Egyptian Ferry Tragedy: No Clue Yet; No SOS Received from the Ship
Jonathan Wright
Sapa-AFP and Reuters
Cairo (Egypt):
Fourteen bodies and 12 survivors were recovered on Friday from the Red Sea after a ferry heading from Saudi Arabia to Egypt with an estimated 1 400 people on board sank, maritime sources said.A search and rescue plane spotted a lifeboat near where the 6 600-ton Al Salam 89 last had contact with shore at about 10pm (20h00 GMT) on Thursday evening, one official said.
Rescue boats brought some survivors to Safaga, where the ferry was meant to arrive on Friday morning, one security official said.But Egyptian aircraft also saw bodies floating in the water, security sources said.Coastal stations did not receive any SOS message from the crew, said Adel Shukri, the head of administration at el-Salam Maritime Transport Company, which owns the ferry.Another company official, Andrea Odone, said he could not confirm that the ship had sunk or that there were any survivors.
"It could take some hours to work out what happened," Odone told Reuters from the company headquarters in Cairo.Transport Minister Mohamed Lutfi Mansour told MENA the armed forced had deployed four rescue vessels at the scene.A Saudi border control official in Jeddah said: "We don't know yet what happened, if it sank, or overturned, or what."
According to the company's Web site, the Al Salam 89 can carry about 1 400 passengers. Egyptian officials and media called it the Al Salam 98 but the company's Web site names it as the Al Salam 89.A sister ship, the Al Salam 95, sank in the Red Sea in October after a collision with a Cypriot commercial vessel. In that case almost all of the passengers were rescued.
Feb 03, 2006
Search underway for ferry in Red Sea
Planes and boats searched the Red Sea on Friday for a ferry which disappeared with some 1,300 passengers between the Saudi port of Duba and the Egyptian port of Safaga, a shipping company official said.
Coastal stations last had contact with the Al Salam 89 at about 10 p.m. (8:00 p.m. British time) on Thursday and did not receive any SOS message from the crew, official Adel Shukri said."Search and rescue planes and boats are out looking for it and we're trying to get in touch with it," added Shukri, the head of administration at el-Salam Maritime Transport.He said he did not know what might have happened, but the weather on the Saudi side had been very poor, with high winds and rain.
"All possibilities exist," he added.The ferry, carrying mostly Egyptian workers back from Saudi Arabia, left Duba towards the north of the Red Sea at about 6.30 p.m. (4:30 p.m. British time) on Thursday and should have arrived in Safaga at about 2 a.m. (midnight British time). It had originally come from the Saudi port of Jeddah further south.
Jonathan Wright
Sapa-AFP and Reuters
Cairo (Egypt):
Fourteen bodies and 12 survivors were recovered on Friday from the Red Sea after a ferry heading from Saudi Arabia to Egypt with an estimated 1 400 people on board sank, maritime sources said.A search and rescue plane spotted a lifeboat near where the 6 600-ton Al Salam 89 last had contact with shore at about 10pm (20h00 GMT) on Thursday evening, one official said.
Rescue boats brought some survivors to Safaga, where the ferry was meant to arrive on Friday morning, one security official said.But Egyptian aircraft also saw bodies floating in the water, security sources said.Coastal stations did not receive any SOS message from the crew, said Adel Shukri, the head of administration at el-Salam Maritime Transport Company, which owns the ferry.Another company official, Andrea Odone, said he could not confirm that the ship had sunk or that there were any survivors.
"It could take some hours to work out what happened," Odone told Reuters from the company headquarters in Cairo.Transport Minister Mohamed Lutfi Mansour told MENA the armed forced had deployed four rescue vessels at the scene.A Saudi border control official in Jeddah said: "We don't know yet what happened, if it sank, or overturned, or what."
According to the company's Web site, the Al Salam 89 can carry about 1 400 passengers. Egyptian officials and media called it the Al Salam 98 but the company's Web site names it as the Al Salam 89.A sister ship, the Al Salam 95, sank in the Red Sea in October after a collision with a Cypriot commercial vessel. In that case almost all of the passengers were rescued.
Feb 03, 2006
Search underway for ferry in Red Sea
Planes and boats searched the Red Sea on Friday for a ferry which disappeared with some 1,300 passengers between the Saudi port of Duba and the Egyptian port of Safaga, a shipping company official said.
Coastal stations last had contact with the Al Salam 89 at about 10 p.m. (8:00 p.m. British time) on Thursday and did not receive any SOS message from the crew, official Adel Shukri said."Search and rescue planes and boats are out looking for it and we're trying to get in touch with it," added Shukri, the head of administration at el-Salam Maritime Transport.He said he did not know what might have happened, but the weather on the Saudi side had been very poor, with high winds and rain.
"All possibilities exist," he added.The ferry, carrying mostly Egyptian workers back from Saudi Arabia, left Duba towards the north of the Red Sea at about 6.30 p.m. (4:30 p.m. British time) on Thursday and should have arrived in Safaga at about 2 a.m. (midnight British time). It had originally come from the Saudi port of Jeddah further south.
