Cruise Ship Sinks in the Aegean Sea
Two Passengers Still Missing
The man's wife told Tourism Minister Fanny Palli Petralia that their cabin had started to take on water and that she(the wife) narrowly escaped. Petrali said the woman was "not sure whether her husband and daughter made it out because things happened so suddenly. Her other child was up on deck and was evacuated safely."
According to Andreas Theofilou, Merchant Marine Ministry spokesman, a search has begun for the two missing people. "Greek coastguard crews and vessels along with divers are searching the area where the cruiser sank for the two missing people"
According to Louis Cruise Line there were 730 Americans, 112 Spaniards, 100 French citizens and a crew of 390 listed on the vessel.
The ship started to sink after it hit Santorini rocky coast Friday. Dozens of students from North Carolina were among the passengers rushed off the luxury cruiser. The ship sank around 7 a.m. Friday, 15 hours after it began taking on water. The nail biting rescue took approximately three hours to complete.
"A lot of us were taking pictures when we were coming into Santorini . All of sudden there was big jolt," said Catherine Small of Chapel Hill Hight School. "The ship was really far tilted. It was actually kind of freaking us out - scary."
Reactions to the accident ranged from tense to calm. Australian Ben Kucenko said. "People were nervous, women were screaming and it was a struggle to get to a life jacket. We were scared the boat was going to tip over. We could barely walk."
Six navy ships, helicopters, military transport planes, warships and at least a dozen other ships contributed to the rescue.
According to Merchant Marine Minister Manolis Kefaloyiannis the evacuation was extremely successful. "The ship was evacuated quickly and successfully. ... No one had as much as a nose bleed. With a ship this size, it's like dealing with a 12-story building. It's a difficult operation."
Many evacuees are still aboard transportation vessels,others are in Greek hotels and some have already returned home.
According to Pertrali a thorough investigation will take place. "Greece is a major tourism destination and incidents like this must not be allowed to occur. ... Authorities handled the rescue very well."
Sources
Published by K D Griffin
Born and raised in the South. View profile
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9 Comments
Post a CommentThis situation is very rare and unfortunate. Todays ships have state of the art technology that allow bridge officers to avoid incidents such as this. The odds are you are more likely to be involved in a plane crash and the next day get killed in a car crash than be on a sinking Cruise Ship. If a ship begins to take on water, it can take as long as 40 hours to sink. The crew is trained to evacuate all passengers in less than 30 minutes (but it can be hard if the ship is tilted). Never let incidents like this put you off cruising because it's rare and most likely if it does happen on your cruise, you will get off the ship with mabe something as worse as being tired. If you want to go on a cruise I recomend Freedom of the Seas.
Interesting story. Thanks!
This whole thing is terrifying!!!
Wow very scary!
Scary! Won't get me on a boat.
How sad.
That's very scary.
Thanks for the information. I used to live in Chapel Hill. Must have been scary for those students. I hope that they find the missing passengers.
Wow. Sounds like a really scary situation. I hope theres good new for the two missing passengers. Nice job reporting the story.