LABUAN: The Labuan chapter of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) has confirmed that the number of passengers and vehicles that boarded the Labuan-Menumbok ferry on Feb 1 that went viral on various social media platforms yesterday was below the ferry’s capacity.
Its enforcement chief Captain Maritime Che Adnan Md Isa, said an operation had been conducted on all ferries to check on their compliance with the safety procedure.
The agency also made a spot check on the operation office of the ferry concerned and the manifest confirmed the recorded number of passengers was 290, and 209 for vehicles including motorcycles.
The picture of the allegedly overloaded Menumbok-bound ferry taken at 6am (Feb 1) went viral only minutes after the ferry disembarked at the Menumbok jetty.
Bernama Labuan correspondent was the first to receive the picture from a friend before it went viral and raised concerns among the Labuan folk.
It then became a hot topic of discussions in the Labuan’s largest WhatsApp group of ‘Kongsi2 Info Labuan’ and was shared widely by other WhatsApp groups across the country due to their concerns on whether the ferry had followed the safety procedures.
This also triggered Labuan Marine Department and MMEA to conduct checks on all sea transports including the speedboats. – Bernama
