GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Rescuers were reporting 219 saved at 08:00 Swiss time but another 350 are missing after a boat disaster in Papua New Guinea. The MV Rabaul Queen, operated by Star Ships, which is one of the country’s largest ferry operators, sank between Lae and Kimbe West after being reported missing at about 08:30 local time Thursday 2 February, but the reason for the boat going down is not yet known. Australian News.com reports that six merchant vessels are in the area, helping search for survivors and that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority has “arranged ships in the area to conduct rescues and for aircraft to fly over the area”.
The owners issued a statement, according to Reuters, that the boat sank quickly, without sending a distress signal.
New Britain Island is a hugely popular diving area that pulls in international tourists.
Links to other sites: Herald Sun, Australia, Reuters
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IOC President Jacques Rogge, YOG Ambassadors and the Innsbruck 2012 YOG mascot Yoggl at the Olympic Museum (photo ©2011 CIO / Richard Juilliart)
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The Olympic Museum in Lausanne, one of the region’s most popular tourist attractions, will close 30 January for 20 months for major renovations. Entrance to the museum, which has 200,000 thousand visitors a year, is free from 1 December to 29 January.
During the renovations a CGN Lake Geneva boat docked in Ouchy will house a temporary, smaller museum.
The International Olympic Committee is investing CHF55 million to modernize the museum, which opened in 1993.
It will be enlarged, from 2,000m2 to 3,000m2, thanks to its research centre moving to a neighbouring building.
The restaurant will have a green roof and the museum will be equipped with at least 300 screens. The museum will be developing two new areas for school group visits.
The new-look museum will re-open in November 2013.
Close to 160 die at sea
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND = A boat carrying more than 800 persons between the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba has sunk off the coast of Zanzibar, with nearly 190 people dead, 20 missing and more than 520 rescued, according to the government of Tanzania.
Zanzibar is an autonomous region of Tanzania and a popular tourist destination.
The boat was registered with about 600 people aboard, but dozens scrambled on in addition to those listed, and the boat’s ballast was well over its limit. It was carrying sugar, rice and wheat, twice its legal load of 60 tons.
It sank in the Indian Ocean after it was hit by high winds and waves.
Witness makes unconfirmed report girls seen in Italy day father died
Update 13:25 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - French authorities say Wednesday morning 9 February that missing Swiss twins Alessia and Livia Schepp were seen on the ferry to Corsica 31 January. The information has not yet been confirmed by Vaud police, who are leading the three-country investigation, but it appears the search for the girls may now intensify in and around Corsica.
An Italian witness has come forward to say she saw the father and his daughters in Cerignola, the town where the father committed suicide, the day of his death. Italian newspapers carry an interview with a bar/cafe owner in the town who says the father asked her if his daughters could use the toilets. Video camera footage reportedly shows him, but not the girls, although she says they, too, were there. If police accept her as a credible witness, it would be the first time they were seen in Italy.
French public defender Jacques Dallest told a Wednesday morning press conference in Marseille that witnesses have now come forth who say they heard and saw the girls: the woman with the cabin next door to the trio heard them in their room and later saw the girls in the ferry’s play area. She has positively identified one of them.
The person who saw them Tuesday morning, getting off the ferry, has been identified as an elderly man who couldn’t see the girls clearly, but who saw a man and two children.
Vaud police, at a Tuesday evening press conference, stated that the father has never been been violent, correcting information that has appeared in some media reports. “There wasn’t any reason to think the lives of his daughters were at risk,” before the girls disappeared, said Jean-Christophe Sauterel, head of press and communications for the Vaud Cantonal Police.
The girls’ uncle, who has been talking to media from outside the mother’s home in St Sulpice, has said he will no longer be available to the press.
Reminder, girls’ appearance: when last seen in St Sulpice the two blond six-year-olds, who wear titanium-rimmed glasses, orange and bordeaux were dressed as follows: Alessia was in blue jeans, with a striped T-shirt and white jacket, Livia had a purple ski jacket and was wearing pink and white sports shoes.
Bienne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A 74-year-old man questioned in relation to the death of a young woman, might not have been able to spot the couple rafting on Lake Biel Sunday 11 July.
A news article on the SonntagsBlick quotes the suspect’s business partner, and friend of 60 years, who says the man was suffering from poor vision at the time of the accident.
According to the friend, the suspect had been told he needed to correct his vision if he wanted to keep his driver’s license – something he kept doing anyway. The man finally underwent corrective eye surgery two days after the fatal boating accident.
