Official 'would not let family sail' on Ashika

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The Tongan official who issued the certificate which allowed the doomed Princess Ashika to sail says he would not have let his family sail on the dilapidated ferry.

Viliami Tu'ipulotu, acting head of Tonga's Marine Department, said he had issued the "provisional certificate of survey" on July 3, in effect declaring the vessel seaworthy.

He was giving evidence to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the sinking of the Ashika on August 5, with the loss of 74 lives.

Asked if he would have let his family to sail on the vessel, Tu'ipulotu said he would not.

Only July 1, he had decided the 36-year-old vessel was unseaworthy and unsafe in Tongan waters. He and a team of surveyors had surveyed the ship berthed in Nuku'alofa on July 2 and found a long list of deficiencies, including a leaking bow and stern ramp.

Tu'ipulotu agreed the certificate he issued was "false" but denied he had been given an "inducement".

He agreed a vessel was either seaworthy or not seaworthy, which rendered the "provisional certificate" a nonsense.

Before he had taken over as director in September 2008, his office had issued provisional certificates to other vessels, Tu'ipulotu said.

The Ashika had sailed from Nuku'alofa on July 3, its first scheduled trip in Tonga, without the defects being fixed, he told the commission. This had angered one of Tu'ipulotu's surveyors who wanted the vessel stopped. He had told the surveyor to "go ahead" but had not followed up himself.

The ship had berthed about five minutes from his office on three occasions before the fatal voyage, but he took no action to ensure the defects were fixed.

John Jonesse, the Christchurch businessman running the Shipping Corporation of Polynesia, had visited Tu'ipulotu about two or three times on July 3 chasing up the certificate. Jonesse had told him "everything had been sorted out" with the previous Marine Department head Bill Johnson.

Tu'ipulotu said he had given Jonesse a list of deficiencies on July 5.

- © Fairfax NZ News