Team of experts to investigate Yangtze cruise ship disaster
Official investigation to focus on weather, actions of the crew, alterations made to the vessel. Disaster left 442 dead or missing
China has assembled a 60-strong team to probe last week’s river cruise ship sinking following orders from President Xi Jinping to find the cause of the country’s worst maritime disaster in nearly seven decades.
Just 14 people survived the capsizing of the Eastern Star on the evening of June 1 amid heavy rain and wind as it was carrying 456 people, many of them elderly tourists, on a cruise to the Yangtze River port of Chongqing.
The authorities have attributed the sinking to a freak storm that generated tornado-like winds, but also have placed the surviving captain and his first engineer in police custody.
Extensive interviews have been conducted with surviving crew members, witnesses, those who designed and modified the ship and others, state broadcaster CCTV reported Wednesday. Sixty specialists have been gathered for the investigative team, the report said.
Video footage and other evidence have been obtained from the ship, and weather, radar and other data was being analysed for indications of what went wrong.
The disaster left 442 people dead or missing.
