This is a list of maritime disasters that have taken place in the Bangladesh. It may also be called maritime incidents or ferry disasters. The list may be incomplete for years before 1986 or later. [1] During the past 25 years (since 1994), 250 ferry incidents with over 2,000 deaths have been recorded till 2019. [2]
Ferry incidents "occur frequently in Bangladesh" due to structural-defects, severe weather, overcrowding and noncompliance to safety standards. [3]
MVNasrin-1 was a ferry that sank in the Meghna River near Chandpur, Bangladesh, on the night of July 8, 2003. Of the 750 people on board, 220 were rescued.
The 2009 Sierra Leone ferry accident occurred on 8 September 2009 off the coast of Sierra Leone, when a wooden Teh Teh ferry travelling from Shenge village to Tombo sank during a storm. At least 90 people to date have been confirmed dead, and over 100 others have been listed as "missing". So far, only 39 survivors have been rescued. Several of the passengers were children who had been on holiday, though the official passenger manifest did not include them. An attempted rescue operation ended on 11 September. The sinking is the worst such accident in Sierra Leone since 2002, when a boatful of refugees capsized. The Xinhua News Agency in China has likened the disaster to other major marine accidents in recent years.
MVCoco-4 was a ferry that sunk near Bhola Island, Bangladesh on 27 November 2009, killing 75 people, out of more than a thousand on board, with several dozen more reported missing.
The 2010 West Bengal Ferry Sinking was an incident which occurred on Saturday, 30 October 2010, when an over-crowded ferry carrying Muslim pilgrims sank after hitting a sand bank on the Bhagirathi River in the Indian state of West Bengal. Thus far at least 74 bodies have been recovered, with many more missing, feared swept downstream.
On 10 September 2011, MV Spice Islander I, a passenger ferry carrying over 2,000 passengers, sank off the coast of Zanzibar. The ferry was travelling between Unguja and Pemba, two islands off the coast of mainland Tanzania, when it capsized. Early estimates put the death toll at around 200, but a report published by the Tanzanian government in January 2012 claimed that over 1,500 people had been killed.
The MV Shariatpur 1 was a double deck ferry that capsized in March 2012 after colliding with a cargo ship on Bangladesh's Meghna River, killing 147 people.
On 30 April 2012, a ferry carrying about 350 passengers capsized in the Brahmaputra River in the Dhubri district of Assam in Northeast India. The disaster killed at least 108 people.
On 15 May 2014, the double-decker ferry MV Miraj-4 capsized in the Meghna River, 50 kilometres (31 mi) southeast of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Between 150 and 200 people were on board at the time, of whom about 75 survived. As of 17 May, the official death toll stood at 54 with an unknown number of people missing.
2014 (MMXIV) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2014th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 14th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 5th year of the 2010s decade.
MV Dongfang zhi Xing was a river cruise ship that operated in the Three Gorges region of inland China. On the night of 1 June 2015, the ship was traveling on the Yangtze River when it capsized during a thunderstorm in Jianli, Hubei Province with 454 people on board. On 13 June, 442 deaths were confirmed, with 12 survivors. The passengers were mostly in their 60s and 70s, and mostly from Nanjing, where the ship started its cruise.
MV Nyerere is a Tanzanian ferry that capsized on 20 September 2018 while travelling between the islands of Ukerewe and Ukara on Lake Victoria. The Tanzanian government have declared that 228 people died as a result of the capsizing while 41 could be rescued. The capsized ferry was successfully righted, retrieved and unloaded more than one week after the disaster.
The 1986 Bangladesh MV Shamia ferry incident refers to one of the worst maritime disasters in human history that occurred on 25 May 1986 on the Meghna River in Bangladesh, killing 600 passengers. The incident occurred when the overloaded MV Shamia, a two-decker merchant ship ferry, sank while carrying about 1,000 - 1,500 people from Bhola to Dhaka during stormy weather conditions. Initial reports cited between 40 and 240 dead with 500 missing.
MV Morning Bird was a ferry that sunk in the Buriganga River in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with more than 50 passengers on board on 29 June 2020, killing at least 34 people. The incident took place at around 9:30 am local time near Shyambazar area after being hit by another launch Mayur-2. During the incident the Morning Bird was heading toward the Port of Dhaka, Sadarghat from Munshiganj.
ML Rabit Al Hasan was a Bangladesh double-decker passenger ferry that sank on 4 April 2021 in the Shitalakshya River in Narayanganj District near Dhaka. The ship was carrying more than 50 passengers and crew of which 35 died.
On 30 November 2021, a severely overloaded boat carrying more than 50 people, mostly children aged between 8 and 15, capsized on the Watari Dam in Kano State, Nigeria. At least 29 are confirmed dead and 13 more are missing.