At least 18 dead, hundreds rescued after ferry sinks in Philippines

A ferry with more than 350 people on board sank early on Monday near an island in the southern Philippines, killing at least 18 people, officials said. Rescuers saved hundreds more, while a fleet of coast guard and naval ships searched for those still missing.

The M/V Trisha Kerstin 3, an inter-island cargo and passenger ferry, was sailing from the port city of Zamboanga to southern Jolo island in Sulu province with 332 passengers and 27 crew members when it apparently encountered technical problems and sank after midnight, coast guard officials said.

The ferry sank in good weather about a nautical mile from the island village of Baluk-baluk in Basilan province, said coast guard Cmdr. Romel Dua.

"There was a coast guard safety officer on board, and he was the first to call and alert us to deploy rescue vessels," Dua said, adding that the safety officer survived.

Rescuers saved at least 316 passengers and crew members retrieved 18 bodies, officials said. Coast guard and navy ships, along with a surveillance plane, an air force Black Hawk helicopter and fleets of fishing boats carried out search and rescue operations for about two dozen people believed missing off Basilan, Dua said.

One of the rescued passengers, Mohamad Khan, said that the ferry abruptly tilted to one side and took on water, hurling people including him and his wife, who was holding their six-month-old baby, into the sea in the darkness. He and his wife were rescued, but their baby drowned.

"My wife lost hold of our baby and all of us got separated at sea," a distraught Khan told a volunteer rescuer, Gamar Alih, who posted a video of Khan's remarks on Facebook.

As Khan narrated their ordeal, his wife wept.

Cause of the sinking unclear

Alih, a village councillor from Zamboanga, told The Associated Press that he volunteered to help in the search and rescue because some of his relatives were among the ferry passengers. They all survived.

Coast guard and navy ships, along with a surveillance plane, an air force Black Hawk helicopter and fleets of fishing boats were carrying out search-and-rescue operations off Basilan, Dua said.

Basilan Governor Mujiv Hataman said several passengers and two bodies were brought to Isabela, the provincial capital, where he and ambulance vans waited.

"I'm receiving 37 people here in the pier. Unfortunately two are dead," Hataman said, speaking by by cellphone from the Isabela pier.

The cause of the ferry sinking was not immediately clear, and there will be an investigation, Dua said, adding that the coast guard cleared the ferry before it left the Zamboanga port, and there was no sign of overloading.

Sea accidents are common in the Philippine archipelago because of frequent storms, badly maintained vessels, overcrowding and spotty enforcement of safety regulations, especially in remote provinces.

In December 1987, the ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker in the central Philippines, killing more than 4,300 people in the world's deadliest peacetime maritime disaster.