By Mabinty M. Kamara
The Sierra Leone Maritime Administration (SLMA) says it has suspended the license of a Captain of the MV Freetown ferry, pending investigation into the circumstances surrounding an incident that caused the Ferry to get stuck in water recently.
While passengers blamed the incident on overloading, the authorities blame it on low tide and sand banking.
MV Freetown is one of two ferries that currently ply the Kissy Ferry Terminal and Tagrin route. This route across the estuary is the shortest link between the capital Freetown and the airport town of Lungi.
The ferry which is managed by a Libyan company called Afrinpex was on its first journey of the day on September 9th when it got stuck just minutes after departure at 8am. Passengers and eyewitnesses said the boat, with hundreds of passengers onboard, remained stranded for over 5 hours at about fifty meters away from the Tagrin terminal.
The situation got the passengers so worried that some had to pay to be rescued by smaller boats. Others, mainly businesses people, were forced to wait until the ferry was moved later in the day in protection of their goods.
Fatmata Sesay, a trader and regular traveler with the ferries, narrated her ordeal to Politico. She said the boat slanted so that it felt like it was falling.
“We got very worried not just for our lives but also for our businesses that were onboard, especially for some of us who take our businesses on loan and pay back after sales. They are mostly perishable,” she said.
While the management says the incident was caused by low time, Fatmata and many other passengers believe it was due to overloading.
Mohamed Kamara, public Relations Officer of SLMA, told Politico that while this might be the case, the Administration’s mandate being to ensure the safety of all passengers, they felt obliged to conduct an investigation to ascertain whether it was an error on the side of the captain or if it’s natural, in order to avert a reoccurrence.
According to the SLMA spokesman, the normal capacity of the ferry is between 350 and 400 people and 25 to 30 vehicles. He said the boat can only load its maximum 400 passengers when the number of vehicles is less than its maximum capacity. Kamara also noted that tickets are produced and sold according to the stated capacity.
“So overloading is not possible because we have our representatives in the entire terminal that monitor to ensure that no vessel exceeds its normal capacity,” he said.
The Kissy-Tagrin ferry services are the most used and reliable means of sea transportation in Sierra Leone, partly due to affordability. MV Freetown alternates with a second boat, MV Mahera, which is owned by a separate company.
There is an alternative route between Freetown and Lungi via Port Loko, but that route by road is far and cost more.
There are also other small luxury boats accessed mainly by the middle and upper classes.
As popular as they are, the Kissy-Tagrin ferry services have been characterized by recurrence of delays. Sometimes the experience gets risky.
Kamara said most times the problems have been caused by mechanical faults. But he stressed that the moment they notice the potential for such, SLMA immediately informs the Ferry management to stop operation until the fault is fixed.
But there have been reports of the ferries halting in the middle of sea due to such mechanical problems. In 2016, one of the worst years for the sea transport sector, the MV Freetown was left stranded at sea for an hour due to mechanical problem.
The SLMA didn’t say how long the investigation against the MV Freetown captain will last. But the ferry is said to be in full operation now since after the incident.
© 2019 Politico Online
