it has not reached the mandatory retirement age of 30 years. The approved passenger quota is 534, there is no overload, and life jackets are enough.
3. Is it a luxury cruise ship?
The reporter learned that the wrecked "Oriental Star" is an ordinary tourist passenger ship in the Yangtze River, not a luxury cruise ship rumored by the outside world.
According to insiders, the ship type of "Oriental Star" is called "Economy Cruise" in the industry. Compared with luxury cruise ships, the positions of "Oriental Star" are more dense, more like a simple passenger ship. Compared with luxury cruise ships, "Oriental Star" has a big gap in safety, comfort and service level, as well as in hardware facilities. In terms of safety, luxury cruise ships have stronger wind resistance.
4. Is it overhauled as required?
Liu Yiqing, an electrician of "Oriental Star", said that the ship has been in good condition and has completed the annual inspection according to the regulations. On May 24th, when the passenger ship sailed from Chongqing to Wuhan, he asked for leave to disembark. "At that time, the weather was fine, the river was calm, the ship was in good condition and the navigation was smooth. The crew responsible for safety also checked the safety status of the ship every day and found no abnormalities. "
According to national regulations, ship inspection is divided into central and local systems. "Oriental Star" is not a luxury cruise ship, but a local ship inspection department.
According to the relevant regulations, the ship has been launched for more than 15 years, and the inspection frequency is higher than that of ordinary ships. Passenger ships over 24 years old need to be inspected once a year, while ordinary ships only need to be inspected once every six years.
5. Was there a tornado at the time of the incident?
On June 2, the expert group of China Meteorological Bureau announced that there was a tornado in this area during the sinking of the Yangtze River, with the wind force above 12, and the tornado was mainly located on the river surface, with the horizontal scale less than 1 km, and the duration of the tornado was 15 to 20 minutes, which was a local, small-scale and sudden severe convective disaster weather. China Meteorological Bureau sent an expert group to inspect the sunken Yangtze River, and combined with meteorological monitoring, meteorological radar monitoring data and on-site inspection and analysis, this conclusion was reached.
6. Why can a tornado "overturn" a passenger ship in an instant?
Huang Jianwei, director of the Navigation Department of Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration, said that to keep the ship sailing smoothly, it is necessary to have buoyancy and stability, so that the ship can reach a balanced state. When the external force is greater than the buoyancy and stability of the ship, it will capsize. However, the wind resistance of inland ships is worse than that of seagoing ships. The "Oriental Star" is 8-9 meters above the water surface and only 3.2 meters below the water surface. This ship has a shallow draft. The news released is that the ship encountered a tornado of magnitude 9.2, which was extremely destructive to the ship. Generally, a ship will not sail when it encounters a level 8 wind, and will anchor to avoid the wind.
7. Why is underwater rescue so difficult?
Li Qixiu, an expert from China Naval University of Engineering, said that there were five difficulties in the underwater rescue.
Difficulty 1: Low visibility underwater. After several days of heavy rain, the river is turbid, the underwater visibility is low and the sight distance is short. Divers are basically hand detectives. Although equipped with strong light, they still can't see anything under muddy water.
Difficulty 2: water is fast. According to the diving regulations, you can't dive when the speed exceeds 1.5m/s, but the water speed reaches 1.8m/s in some places.
Difficulty 3: The water temperature is cold. When the water temperature is about 20 degrees, the diver stays in the water for about 1 hour at a time and stays in a cold state for a long time.
Difficulty 4: The rescued person is out of control. Survivors are basically on the verge of psychological collapse. After seeing the diver, he will cling to the diver and have a low acceptance of the correct rescue instructions.
Difficulty 5: The underwater environment is complex, and it is dangerous to enter and exit the bend. Divers carry pipes, signal ropes tied to their bodies, etc. It is easy to be entangled by door panels, machines and other sundries. Once sharp debris damages the rescue equipment, it will pose a great threat to the diver's life. The diver Kanto, who rescued two survivors, encountered this danger. He decisively cut off the winding signal rope, lost his diving equipment and quickly emerged from the deep water. After coming out of the water, his eyes were red, his nostrils were bleeding and his ears were sore.