Geneva, Switzerland - heat wave (photo, Peter Brodbeck on flickr)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – The city of Geneva is now offering a “Geneva pass” with several special visitor offers that should save tourists money and make it easier to select some of the city’s top attractions.
The city’s tourism office is making available for one, two or three days (CHF25, 35 or 45) passes with a good variety of options on offer, some free, some discounted, and with some gifts.
Sightseeing tours by tram, boat or guided walks are part of the offer, with free visits to a number of museums.
Bienne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Bernese police are questioning a 74-year-old man in connection with a Bienne boating death Sunday 11 July. His Boesch boat moored on Lake Biel corresponds to the model described by witnesses of the accident.
The victim and her fiancé had been in an inflatable craft but dived into the water when they saw the speed boat coming directly at them. The woman was fatally hit by the boat propeller and died in the arms of her companion shortly after the boat struck.
According to witnesses, the boat that hit the couple was heading for Bienne and did not stop after the incident.
The man questioned, a Bienne resident, says he was cruising Lake Biel but denied being the person responsible for the young woman’s death. His companions say they never saw an inflatable boat or noticed any incidents while riding in the boat.
Police have seized the boat pending the investigation.
Biel/Bienne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) - Bernese police are seeking witnesses who can provide clues that will help them find the owner of a speed boat that hit a 24-year-old woman in Lake Bienne Sunday 11 July, critically injuring her. She died in the arms of her companion shortly after the boat struck. She and a young man had been in an inflatable craft but dived into the water when they saw the other boat coming directly at them.
The boat, driven by a man thought to be 55-65 years old, was heading for Bienne and did not stop. Police are hoping the driver or his passengers will come forward.
Pfaeffikon, canton Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The body of a 22-year-old man from Pfaffikon near Zurich has been recovered from the Pfaeffikersee lake. He and three companions went out on the lake in a boat around 01:30of Monday, after drinking. The boat capsized and one man swam to shore while two others were pulled in by rescuers. The fourth man was found 250 metres from shore, 18 metres underwater, at the end of a day of searching that involved several divers, helicopters and a boat equipped with a special camera, reports Le Nouvelliste (Fre).
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Divers trying to bring up a sunken boat in Lake Zurich Sunday made a macabre discovery: 13 urns holding human ashes were at the bottom of the lake. Charges have been filed against an unknown person for disturbing the dead, while police investigate the source of the urns.
Links to TSR (Fre)
(AP video) A ferry with more than 242 people aboard sank in heavy seas off the island of Sumatra Sunday. A dramatic rescue operation brought some 240 people to safety, but at least 29 people died, and it was clear that the ferry’s manifest did not list all the people aboard, not uncommon in a region where ferries are often over-crowded. A second ferry ran aground nearby, but its passengers are safe.
Links to other sites: AP/Yahoo, Reuters
Update 31 August 06:30 Martigny and Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The week’s end death and serious injury toll from non-road accidents in the Lake Geneva area in Switzerland was high, with 2 young men in critical condition after a swimming pool accident in Martigny and a diving accident in Prangins, and three people dead from mountain climbing accidents.
An American student, 20, is in critical condition, reports the Tribune de Geneve, following a diving accident Sunday afternoon at the Plage de Promenthoux in Prangins. Diving is banned along the lakefront in the area because of the shallow water. He was flown by a Rega helicopter to the Lucerne paraplegic trauma centre after receiving emergency treatment at the site of the accident.
A 23-year-old and two friends climbed the municipal pool fence at 05:00 Saturday, according to 24 Heures, and once in the pool two of them noticed that their friend was missing.
Alinghi 5 sailing first time, 20 July 2009
Photos, ©Carlo Borlenghi/Alinghi (click on images to view larger)
Le Bouveret, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The long-awaited new Alinghi sailcraft hit the water at the eastern end of Lake Geneva today to much excitement: the weather was glorious, and legal tussles faded into the background as the magnificent-looking boat had its maiden sail. The Swiss America’s Cup Defender, Alinghi 5, was watched by hundreds of spectators as it went out on Lake Geneva, Switzerland, for the first time at noon, Monday 20 July.
The boat is a 90 foot multihull which took 100,000 man-hours to build. It was put on the lake 9 July and its first foray onto the lake today was in a light 5-7 ESE ‘Vauderon’, according to the Swiss weather service, Meteoswiss.
Strategist Murray Jones, who is running the trials on the new boat, said afterwards:
