Dragon Star ferries ordered to suspend operations
The Malaysian Marine Department has ordered all passenger ferries owned by Dragon Star Shipping Sdn Bhd to stop operations immediately after one of its vessels caught fire on Monday.
The department’s spokesman said this was to facilitate an investigation into all aspects, including the source of the fire, which was believed to have started in the engine compartment.
He said the investigation would focus on whether the company complied with standard operating procedures.
“The investigation will take three to four days before we can determine if the company can be allowed to operate again or otherwise.
“Everything will be decided after the investigation is completed.
“Immediately after the incident yesterday (Monday), we started our investigation that went on until midnight.
“The process resumed today (yesterday),” he said.
The spokesman said his department had conducted safety inspections on the ferry that caught fire and the certificate of inspection issued to the company was valid.
“Our staff conduct ferry documentation inspection every day, while physical inspection is conducted once a year.
“We will continue to investigate to identify the problem, even though the certificate of inspection is still valid,” he said.