After being postponed due to bad weather, a project to remove the sunken Raja 4 ferry and its load of vehicles from the seabed off Koh Samui resumed. On the night of August 1st, the ship sunk as it carried many trash trucks from Samui to the mainland. As its load of trucks moved during the crossing, the boat had set out in poor weather and capsized. In the crash, 5 of the 16 passengers on board perished.
The relief mission is once again ongoing, with staff pulling an 18-wheel vehicle and a pick-up from the seabed, having first been temporarily halted owing to bad weather a few weeks earlier, then most recently due to storm Noul.
Nation Thailand states that 2 cranes, mounted on 2 vessels, were used by MS Service operators to carry out the salvage activity. The garbage truck was shrouded with netting prior to being removed, to avoid any more waste from accessing the sea. Tiny vessels were often used to catch any waste that managed to break free from the netting.
Previously, the Ministry of National Resources and Ecology tried to prosecute the ferry business for the environmental fallout from the capsize of the ferry. The ferry itself is yet to be taken from the seafloor.
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