Inspectors did not need to look for ship flaws, Hong Kong disaster probe told
Most inspectors ‘would just walk past and ignore’ defects, retired Marine Department official tells inquest into Lamma ferry tragedy
A former Marine Department official has maintained at a court inquest into one of Hong Kong’s deadliest maritime disasters that he and his colleagues were not obliged to detect structural flaws during regular ship inspections.
Retired principal ship surveyor Wong Chi-kin told the Coroner’s Court on Friday that department staff would only inspect specific items on a vessel “by intuition” without looking for possible defects.
Wong said ship inspectors would not have realised the lack of a watertight door in between two underdeck rooms of the Lamma IV passenger ferry as they would normally overlook matters not drawn to their attention before inspections.
Relatives of victims believe the lack of a watertight door contributed to the ferry’s rapid sinking after a collision with another vessel in 2012.
“Formally, we only looked at what was required of us,” the witness said.
When asked whether the structural defect should have been discovered sooner, he said it “could be possible” that an inspector could find out himself but most of them would just walk past and ignore it”.