Thai family waits for news of missing relative on ship attacked in Strait of Hormuz

Panupong Muentan, 27, was an engine room mechanic aboard the ship. Read more at straitstimes.com.

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BAN SAI, Thailand - Thousands of miles from the Middle East in Thailand’s rural northeast, Sommai Butdee waits for news of her nephew, one of three crew members missing from the Thai-flagged vessel after it was struck with two projectiles earlier this week as it travelled through the Strait of Hormuz.

On March 13, Ms Sommai, 58, gathered with other relatives under their wooden stilt home in Surin province’s Ban Sai village. Holding out her phone, she showed a photo of her nephew, 27-year-old Panupong Muentan, on his graduation from a merchant marine training centre.

“He didn’t say much. I wished him a safe journey. He had gone to work at sea once or twice before. He told me, ‘Don’t be afraid. There’s nothing to worry about’,” Ms Sommai said, recalling the last time they had seen each other in February.

Ms Sommai raised her nephew and described him as a good and devoted man, who hoped to help pay off the family’s debt and his sibling’s tuition fees through his work as an engine room mechanic.

“They only went there to make a living, to work. They didn’t know anything about the bigger things happening in the world. We never thought it would turn out like this. His parents and relatives are all sad,” said his uncle Dechawat Ratanapakul, 70.