The warning signs were already in the logbook. In April 2006, repeated engine problems stranded SuperFerry 9's passengers for a day and a half at sea. In February 2007, engine failure left her dead in the water off Negros Island, and the Maritime Industry Authority revoked her safety certificate. In May 2009, engine trouble again stranded 900 passengers off Camiguin. Four months after that last incident, on September 6, 2009, the ferry capsized off the southwest coast of the Zamboanga Peninsula with 971 people on board. Ten of them died. The rest survived because of a rescue effort that was heroic -- and because luck held where mechanical reliability had not.
SuperFerry 9 was born in Japan in 1986 as the Ariake, built at the Usuki Iron Works Saiki Factory for Ooshima Transportation Company. She ran the Tokyo to Naha route through Amami Island until 1995, when she was retired and sold to William Lines Incorporated in the Philippines. Refitted in Cebu City as the M/V Wilines Mabuhay 5, she was meant to be the fourth in a series of luxury ferries. Before her maiden voyage, however, William Lines merged with Gothong Lines and Aboitiz Shipping Corporation to form WG&A Philippines. She never sailed under the name her original Filipino owners gave her. In 2007, after WG&A sold off four other SuperFerry vessels, she was refurbished again -- this time with reduced passenger capacity to carry more cargo. By the time she made her final voyage, she had been rebuilt, renamed, and repurposed so many times that her identity was a palimpsest of corporate decisions.
SuperFerry 9 departed General Santos at 8:45 AM on September 5, 2009, bound for Iloilo City in the central Philippines. The route would take her around the Zamboanga Peninsula, approximately 150 kilometers from Zamboanga City. Between 3:00 and 4:00 AM on September 6, Captain Jose Yap sent a distress signal: the ship was listing to starboard. An hour later, he ordered 971 passengers and crew to abandon ship. The vessel that had been designed for the calm waters between Japanese islands was now capsizing in the rough seas of the Philippine archipelago.
The MV Myriad, a cargo ship also owned by Aboitiz, arrived at the scene at 5:20 AM. Within an hour, half of the passengers had been pulled from SuperFerry 9 and transferred to life rafts. The Philippine Navy launched search and rescue operations across a widening area of open sea. On September 7, search parties found survivor Lita Casumlum eight miles -- thirteen kilometers -- from the sinking site, alone in the water. The last remaining passenger was brought to shore by fishing vessel on September 8, severely injured. By September 9, 961 of the 971 people aboard had been accounted for. The ten who died included passengers whose names could be matched to the manifest but whose bodies could not be matched to survivors.
Aboitiz Transport System arranged medical care, accommodation, counseling, and transport for the survivors. The Maritime Industry Authority announced an inquiry. Whether the investigation would meet international standards was, even at the time, an open question: the Philippines' record on maritime safety investigations was not encouraging. The inherent stability of roll-on, roll-off vessels -- ferries designed with large vehicle decks and stern ramps -- had been questioned in maritime inquiries across Europe for years. If a design flaw existed in SuperFerry 9, or if any modification had compromised the vessel's stability, only a thorough examination of the wreck could reveal it. Given the frequency of typhoons and heavy seas in the Philippine archipelago, and the country's heavy reliance on Ro-Ro ferries for inter-island transportation, the questions raised by the sinking reached far beyond a single vessel.
The approximate sinking location is at 7.46N, 121.90E in open waters off the southwest coast of the Zamboanga Peninsula, roughly 150 km from Zamboanga City. This is open sea with no land features nearby. Zamboanga International Airport (RPMZ) is the nearest major airport. The waters in this area are subject to rough seas, particularly during monsoon season. The Zamboanga Peninsula coastline lies to the east and northeast. From altitude, this stretch of the Sulu Sea between the peninsula and Basilan Island is featureless ocean.