Cancun vacation boat sinks...and the crew is first off the boat?

[Charger_Fan]

I guess in Mexico, then have never heard of "the capitan & crew is last to leave".  Nice.
http://www.islandpacket.com//news/local/story/520588.html

Eight Hilton Head Island teens were among 126 people aboard a boat on a snorkeling excursion in Cancun, Mexico, when it sank Saturday about 2 miles offshore.

An 18-year-old from Dallas has been declared brain dead due to injuries she suffered in the incident. None of the passengers from Hilton Head Island, who were visiting Cancun for their senior-year trip, was seriously injured.

The vessel, the 75-foot Sea Star, had stopped above a coral reef and passengers were waiting to dive into the water to snorkel when alarmed passengers from the lower deck rushed to the upper deck, saying the boat was taking on water.

The boat, owned by a company called the Lagoon Club, is authorized to carry 80 passengers, said a port captain in Cancun. But Sea Star captain Agustin Cituk denied his boat was overloaded and said it could safely accommodate 250 passengers.

Cancun police are investigating the sinking and whether the boat was overloaded. GradCity, a Massachusetts-based travel agency, also is investigating the accident. The company had organized the Cancun trip with the snorkeling excursion for 120 graduates, including the Hilton Head group.

One of the Hilton Head youths, Kyle Cheadle, 18, said the Sea Star's crew radioed a mayday signal, but didn't notify passengers on the top deck that the vessel was sinking. Instead, the captain and crew abandoned ship, taking an inflatable lifeboat and lifejackets with them.

"No one was helping, so it was up to the guys on the boat," Cheadle said. "We tried to get all the girls out on lifeboats, and anyone that looked like they were panicking and needed help."

Some people were jumping off the boat without life jackets, Cheadle said. The Dallas teen jumped off the top deck and became stuck under the boat. The Hilton Head teens later saw rescuers trying to revive her.

Jason Chute, GradCity's director of operations, confirmed that the girl was one of his customers and is in critical condition at a Cancun hospital. Doctors there were trying to stabilize her before flying her to a hospital in Texas, Chute said. GradCity paid for the girl's mother and aunt to fly to Cancun.

"If there was a crew member up there helping people, that would have never happened," said Jordan Pfeil, 18, also from Hilton Head. "No one was there to settle people down. ... It was rocking, swaying back and forth, and we realized the thing is actually going down."

Within minutes of the mayday call, Cheadle said, nearby boaters and personal watercraft riders came to help with the rescue.

Most of his friends, familiar with boating and what to do in a water emergency, waited until all passengers needing help were safe before leaving the sinking boat. When the vessel struck a reef that was about 10 feet under water, they jumped off and swam to a nearby parasailing vessel that took them aboard and then to shore.

"People from (Hilton Head) weren't freaking out at all because we are used to being on boats and stuff, but there was a lot of people on the boat crying who had never been on a boat before," said Loren Mason, 17, also from Hilton Head. "It was all fend for yourself, and a lot of the life vests were jammed and we couldn't find them. It was definitely crazy."

Cheadle suffered minor cuts and bruises from swimming among the reefs where large waves were crashing. Pfeil cut his left heel on some coral and got a nickel-sized piece removed.

Cheadle, Pfeil and Mason returned home Sunday. The other five local graduates -- Tara Breem, Miranda Duane, Sam Tomlinson, Ivan Lazovic and Steffi Schwerdt -- are expected to return today.

Their parents are asking GradCity to reimburse them for the trip, which cost between $1,200 and $1,500 per person.

Chute, the GradCity official, said the agency would make that decision on a case-by-case basis.

[Shakey]

C'mon, two miles off shore and they're reacting like they were on the Titanic in the middle of the icy cold ocean - what morons.

There was a similar story a number of years ago with a cruise ship in the Mediterranean where the Captain was one of the first off the ship.   

[dkn1997]

I'd love to hear the reasoning behind the demand for the travel agency to reimburse the parents for the trip?  wft mf?  are you kidding me?  Like they knew that some yahoo was going to overload his boat.  I suppose it's the travel agencies fault if one of these kids gets run over by a dude on a llama or whatever the hell they ride down there..

[Mike DC]

I'd love to hear the reasoning behind the demand for the travel agency to reimburse the parents for the trip? wft mf? are you kidding me? Like they knew that some yahoo was going to overload his boat. I suppose it's the travel agencies fault if one of these kids gets run over by a dude on a llama or whatever the hell they ride down there..

You gotta love modern parents of teenagers. 


The same parents that don't trust their 17yo kids to handle bottle rockets in the backyard or be out after curfew on a weeknight in suburbia  .  .  .  will also buy them unsupervised trips with their friends down to Cancun & Aruba.