‘Sukhothai’ salvage ops to begin soon

NAVY: The bidding process to find a firm that would salvage HTMS Sukhothai, which sank in rough seas off the coast of Prachuap Khiri Khan late last year, will be wrapped up soon, said navy commander-inchief Adung Phan-iam. The firm will be selected next month, and the salvage operation will begin as soon as possible, said Adm Adung, promising the investigation into the ship’s sinking would be completed while he is in office. HTMS Sukhothai sank in heavy seas about 19 nautical miles (35 kilometres) off the coast of Prachuap Khiri Khan on Dec 18 last year. Out of the 105 crew aboard the ship, 76 were rescued, 24 died, while five remain missing. The navy wants to salvage the ship to determine the cause of the ship’s sinking. It has requested about 200 million baht to fund the operation.