By Thai Newsroom Reporters
THE NAVY HAS BEEN SUSPECTED of attempting to keep the sunken corvette HTMS Sukhothai (FSG-442) literally buried undersea to make the actual cause of 2022’s incident an unsolved mystery.
In today’s (Feb 26) press conference, Move Forward MP Chayapon Satondee said members of the public could probably suspect that the navy may have attempted to hide the actual cause of HTMS Sukhothai’s sinking from being ever known to the public after it has been otherwise retrieved from the 50-metre-deep bottom of the sea off Prachuap Khiri Khan.
The tragic mishap of the US-built corvette which capsized and sank in a stormy seas on Dec. 18, 2022 reportedly killed 24 sailors and rendered five others missing.
“Given a sustained delay in the planned retrieval of the corvette from undersea, one cannot help suspecting that the navy may have ultimately intended to keep the ship literally buried undersea for fear that pieces of evidence otherwise retrieved to the surface could probably unveil the actual cause of the incident,” Chayapon said.
Certain commanding officers would certainly be held accountable for the losses of the sailors and navy ship only if the mystery surrounding its tragic incident is finally unveiled to the public, according to the Move Forward MP.
The tragedy could probably have occurred due to human error which decidedly caused the navy ship to capsize and sink undersea about 20 nautical miles off Bang Sapan district of the southwestern province whilst carrying out a non-combat mission, Chayapon said.
The navy corvette had not been very seaworthy in the wake of strong winds and high tides in the sea whereas the captain could have steered it either to Bang Sapan shore or back to Sattahip naval base but he did nothing to preclude the tragic incident, according to the lawmaker.
Chayapon confirmed that a sum of 200 million baht in funding for the delayed retrieval of the sunken ship has already been provided by the House Budget Committee as requested by the navy in the current fiscal year whilst the US navy has earlier offered to help with a retrieval mission free of charge.
His comments have emerged whilst the Thai and US navies are currently engaging in the so-called light salvage mission in which some 60 navy divers are literally disarming the sunken ship.
The Ratanakosin-class corvette was reportedly armed with Harpoon surface-to-surface missiles, Aspide surface-to-air missiles, Mark-32 torpedos, a 76mm cannon and other cannons apart from M-16 assault rifles.
Chayapon said the US navy will only see to it that all armaments aboard be properly removed from the sunken ship as specified in the conditions and terms of its purchase contracts whilst the Thai navy alone is yet to decide how soon the whole ship will ever be retrieved from undersea.
However, Navy Fleet commander Adm Chartchai Thongsaard earlier said two rounds of bidding among private firms had been held to do the complete retrieval of the sunken ship but none had won it as yet for lack of quality specs and relevant documents.
The navy has apparently remained non-committal over how soon the complete ship retrieval project could possibly be carried out.
CAPTIONS:
Top: A composite photo showing HTMS Sukhothai sailing then sinking.
Front Page: HTMS Sukhothai sinking. Both photos: Thai Rath
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