The Christmas Eve trip to the island in the Swedish holiday paradise ended in total panic.
The boat, with 70 passengers on board, sank when the engine suddenly stopped.
– We were in the middle of the water, in the middle of nowhere, says Linnéa Backemo, 20.
On Christmas Eve, Linnéa Backemo and her best girl friend wake up early to take a boat from the island of Koh Lipe to Koh Lanta in Thailand.
The girls, who usually live in Tyresö outside Stockholm, are currently in Thailand on a backpacking trip. Now family and some family friends have also come to visit them over Christmas and New Year.
All nine get into the speedboat and start to leave. When they have been sailing for about an hour, they hear a loud bang and something tearing into the hull.
– The boat continues to go but you sort of felt that this was not a good blow. We noticed that something was weird, says Linnéa.
Someone then opens a hatch in the front of the bow. It’s full of water there.
– That’s when we notice that the boat is leaking.
After that, all 70 passengers are ordered to put on life jackets and to move to the back of the boat and to quickly send the children on board behind. At this point they are in the middle of the water.
– It is then an incredible guy sitting at the front who starts emptying the boat of water together with the other Thais who were driving the boat.
“There is smoke and everyone is panicking”
The captain of the boat calls for help and tries to take them back to Koh Lipe, where the boat departed from. Then the boat engine starts to smoke.
– The engine stops working, there is smoke and everyone panics. We cooperate and cut off the roof of the boat so that we can have free height to jump out of the boat if necessary.
Even though everyone is standing on the passenger seats, the water is up to their knees. Finally they see a rescue boat, but the boat is too far away and the boat is now sinking very quickly.
– Then we all jump off and start swimming to the other boat. Many people were panicked and when we were loaded people started to panic further because everyone was going on the new boat at the same time.
Had to sew several stitches
When they return, they are greeted in a hotel lobby with towels, water and food. They can go to a store and take whatever clothes and shoes they want, as all the packing is left on the sinking boat.
– Doctors came and had to help us with all the injuries we had received. My friend’s mother cut her hand open with the knife we used to cut open the roof of the boat. It wasn’t great fun, she had to get some stitches.
The wet packing then comes back with another boat. Everything is destroyed except for Linnéa’s cell phone, which she manages to swim with in one hand, and all the passports that were secured in plastic bags.
– Everything was destroyed. Among other things, there were headphones, two mobile phones and a Macbook. Yes, there were a lot of people who missed out. We are now in the process of contacting our insurance companies and checking on compensation.