2009 Kiribati ferry accident
The 2009 Kiribati ferry accident was the sinking, on 13 July 2009, of an inter-island ferry in the south Pacific nation of Kiribati. The accident is believed to have killed 33 of the ship's 55 passengers and crew.
The ferry was a double-hulled wood catamaran en route between Tarawa and the outlying island of Maiana. It capsized when the captain attempted to turn around to rescue a crew member who had been swept overboard in high seas. The Royal New Zealand Air Force sent a C130 aircraft to aid in air-sea rescue and recovery operations; it aided in recovering twenty survivors, and seven bodies, before calling off the search. A further eighteen bodies were not recovered.
