Hong Kong captain jailed for 8 years over ferry tragedy

This file picture taken on October 3, 2012 shows a fireman inspecting the back end of the badly damaged Lamma IV passenger boat near the shores of Hong Kong's Lamma island, the morning after it was pulled out of the waters following its sinking on October 1 from a collision with a pleasure boat. - AFP PHOTO / FILES/Philippe Lopez

HONG KONG, Feb 16, 2015 (AFP) - A Hong Kong boat captain was on Monday sentenced to eight years in prison for the manslaughter of 39 people in a 2012 ferry collision, the city’s worst maritime disaster in nearly four decades.

Sea Smooth skipper Lai Sai Ming, 56, was found guilty on Saturday following a trial that gripped the city, over the accident between his high-speed ferry and a pleasure boat near Lamma Island.