Family was doing a recreational diving cruise as a ship was hit by a storm
A Portuguese couple and their two children suffered at dawn minor injuries in a wreck on the way of Phuket, Thailand, with Portuguese consular services already following the process, according to an official source.
The couple’s head, Alexandre Guedes, telephonely reported to the Lusa agency that he was doing a recreational diving cruise accompanied by his wife and two children, 12 and 17, when the tourist ship was hit by a storm, being inoperative and having suffered a fire, around 04:00 local, eventually wreck.
The Guedes family, as well as the remaining 12 foreign tourists who enjoyed the four-day tourist program and the crew, had to wear life jackets and jump to the sea, thus losing all personal goods and documentation, eventually rescued by another vessel in the area.
According to Lusa, both passengers and crew suffered only a few abrasions during the rescue, but end up losing money, objects and all the necessary documentation to be able to return to Portugal.
However, Alexandre Guedes and family triggered the SOS service of the Portuguese consulate to try to solve the loss of documents, even though they have marked flight to Portugal on Monday.
Official source from the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Lusa that the Portuguese Consular Emergency Office in Thailand is already aware of the accident and that the replacement of documentation is already being treated and that everything will be ready soon, so that the family can return to Portugal.
The family had been in Phuket since Tuesday, from Bangkok, to, during their holiday program to make four days of recreational diving (liveboard), when the last dawn was formed a strong storm that led to the fire and wreck of the MV amazing class and ”, with about three dozen people on board, between tourists and crew.
According to the report of the accident made to the agency Lusa, around 4:00 am this dawn, before the last day of diving, began to hear “fire on board, there was no light and could not breathe”
“The only thing you could do was get out of the room with your mobile phone [à prova de água] that served me as light. All equipment, such as diving computers, equipment, flashlights, fins, among others, such as personal clothing, luggage (…) were on board, as well as personal documentation, with passports and money, ”said Alexandre Guedes.
“We put the life jackets and jumped from the bow to the sea, where we were collected by another boat named“ MV Raga, ”he recalled.
