Torres Strait deaths `totally avoidable'
25.09.2009



By: Tony Koch

CRUCIAL evidence on the 2005 sinking of the immigration vessel Malu Sara in the Torres Strait, with the loss of all five on board, has forced the Australian Transport Safety Bureau to acknowledge a failure by rescue authorities to take action that could have averted the tragedy.
A supplementary report, released yesterday by the ATSB, said evidence regarding the state of the Malu Sara had not been passed on, and the ``mistaken assumption'' that a well-equipped helicopter was not available contributed to the failure to save the lives of five Torres Strait Islanders.
The report said this significant evidence was not provided to the ATSB during the initial safety investigation.
It was revealed during a 2007 inquest that ATSB investigators had not bothered to interview key people involved in decision-making regarding the plight of the Immigration Department boat.
Their original report largely laid the blame for the sinking of the vessel at the feet of the skipper, Wilfred Baira, an Immigration Department official who was instructed to drive the motor vessel on its fateful, 74km trip from Saibai Island near Papua New Guinea to Badu Island, in October 2005.
The instruction was issued by Immigration Department official Garry Chaston, who knew that earlier that day the Malu Sara had been taking water. He was responsible for purchasing the vessel, and knew it had no navigation equipment.
Mr Chaston also knew Baira was not licensed to handle the Malu Sara.
Mr Chaston has since been allowed to resign from the department and retire with
full superannuation and leave entitlements.
The supplementary report was also strongly critical of Queensland police officer Sergeant Warren Flegg, who was in contact throughout the night with the Malu Sara but did not think its plight required any rescue measures until several hours after Baira reported it was sinking.
The report said: ``It was not until 1154 hours on October 15 that the Rescue Co-ordinating Centre in Canberra, at the request of the police, formally assumed responsibility for the co-ordination of the aerial search. This was over eight hours after the water police were told the Malu Sara was sinking and in need of assistance.''
The report further acknowledged that Sergeant Flegg did not ``task'' a helicopter because he did not check earlier information that it was unserviceable. The helicopter was in fact fully operational and available.
On the issue of two people and a pilot in a search plane reporting seeing someone in the water wearing a yellow life jacket, the amended report said because the sighting was unconfirmed, it was officially recorded that there were ``no sightings''.
In his inquest findings, Queensland Coroner Michael Barnes said the sinking of the Malu Sara was ``a foreseeable and totally avoidable disaster that resulted from official indolence and incompetence''.
He reported that the five islanders who died were mocked by Sergeant Flegg and rescue officers when they made distress calls by satellite telephone.
No charges have been laid against the builders of the unseaworthy boat or anybody else in regard to the deaths.