What Happened to Kazu I?
By Tina Aghdam
News Editor
On Saturday April 23rd, the Kazu I boat in Japan was reported missing after flooding began to occur inside the vessel, allegedly causing the boat to start sinking. The tour boat left the Utoro port at 10 am and was expected to return by 1 pm. There were 26 people on board: 24 passengers and two crew members.
Water temperatures near the region the boat is believed to have sank, in the Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido, a northern region of Japan, were declared to have been around 35-37 degreed Fahrenheit by Japan’s Meteorological Agency, which is near freezing. The water that day was particularly tumultuous, with waves rising up to 9.8 feet high, which may have been a contributing factor to the incident. It was confirmed later that 11 people died after this incident, as of the following Monday, including a child. The rest of the passengers are still missing, and a search is underway to find them, mobilizing aircrafts, patrol boats and fishing boats in the efforts.
This is not the first time an accident has occurred with this tour boat. A little under a year prior, there was a collision with an object that led to minor injuries for three of the passengers.
Authorities are looking in to the accident to identify risk factors that can prevent this situation from occurring again. Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito is closely monitoring the progression of events and considers implementing additional safety features.
