大象传媒

大象传媒 World Service
Last updated:聽16 october, 2009 - 12:22 GMT

Sinking Survivor

Twenty years ago, Jonathan Phang organised a birthday celebration for his friend Antonio on a boat on London鈥檚 River Thames.

It should have been a fabulous evening, but instead it turned into tragedy.

Fifty-one people died that night - including Antonio - in a horrific boating accident.

A sand dredger ploughed into their boat - the Marchioness pleasure cruiser - sinking it in seconds.

Of the eight friends who met that night, only two survived.

One of them was Jonathan Phang.

Jonathan lost almost all his friends in the accident and suffered dreadful feelings of guilt.

He told Outlook鈥檚 Audrey Brown that it is only now - on the 20th anniversary of the disaster - that he is starting to come to terms with what happened.