The ferry Danica Joy 2 capsized at Zamboanga port in Philippines. The vessel was docked at the pier, but lost stability and imbalanced during offloading of cargo from the portboard. All the 799 passengers were disembarked before the accident and there were no reported injuries. The ship capsized to starboard, resting the bottom and remaining partially above the water. All the crew and dockworkers were also safe, as they abandoned the vessel before capsizing. The ferry Danica Joy 2 has several tons of fuel on board, but there is no information about water pollution. The area around the capsized ferry is surrounded by oil booms, as preventive measure in case of oil spill.

The local authorities started investigation for the root cause of the accident. According to preliminary information, the ferry capsized due to wrong unloading plan, as all the cargoes from portboard were unloaded first and imbalance wasn’t compensated by ballasting. The ship started increasing list to starboard, losing seaworthiness and stability. A few minutes later the ferry capsized to starboard in front of the eyes of crew and dockworkers.

The ferry Danica Joy 2 (IMO: 8135253) is serving Zamboanga-Sandakan route on regular service. The vessel has overall length of 60.00 m, moulded beam of 12.00 m and maximum draft of 5.00 m. The deadweight of the vessel is 249 DWT and the gross tonnage is 998 GRT. The ferry was built in 1982 by Nakamura Shipbuilding in their yard in Yanai, Japan. The owner and operator of the ferry Danica Joy 2 is Philippines company Aleson Shipping Lines.