Waiting ... family members standby for news about the passengers on board.
Australian rescue crews saved more than 200 Papua New Guineans from drowning after the MV Rabaul Queen ferry they were travelling on sank in open waters. But as night fell efforts were called off and fears remained for the 150 still missing. Officials believe up to 350 people were on board the ferry when it went down about 8.30am yesterday. They had been travelling in the Solomon Sea to Papua New Guinea's north town of Lae from the West New Britain town of Kimbe.
Australian rescue crews saved more than 200 Papua New Guineans from drowning after the MV Rabaul Queen ferry they were travelling on sank in open waters. But as night fell efforts were called off and fears remained for the 150 still missing. Officials believe up to 350 people were on board the ferry when it went down about 8.30am yesterday. They had been travelling in the Solomon Sea to Papua New Guinea's north town of Lae from the West New Britain town of Kimbe.
The ship is owned by the brother of Papua New Guinea's National Maritime Safety Authority chairman. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority, working with NMSA, directed commercial ships and several aircraft to scour the area as part of a co-ordinated search and rescue mission.
Despite initial fears that most of the passengers would drown, late yesterday afternoon AMSA spokeswoman Carly Lusk said there were eight merchant vessels on the scene, five of which had recovered survivors.
''There are reported to be 238 survivors on these five vessels,'' she said.Three search helicopters were helping rescue passengers as well as AMSA's dedicated search and rescue Dornier aircraft from Cairns, an Australian Defence Force PC3 Orion aircraft and AMSA's Dornier from Darwin.
Three life rafts from the MV Rabaul Queen float above the sunken hull of the ferry.
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