Ferry Tragedy: 'This Captain Was Completely Mad'
Ian MacKinnon
Times Online, UK
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Safaga (Egypt):
Lying in her hospital bed in the Egyptian port of Safaga yesterday, Mrs Haniyya Said Allam, 40, wept as she recalled how her son disappeared in Red sea when the ferry al-Salam Boccaccio 98 sank.
Her arms were black and bruised from the effort of maintaining the grip that saved her life.
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See Also:
The sea was full of bodies
Ferry victims' families demand answers
Boy saved after36 hours in sea
________________
Mrs Allam, who was travelling from her home in Saudi Arabia to visit family in Egypt, had stood with her son and niece, Israa, 19, on the upper deck as the disaster unfolded last Thursday night. Over three hours crew members reassured passengers that they were tackling a fire on the car deck.
“This captain was completely mad,” said Mr Mustafa, an English teacher in Jedda. “He wanted to prove he was a hero by putting out the fire. So he didn’t even turn back when he could easily have done so. We were 90 minutes out of port. He didn’t even raise the alarm.”
Muhammad Sharaf Mustafa, 37, said that crew had told him, several hours before the vessel went down, that the ship’s captain, Sayyad Omar, had been advised to launch the lifeboats but he refused.
The captain is among the missing. With others Mr Mustafa clung to railings as the ship began to roll over on to her side. She went down in 15 minutes.
He saw women and children crash to their deaths on the iron railings as they fell the width of the ship. He was hurled into the sea in pitch blackness.
Feb 06, 2006
Ian MacKinnon
Times Online, UK
____________
Safaga (Egypt):
Lying in her hospital bed in the Egyptian port of Safaga yesterday, Mrs Haniyya Said Allam, 40, wept as she recalled how her son disappeared in Red sea when the ferry al-Salam Boccaccio 98 sank.
Her arms were black and bruised from the effort of maintaining the grip that saved her life.
________________
See Also:
The sea was full of bodies
Ferry victims' families demand answers
Boy saved after36 hours in sea
________________
Mrs Allam, who was travelling from her home in Saudi Arabia to visit family in Egypt, had stood with her son and niece, Israa, 19, on the upper deck as the disaster unfolded last Thursday night. Over three hours crew members reassured passengers that they were tackling a fire on the car deck.
“This captain was completely mad,” said Mr Mustafa, an English teacher in Jedda. “He wanted to prove he was a hero by putting out the fire. So he didn’t even turn back when he could easily have done so. We were 90 minutes out of port. He didn’t even raise the alarm.”
Muhammad Sharaf Mustafa, 37, said that crew had told him, several hours before the vessel went down, that the ship’s captain, Sayyad Omar, had been advised to launch the lifeboats but he refused.
The captain is among the missing. With others Mr Mustafa clung to railings as the ship began to roll over on to her side. She went down in 15 minutes.
He saw women and children crash to their deaths on the iron railings as they fell the width of the ship. He was hurled into the sea in pitch blackness.
Feb 06, 2006
