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1,000 feared lost on doomed Egyptian ferry
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-04 20:50
A police official at the operations control room in Safaga said 185 bodies
were pulled from the sea. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because
he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Rescue efforts appeared confused. Egyptian officials initially turned down a
British offer to divert a warship to the scene and a U.S. offer to send a
P3-Orion maritime naval patrol aircraft to the area. Then Egypt reversed itself
and asked for both — then finally decided to call off the British ship, deciding
it was too far away to help, said Lt. Cdr. Charlie Brown of the U.S. 5th Fleet,
based in Bahrain. In the end, the U.S. craft — which has the capability to
search underwater from the air — was sent, but the British ship was not, he
said.
Four Egyptian rescue ships reached the scene Friday afternoon, about 10 hours
after the ferry likely went down some 57 miles off the Egyptian port of
Hurghada.
Any survivors still in the Red Sea could go into shock in the waters, which
average in the upper 60s in February and are up to 3,000 feet deep.
Mubarak's spokesman said an investigation was under way.
"The swift sinking of the ferry and the lack of sufficient lifeboats suggests
there was some violation, but we cannot say until the investigation is
complete," said presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad, quoted by the semiofficial
news agency MENA.
Egyptian regulations require life jackets on the boat, but implementation of
safety procedures is often lax.
The ship, "Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98," left Thursday at 7:30 p.m. from the Saudi
port of Dubah on a 120-mile trip to Safaga. It had been scheduled to arrive at 3
a.m.
The vessel went down between midnight and 2 a.m., when authorities lost
contact with it. No distress signal was received.
The ferry was carrying 1,200 Egyptian and 112 other passengers as well as 96
crew members, the head of Al-Salaam Maritime Transport Company Mamdouh Ismail
told the AP. The passengers included 99 Saudis, three Syrians, two Sudanese, and
a Canadian, officials said. It was not clear where the other passengers were
from.
Tens of thousands of Egyptians work in Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf
countries — many of them from impoverished families in southern Egypt who spend
years abroad to earn money. They often travel by ship to and from Saudi Arabia
across the Red Sea, a cheaper option than flying.
But some on board the ferry were believed to be Muslim pilgrims who had
overstayed their visas after last month's hajj pilgrimage to work in the
kingdom.
President Bush offered his condolences.
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