8. How many rescue plans are there? What is the overall rescue process?
On June 2, on the command ship "Aerial Survey 20 1", ministers, generals and rescue experts repeatedly deduced the salvage and rescue plan. * * * Three schemes are submitted for discussion: cutting the hull; Hoist the hull; Divers explore underwater.
Scheme 1 may be implemented as soon as possible, but it may cause the hull to sink after the air cushion leaks; Option 2 needs to mobilize large ships, and time is too late; If possible, option 3 is the most feasible way to save the survivors.
More than 200 divers from the three naval fleets in the East China Sea, the North China Sea and the South China Sea and the Naval Engineering University were urgently sent to the scene for rescue. At the same time, the rescue headquarters urgently dispatched a salvage ship to carry out hull salvage work after it was in place. The local government and villagers along the river launched a carpet search and rescue, and the scope of search and rescue was expanded to 200 kilometers downstream of the incident.
During the search and rescue for more than 70 hours, more than 200 divers explored more than 0/00 rooms on board/KLOC, and successfully rescued two trapped people.
On the 3rd, the hull cutting operation was put on the agenda. Rescuers drilled holes in the air cabin, sewage well and the first cabin, but found no signs of life.
On the 4th, divers went deep into the river bottom in batches to carry out the work of crossing the bottom with steel wires, and put the steel wires in the front and back of the ship for righting and hoisting.
At 7: 02 on the 5th, the righting work began. It completely returned to normal at 9: 06. /kloc-around 0/9, the sunken ship was lifted and surfaced.
9. Why can't you cut it rashly? Why cut the hull after 48 hours?
Experts such as Wu Zhenglian, a senior engineer of CSSC 708 Institute, pointed out that when the ship suddenly sinks, the air in the cabin will be slowly exhausted in the water and move upward in the cabin, which may form many air cushions or airbags, which can maintain people's lives in a short time. However, due to the rising air pressure in the ship, the ship floated to the surface. Once cut and rescued rashly, it will directly lead to the "Oriental Star" passenger ship sinking into the bottom of the river, and the previous work will be wasted.
Li Qixiu, an expert from Naval University of Engineering, said that the "Oriental Star" was overturned in a very short time, so there may be an air cushion layer at the bottom of the cabin closest to the water surface, and the two rescued people were rescued from the air cushion layer at the bottom of the ship. However, the longer the delay, the less chance the survivors will survive, and the cutting boat will bring more hope to the survivors. Cutting will cause air to escape and cause the hull to sink, so it is necessary to wrap the steel cable around the hull, salvage the steel cable on the ship and lift the ship. It takes time to dispatch salvage boats and wind steel cables.
10. Why did you start righting on June 5th?
Xu Chengguang, spokesman of the Ministry of Transport, said that five factors were fully considered when making the decision of overall righting and lifting:
1. Combining the recent search results and the results of using life detectors, no survivors and signs of life were found. According to the comprehensive research and analysis of experts, the hope of survivors on board is getting more and more slim. In the case of overall judgment that there is no possibility of survival, the overall righting can be implemented;
2. The overall strengthening of the body is conducive to speeding up the search and rescue progress and searching for missing persons;
3. The righting and hoisting operations conform to international and professional practices;
4. On-site equipment and facilities are complete, all preparatory work has been put in place, and it has the ability of righting and hoisting;
5. Experts and technicians in the fields of salvage and rescue, hull and shipbuilding have been sent from all over the country to provide technical support for the work.
According to international practice, 72 hours is regarded as the standard line of life. Before that, we must do everything possible to determine whether there is life. If 72 hours arrive, make sure there is no life, then turn the boat over. This is respect for life.