Tour Boat With 26 People Aboard, Including Two Children Goes Missing In Japan

Tour Boat With 26 Passengers Including Children Goes Missing In Japan

Officials are on the search for a tour boat that reportedly went missing off the island of Hokkaido, Japan.

The Shiretoko Tour Boat had 26 passengers including two children on board and went missing early Saturday morning after taking off from the island. Officials said the Kazu 1 vessel made a distress call around 1 p.m. local time as reported by the New York Post.

The distress call was made after the boat’s bow was flooded and it was sinking with all passengers on board. It was last seen near the western part of the Shiretoko Peninsula and the water is at a reported freezing temperature. 

 

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A tour boat with 26 people aboard, including two children, has been missing off the coast of #Hokkaido, #Japan’s northernmost island, on Saturday with no sign of survivors, the country’s coastguard said.#北海道 pic.twitter.com/hhx5bmrN04

— Ifeng News (@IFENG__official) April 23, 2022

Experts say a whale could’ve struck the ship and hypothermia could be a huge possibility based on the frigid water temperature.

Coast Guard patrol boats and a helicopter were dispatched to search for any survivors and reported that passengers were most likely wearing life jackets since a lifeboat was not present on the vessel. As of Saturday evening, the coast guard has found four out of the 26 people who went missing as per the Associated Press.

Experts say a whale could’ve struck the ship and hypothermia could be a huge possibility based on the frigid water temperature.

Families also contacted Shiretoko Pleasure Cruiser for any updates regarding the missing boat but the company said in a statement: “We have been receiving a lot of calls from the passengers’ families. We have to handle it first.”

The Japanese Coast Guard said its helicopters found four of the 26 people on a tour boat that had gone missing the day before off the northern island of Hokkaido. It’s unclear if they were found alive. The vessel had sent a distress call 18 hours earlier. https://t.co/47hsqvXFf7

— The Associated Press (@AP) April 23, 2022