A preliminary investigation by the State Council held the crew members mainly responsible for the December 18 incident.

Eight of the 47 people on board the ferry died when the vessel sank in the Yangtze River's Chongqing section.

Only seven people were saved and 32 were still missing as of yesterday.

Largely because of its much bigger mass and volume, the ro-ro ship remained almost intact.

Zhang Changbao, a publicity officer with the Changshou district government of Chongqing Municipality, yesterday said some ro-ro crew members are accused of "driving too fast" and "moving too close" to the ferry.

"Heavy fog at the time of the accident is no excuse because the captain was not at his post at the time, leaving everything in charge of an assistant who had none of the relevant qualifications," said Zhang.

It was not clear how many ro-ro crew members were involved but the accused crew members have already been detained.

Official action is expected to be taken against them as soon as the State Council investigators produce the final version of their report, said Zhang.

The ferry crew were also criticized for "ineffective observation."

The sunken ferry was successfully salvaged at 11 am on Monday.

The ferry hull was in a badly battered condition, as many people had expected, but no more bodies were found.

According to what some survivors have said, the ferry seems to have gone down with most of those aboard.

The search for those missing has been expanded from the usual 20-kilometer diameter around the accident site to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, 300 kilometers away.

(China Daily December 26, 2002)