Two more people presumed dead in ship crash; Police detain ship captains

Rescue workers called off the search for two persons missing since a water taxi and a rapid ferry collided with each other near Terschelling. Two people were killed in the Friday morning accident, and those missing have not been found, a spokesperson for the local safety office said late in the morning. The captains of both vessels were detained for police questioning.

The missing persons are a man and a 12-year-old child, both of whom were believed to be on the Stormloper water taxi, as were the two victims who died. A spokesperson for the rescue society KNRM told the Volkskrant that the conditions in the water are terrible. The water is icy cold, to the point that rescue workers started becoming hypothermic while searching for them. A spokesperson for the Coast Guard told NOS that the current is very strong and someone in the water could easily drift out to sea. The victims are presumed dead.

All four victims were on the water taxi

The Stormloper, which departed from the port of Harlingen, collided with the rapid ferry MS Tiger owned by Rederij Doeksen. The Tiger had departed from Terschelling at around 7:15 a.m. on Friday entering the Schuitengat between Terschelling and Vlieland.

At the time of the accident, the water taxi had eight people on board, including the captain, who was among those hospitalized. The passengers included three men employed by the construction company Friso Bouwgroep, which handles some projects on Terschelling. The son of one of the construction workers was also on the boat, as were three subcontractors working on the same project, AD reported.

The water taxi sank after the collision, and the people on board ended up in the water. Rescue workers pulled at six people out of the water. Two were resuscitated at the scene before being rushed to hospital, where they succumbed to their injuries, a spokesperson for the security office confirmed.

There were 27 people on the Tiger at the time of the accident, including six or seven crew members. The ferry took on water after the collision but managed to make its way to the port in Harlingen, where a reception center was set up for those on board. None of those aboard the ferry were injured.

Police investigation underway

The captains of both vessels were detained by police for questioning, a spokesperson for the city of Terschelling confirmed to NL Times. "This is standard procedure," she said. They were not formally arrested, and had not been charged with a crime as of 2 p.m., she stressed.

The cause of the accident is not yet known. The police and the Dutch Safety Board will investigate.

According to the security office spokesperson, the rescue services will reevaluate how to proceed at a later time, but they could not say when. “That depends on many things, such as the current and the wind.” They wouldn’t say why the search was called off. The search and rescue operation involved six boats and a helicopter.