Chonburi —
A Thai mother is desperately seeking the help of rescue teams to find her son’s body after he went missing in a boat capsizing incident in Chonburi province 12 days ago.
On June 5th, a small fishing boat named “Chok Si Fah” capsized in the waters near the Laem Chabang Pier, around 1.2 nautical miles from the Banglamung estuary in the Banglamung district of Chonburi province. One survivor, a 23-year-old Cambodian national only identified as Mr. Chiang, managed to cling to an oil drum and float back to shore. However, the Thai boat’s owner and captain, 50-year-old Mr. Wichai Malison, went missing.
On June 6th, Mr. Wichai’s body was found floating face down near the Laem Chabang Pier in the Sri Racha district, not far from the capsizing site. Unfortunately, as the Sawang Prateep Sri Racha Rescue Team was preparing to retrieve the body, a large cargo ship passed by, causing waves to dislodge the corpse and carry it away.
Despite extensive search efforts over the past 12 days, Mr. Wichai’s body has yet to be recovered at the time of reporting. On June 17th, Mr. Wichai’s mother, Mrs. Bong Malison, 77, visited the rescue foundation to plead with the rescue teams for help in locating her son’s body.
Mrs. Bong told The Pattaya News reporters that she felt frustrated that the naval unit had initially prohibited the Sawang Prateep Sri Racha Rescue Team from recovering the corpse, claiming they would handle the matter themselves. However, they could not do it before the large cargo ship caused the body to be lost at sea once again.
In response to Mrs. Bong’s plea, the rescue foundation deployed a team of over 50 people, two speedboats, and two jet skis to search for her son’s body. The search was focused on the area near the Laem Chabang fishing community, where the body was last seen.
The search for Mrs. Bong’s son’s body is continuing as of press time.
