Bison-Exp-Ress

Vroon BV, the owner of the "Bison Express", which had been en route from Jakarta to Fremantle when coming to the rescue of 130 asylum seekers on June 26, commended its crew. "Vroon would like to thank the crew of Bison Express for carrying out their duty as mariners, assisting the authorities in the rescue operation," the company said. "Both 'Bison Express''s crew and the company's thoughts are with the people and families going through this ordeal." Had the Dutch-owned cattle carrier Bison Express not been nearby when the boat made its first distress call, the death toll with at least four people dead - would have been greater. Just 67 minutes after the cattle carrier arrived and photographed the desperate asylum seekers in their lifejackets on the deck of their decrepit boat, it capsized and they were flung into the sea. There were still unaccounted persons in the water," the captain said on June 28. "We are still in a rescue operation. We have rescued seven." Apart from those picked up by the crew of the "Bison Express", 123 others were rescued by two other merchant ships. The ships arrived at 10.30a.m., more than four hours after the first distress call from the boat to Australian Federal Police at 6.17 a.m. and another at 7.30 a.m. giving a precise location. At 11.37 a.m. the boat capsized. As of last night, Indonesia had not sent any ships to help with the rescue efforts, which were concentrated just 25k m from where a vessel capsized last week claiming the lives of up to 90 asylum seekers. There are similarities with both boats, they left from the same area of Indonesia, were both overloaded and followed an almost identical route to Christmas Island. Indonesia's search and rescue agency Basarnas claimed asylum seekers had sabotaged their own boat to stop being ordered to turn around. Senior Australian government sources said there was no evidence the boat, which was almost 200 km north of Christmas Island and in Indonesia's search zone, had been deliberately damaged. They claimed generators on board failed and it had taken on water.

A vessel carrying some 150 asylum seekers capsized on the Indian Ocean near Christmas Island on June 26, 2012. A satellite phone call was made by one of the passengers stating the vessel was in distress and required assistance. The "Bison Express" had passed the boat earlier taking a photo of the crowded decks of the boat. The "Bison Express" was then contacted by the authorities to assist while they dispatched two Australian Navy vessels to the scene. Another merchant vessel arrived on scene to assist in search and rescue operations. The number of survivors were not known by early reports. Photo: http://www.amsa.gov.au/media/incidents/ChristmasIslandJune2012/images/2012-June-BisonExpress1.jpg