Thailand sets up investigation into sunken boats

Dreadful memory

Wang Xiyu, 19, from Tonghua, Jilin province, who also went out to sea on a boat in Phuket and returned safely on Thursday at around 7 pm, described her experience as a "disaster".

Wang, with another four friends traveling to the island for holiday, bought a one-day sail trip for about 300 yuan ($45) on Wednesday through an online travel agency.

She witnessed the capsizing of the two boats, saying the storm created waves more than 4 meters high and caused great fear and desperation.

"I thought I would be over, especially after I saw one of the boats next to ours was almost perpendicular to the sea and some tourists on that boat were swallowed by the heavy waves," she said.

"The weather was good when we were on our way back to the Phuket Island from Racha Island at the beginning. I was fishing, chatting and laughing with my friends,"Wang recalled. "None of us knew we would experience such a storm the next minute."

"Our laughter suddenly stopped. We looked at each other in panic and kept silent," she said, adding that she did not receive any advance warning of the stormy, windy conditions from the local meteorological department or the agency.

Wang, who had arrived in Phuket on Tuesday, said she would continue her holiday in other places in Thailand in the following days, but "just won't sail anymore".

Weather warning

Thailand is in the middle of its rainy season, which usually runs from May to October and often generates high winds and flash storms in coastal areas, especially on its west coast on the Indian Ocean, where Phuket is located.

The Phoenix was among several boats that appeared to have ignored a warning in place since Wednesday not to take tourists on day trips to the islands that dot the seas off Phuket, Agence France-Presse reported.

Several other vessels hit trouble late on Thursday, but all of their passengers were rescued.

Ni, the Phuket travel agency operator, said the island's meteorological department issued a weather warning earlier this week that said the weather would turn bad starting on Thursday and might bring waves of 2 or 3 meters high, and suggesting that local travel agencies and boat companies not leave the docks.

He said he was not sure whether the alert was sent to all sailing service providers, but he added that his agency canceled all sailing trips due to safety concerns.

Ma Zhenhuan in Haining, Zhejiang, and Mo Jingxi in Beijing contributed to this story.