Couple feared dead in sinking of BC ferry
Reuters Canada
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Vancouver, (British Columbia):
Mystery surrounded the fate of two people on Thursday who disappeared and are now feared dead after an ocean-going ferry sank when it smashed onto a rocky island on Canada's Pacific coast.
Police have begun a missing persons investigation for the couple, whom witnesses reported seeing on shore with the 99 others rescued from the ferry Queen of the North on Wednesday, but who have not been heard from since.BC Ferries now fears those witness reports were wrong and that the couple from the town of 100 Mile House, British Columbia, went down with the ship.
The Queen of the North is believed to have gone off course and struck Gil Island shortly after midnight local time, about 75 miles south of Prince Rupert, on a trip down the Inside Passage on the northwest coast of British Columbia.Police searched the island and boats scanned the water, and there was no evidence the couple found their way home from Hartley Bay -- the remote aboriginal fishing village whose residents helped rescue survivors.
The ship is submerged in about 1,200 feet of water, so the search for victims and clues to what caused the accident will require divers or remote-controlled equipment, officials said.
Mar 23, 2006
Reuters Canada
___________
Vancouver, (British Columbia):
Mystery surrounded the fate of two people on Thursday who disappeared and are now feared dead after an ocean-going ferry sank when it smashed onto a rocky island on Canada's Pacific coast.
Police have begun a missing persons investigation for the couple, whom witnesses reported seeing on shore with the 99 others rescued from the ferry Queen of the North on Wednesday, but who have not been heard from since.BC Ferries now fears those witness reports were wrong and that the couple from the town of 100 Mile House, British Columbia, went down with the ship.
The Queen of the North is believed to have gone off course and struck Gil Island shortly after midnight local time, about 75 miles south of Prince Rupert, on a trip down the Inside Passage on the northwest coast of British Columbia.Police searched the island and boats scanned the water, and there was no evidence the couple found their way home from Hartley Bay -- the remote aboriginal fishing village whose residents helped rescue survivors.
The ship is submerged in about 1,200 feet of water, so the search for victims and clues to what caused the accident will require divers or remote-controlled equipment, officials said.
Mar 23, 2006
