Cruise ship missing!

[britsbest]

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1211215,00.html

[eangel12]

It actually looks more like a ferry and not a cruise ship.

[britsbest]

It actually looks more like a ferry and not a cruise ship.

 

The original item referred to it as a cruise ship

 

Ahh thats OK then !:eek:

[Coral]

1400 people is a lot.

 

It appears to be a ferry but looks like an older cruise ship. Very sad!

[Casshew]

A few survivors so far. Not many though:eek:

[spongerob]

Fox news (yes, I watch Fox :rolleyes: ) had a picture of the ship. It looked like an old 60's vintage liner that had extra decks added to it, making it look very top heavy.

[Casshew]

Heres a good photo

[Colo Cruiser]

Ferry with 1,300 sinks, bodies found

 

No SOS was sent from Egyptian ship crossing Red Sea from Saudi Arabia

 

 

 

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MSNBC News Services

Updated: 8:26 a.m. ET Feb. 3, 2006

 

CAIRO, Egypt - An Egyptian ferry carrying around 1,300 people sank in the Red Sea overnight and while 12 people have been rescued, dozens of bodies were recovered and fears are that hundreds perished.

“Dozens of bodies were picked up from the sea ... they were from the ferry,” a police source at the port of Safaga said.

The 35-year-old ship, the Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98, sank 40 miles off the Egyptian port of Hurghada.

The cause was not immediately known, but there were high winds and a sandstorm overnight on Saudi Arabia’s west coast, where the ship departed from Thursday evening.

Ayman al-Kaffas, a spokesman for the Egyptian Embassy in London, told the BBC that “a massive search and rescue effort” was under way, and confirmed that “dozens of bodies of victims” had been pulled from the water.

Other ships, among them a British warship, and Egypt's Coast Guard raced to the scene, while helicopters looked for survivors from the air.

Officials said the ferry met safety requirements and that the number of passengers on board was less than the capacity.

The agent for the ship in Saudi Arabia, Farid al-Douadi, said the vessel was in good condition, and that the passengers were mostly Egyptians but included Saudis, Sudanese and other nationalities.

Marzouk said the ship — built in 1971 and renovated in 1990 in an Egyptian shipyard — was carrying 1,318 people, including a crew of 96. It's capacity is more than 1,400.

Vanished from radar

The ship disappeared from radar screens shortly after sailing from the western Saudi port of Dubah at 7 p.m. local time on Thursday night, maritime officials in Suez said.

Coastal stations did not receive any SOS message from the crew, said Adel Shukri, the head of administration at el-Salaam Maritime Transport Company, which owns the ferry.

The ship was due in at Egypt's port of Safaga at 3 a.m. local time, the officials added.

Dubah and Safaga lie virtually opposite each other at the northern end of the Red Sea, which is an extremely busy sea route. In addition to east-west traffic between Saudi Arabia and Egypt, there is north-south traffic through the Suez Canal and to and from the Israeli and Jordanian ports of Eilat and Aqaba.

Mostly workers returning home?

Initial reports said some of the passengers may have been Muslim pilgrims returning from the hajj, which ended nearly a month ago. But the Saudi port of Dubah is known more as a transit point for workers than pilgrims, who mostly leave through Jiddah, further south.

Egyptian workers often take ships from Saudi Arabia back home across the Red Sea.

A ship owned by the same company collided with a cargo ship at the southern entrance to the Suez Canal in October, causing a stampede among passengers trying to escape the sinking ship. Two people were killed and 40 injured.

[britsbest]

As at 1400 GMT 100 survivors and 30bodies recovered, an SOS was picked up by British authorities

[Deloresgardella]

I noticed there were life boats on the Ferry. Did it judt sink too fast for the life boats to be used, or was the weather too bad.

[Pam in CA]

One report I heard is that it was overcrowded, the seas were rough and it went "turtle" too fast for people to get on life rafts.

[Coolmama_1]

How terrible! Prayers to the families.

[Happy ks]

This is still a developing story.

 

So far, at least 100 people have been rescued, with more rescues underway. A very sad thing to happen. I feel so bad for these people. The earliest rescue I read about was from a life raft, so hoepfully more of those were deployed and just not rescued as yet.

 

My prayers to all involved.

[britsbest]

Approximately 400 survivors, seems there was a fire on board in the engine room and the captain carried on rather than returning to port?:confused:

[kosmo]

Ugh ... terrible ... and after the fire was discovered, the crew took lifejackets AWAY from the passengers (so as not to cause a panic) and the captain fled the ship on a lifeboat!!! :eek: Should be interesting when they find him ... maybe send him to "deal" with the rioters ... that'd teach him ...

 

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/04/egypt.ship/index.html

[Flintstone]

From what I've read on CNN this morning...when they find the Captain, he should be charged with 900 counts of murder!!!!!!!

 

What a HORRIBLE situation! Prayers to the families!!!!

[Giannap]

You are right.

She was a ferry (1972)of the TIRRENIA Group italian company.