Main Page10 dead after ferry catches fire in Adriatic
Rome - The death toll from a ferry fire in the Adriatic
rose to 10 on Monday as the search for survivors
went on into the night in seas off Albania.
It was unclear how many people had been on board
and whether any were still missing, but the Italian
navy kept up its search, with almost 40 people still
officially unaccounted for.
As the search went on, survivors recounted the
terrifying moments that the Norman Atlantic
became engulfed by thick smoke in rough seas,
forcing many into the chilly waters below.
Italian Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi said that
427 people had been winched to safety by helicopter
over the course of a 24-hour rescue operation
carried out in an unusually fierce winter storm.
Thirty-eight people were unaccounted for, according
to an updated list of passengers and crew from the
Greek operator, but there were doubts over the
manifest's accuracy.
Lupi said it was unclear if those unaccounted for
could include no-shows at boarding or people who
got off at a stopover on the Greek island of
Igoumenitsa or whether there were errors on the
passenger list.
"It is up to the departure port to match up their list
and the people (rescued)," Lupi said.
"That is why we are continuing our (search) effort:
we cannot know what the exact number was."
Greek Merchant Marine Minister Miltiadis
Varvitsiotis acknowledged the list was "possibly
inaccurate" and complained about poor
communication with Italy.
"I strongly doubt that all the names on the list are
real - we have two persons with the same name,
who turned out to be one person," the minister told
Mega TV.
None of the statements from survivors have so far
suggested the death toll is likely to climb sharply but
an empty lifeboat washed up on the shores of
Albania, in one possible sign of more bad news to
come.
Captain last man off
The uncertainty over the scale of the disaster
emerged after the evacuation was completed in
early afternoon.
Ship captain Argilio Giacomazzi, 62, upheld maritime
tradition by ensuring he was the last man off,
handing over to Italian navy officers.
His conduct was in marked contrast to that of the
last Italian sea captain to make global headlines,
Francesco Schettino, the Costa Concordia skipper
currently on trial for manslaughter for abandoning a
sinking cruise liner on which 32 people died in
January 2012.
Wrapped in blankets and with many of them
sporting bandages, 49 evacuees arrived at the Italian
port of Bari on board a Greek merchant ship that
had been part of an international flotilla involved in
the rescue operation.
Many of them recounted how the fire triggered
chaotic scenes as the crew struggled to cope with
the disaster.
One of the first passengers off in Bari told reporters
he had thought he was going to die as parts of the
ship became engulfed by thick smoke while many
passengers were asleep in cabins.
"The lifeboats did not work, there was only one of
them in the water and none of the crew were there
to help people," he said.
The evacuation was completed nearly 36 hours after
a fire broke out on the car deck and left the large
vessel drifting dangerously.
Questions are now being asked about how the fire
started and why it was not contained. Different
accounts of a safety inspection carried out on
December 19 have emerged and several survivors
reported the car deck as being covered by a film of
leaked fuel.
Bari prosecutor Giuseppe Volpe announced a
criminal investigation that will seek to establish
whether negligence contributed to the disaster.
Italian reports said the ship owner and captain could
face manslaughter charges.
'We are dying'
Teodora Douli, the wife of a Greek passenger who
died on Sunday, described how she watched her
husband Georgios drown in front of her after they
ended up in the water.
"We spent four hours in the water," she said
Monday. "I tried to save him but I couldn't. 'We are
dying, we're dying', he told me."
In a further twist, the couple's son was asked to
identify a corpse that was not his father's following
an apparent mix-up.
Other evacuees were flown to the Greek island of
Corfu, where lorry driver Fotis Santakidis described
how the smell of the smoke from the fire had woken
him in his cabin.
"I ran out. I looked out for a lifejacket but I could not
find one," he told Greek newspaper Ethnos.
-
rose to 10 on Monday as the search for survivors
went on into the night in seas off Albania.
It was unclear how many people had been on board
and whether any were still missing, but the Italian
navy kept up its search, with almost 40 people still
officially unaccounted for.
As the search went on, survivors recounted the
terrifying moments that the Norman Atlantic
became engulfed by thick smoke in rough seas,
forcing many into the chilly waters below.
Italian Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi said that
427 people had been winched to safety by helicopter
over the course of a 24-hour rescue operation
carried out in an unusually fierce winter storm.
Thirty-eight people were unaccounted for, according
to an updated list of passengers and crew from the
Greek operator, but there were doubts over the
manifest's accuracy.
Lupi said it was unclear if those unaccounted for
could include no-shows at boarding or people who
got off at a stopover on the Greek island of
Igoumenitsa or whether there were errors on the
passenger list.
"It is up to the departure port to match up their list
and the people (rescued)," Lupi said.
"That is why we are continuing our (search) effort:
we cannot know what the exact number was."
Greek Merchant Marine Minister Miltiadis
Varvitsiotis acknowledged the list was "possibly
inaccurate" and complained about poor
communication with Italy.
"I strongly doubt that all the names on the list are
real - we have two persons with the same name,
who turned out to be one person," the minister told
Mega TV.
None of the statements from survivors have so far
suggested the death toll is likely to climb sharply but
an empty lifeboat washed up on the shores of
Albania, in one possible sign of more bad news to
come.
Captain last man off
The uncertainty over the scale of the disaster
emerged after the evacuation was completed in
early afternoon.
Ship captain Argilio Giacomazzi, 62, upheld maritime
tradition by ensuring he was the last man off,
handing over to Italian navy officers.
His conduct was in marked contrast to that of the
last Italian sea captain to make global headlines,
Francesco Schettino, the Costa Concordia skipper
currently on trial for manslaughter for abandoning a
sinking cruise liner on which 32 people died in
January 2012.
Wrapped in blankets and with many of them
sporting bandages, 49 evacuees arrived at the Italian
port of Bari on board a Greek merchant ship that
had been part of an international flotilla involved in
the rescue operation.
Many of them recounted how the fire triggered
chaotic scenes as the crew struggled to cope with
the disaster.
One of the first passengers off in Bari told reporters
he had thought he was going to die as parts of the
ship became engulfed by thick smoke while many
passengers were asleep in cabins.
"The lifeboats did not work, there was only one of
them in the water and none of the crew were there
to help people," he said.
The evacuation was completed nearly 36 hours after
a fire broke out on the car deck and left the large
vessel drifting dangerously.
Questions are now being asked about how the fire
started and why it was not contained. Different
accounts of a safety inspection carried out on
December 19 have emerged and several survivors
reported the car deck as being covered by a film of
leaked fuel.
Bari prosecutor Giuseppe Volpe announced a
criminal investigation that will seek to establish
whether negligence contributed to the disaster.
Italian reports said the ship owner and captain could
face manslaughter charges.
'We are dying'
Teodora Douli, the wife of a Greek passenger who
died on Sunday, described how she watched her
husband Georgios drown in front of her after they
ended up in the water.
"We spent four hours in the water," she said
Monday. "I tried to save him but I couldn't. 'We are
dying, we're dying', he told me."
In a further twist, the couple's son was asked to
identify a corpse that was not his father's following
an apparent mix-up.
Other evacuees were flown to the Greek island of
Corfu, where lorry driver Fotis Santakidis described
how the smell of the smoke from the fire had woken
him in his cabin.
"I ran out. I looked out for a lifejacket but I could not
find one," he told Greek newspaper Ethnos.
-
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