A British journalist drowned in a riverboat accident during a trip in south-east Asia to celebrate a friend’s 40th birthday, an inquest has heard.
Johanna Powell, a BBC Wales picture editor, was asleep when the wooden and steel boat overturned in “violent and choppy” water as it navigated the Mekong river in Laos in April this year.
The crew, tour guide and other passengers – including three of Powell’s friends – all swam to safety, but search boats were unable to find her and her body was discovered floating in the river two days later.
Powell’s friend Tammy Evans, whose birthday they were celebrating, told the inquest in Aberdare, south Wales: “The water that morning was violent and choppy. Johanna and I fell asleep on the boat with a table between us.
“As I woke up I was trapped with a wall of dirty water facing me. I lost all idea of where I was and I could only think, where was Johanna?
“I fought in the dirty water trying to escape. I was being trapped by the current, screaming. My friends told me to start swimming to some nearby rocks and they were shouting at me. I heard other people screaming but there was nothing I could do to help.”
Powell, 37, of Pontypridd, south Wales, was on a three-week tour of Thailand to mark Evans’s 40th birthday. The pair had booked the trip in February and arranged to meet friends Sinead O’Brien and Kate Ridler, who were travelling the world together.
The inquest was told that the friends met in Bangkok in April and had travelled up to Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, to visit sanctuaries and ride elephants. The quartet then crossed the border into Laos where they embarked on a two-day slow-boat cruise.
Evans said: “On the first day we stopped in this lovely little village to have lunch. We stayed overnight and then left a little after 7.30 in the morning to carry on with second day of our cruise.”
In a statement, a Thai police spokesperson said: “We were informed that at about 8.40am on 11 April there was an accidental sinking of a boat. All of the cargo on the boat was lost and a passenger called Johanna Powell was not found.” The inquest heard that Thai police later arrested the boat captain, Vialay Pheng-Odum, and that enquiries are still continuing.
Local villagers sent fishing boats and speedboats to look for Powell, who worked at BBC Wales in Cardiff.
Consultant pathologist Dr Stephen Leadbeatter found that Powell’s death was the result of immersion in water.
Senior coroner Andrew Barkley said: “Ms Powell had been on a three-week holiday in Thailand where she had taken a boat trip with friends. They had been travelling for around one hour when the boat turned violently to the left.
“It seems that having turned violently to the left the boat then did the same to the right. This happened very quickly – from what I understand 10 seconds. As witnesses have said there was nothing that could be done.”
Barkley recorded a conclusion of accidental death.