10 Feb 2012

PNG ferry survivor says owner should pay for lost possessions

2:07 pm on 10 February 2012

A survivor of last week's ferry sinking in Papua New Guinea says the vessel's owners should compensate people for their lost possessions.

246 people were rescued after the MV Rabaul Queen sank in rough seas last week near the end of a 20-hour journey between Kimbe and PNG's second largest city, Lae.

Stephanie Satra, who comes from Bougainville, managed to get her 14-year-old brother and herself aboard a liferaft.

The 20-year-old Papua New Guinea National Polytechnic student says the shipping company had no concern for the passengers, many of whom were students.

"They should stop the shipping company. And they should pay for what we lost. Because some of us, we are students and we've got laptops and all those and all our things, properties, they are gone and we have nothing, we're left with nothing."

Stephanie Satra says the ferry was so crowded many people didn't have room to sit down.