Body of sunken dive vessel victim identified
PHUKET CITY: The identity of the female tourist whose body was recovered by a Royal Thai Navy vessel this morning has been confirmed as that of Austrian national Gabrielle Jetzinger, a source at the Phuket office of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM-Phuket) has revealed.
Ms Jetzinger was among seven passengers still listed as missing after the dive vessel Choke Somboon 19 (“Perfect Luck 19”) sank in a sea squall late on Sunday night.
Local fishermen helped Marine Police pick up 23 survivors found floating adrift in an inflatable life raft near the site of the incident at about 2 am on Monday.
Six other people – five of them foreigners – remain among the missing: Yuba Hirotsuga (Japan); Klaus Konradder and Monika Schuster (Austria); Sibylle Bucher and Rolf Niederberge (Switzerland); and Thai national Jumpa “Gen” Sorntat, the boat’s cook.
Ms Jetzinger’s body, spotted at about 10:30 am by an airplane involved in the ongoing search-and-rescue operation, is now being held at Vachira Phuket Hospital.
Ms Jetzinger’s body was not in a life jacket at the time of its recovery.
The search-and-rescue effort will be suspended at dusk today and resume at daybreak tomorrow.
