Swedish Diver Shamefully Apologises Over Likoni Ferry Tragedy Remarks

World-renowned Swedish diver, Volker Bassen, who had shamed the government with a record-breaking promise on the recovery operation at Likoni Ferry, was forced to retract his words after visiting the scene.

Bassen, speaking on Friday, October 4, reiterated Kenya Navy's sentiments on how tough it was to recover the bodies and vehicle which had plunged into the Indian Ocean. 

The previous day, the diver had stated that he would locate the car within 15 minutes and retrieve it in two hours. 

"I would like to retract my comments in the previous interview that I had, where I said that it would take about two hours to retrieve the car wreckage.

"I realised that I had underestimated the conditions, especially that the Kenyan Navy has to deal with. The situation is that the visibility is unclear, the waters are deep. The currents are terrible and that makes it quite difficult for us to locate the car," Bassen stated on live TV.

Bassen, who is also the CEO of East Africa Whale-Shark Trust, had further reported that it was not the first time working with the Kenyan Navy on a rescue mission.

He claimed to have participated in a recovery operation of a body in Lake Michaelson on Mount Kenya in 2012, after a plane crash.

He told the KTN reporter that the Kenyan Army officers had been at the accident scene for four days straight, not much progress had been made.

His team was then called in, and in 15 minutes, they managed to locate the body at 80 feet below the water surface and pulled it out of the water.

Government spokesperson, Colonel (Rtd) Cyrus Oguna stated that the Likoni tragedy retrieval mission would take time and asked Kenyans to be patient.

"Let's be hopeful that tomorrow will be a better day than today. However, we cannot say with a degree of certainty that tomorrow we will be able to get that vehicle out," Oguna stated. 

Video courtesy of Nation.

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