Egyptian cruise ship disappears from radar screens

[Scottie]

From CJAD
(http://www3.cjad.com/content/cp_article.asp?id=/global_feeds/CanadianPress/WorldNews/w020313A.htm)Other sources include: CNN (http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/03/egypt.ship.ap/)
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Egyptian cruise ship disappears from radar screens in Red Sea, officials say

Updated at 5:21 on February 3, 2006, EST.


CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - An Egyptian cruise ship with 1,300 people on board has disappeared from radar screens in the Red Sea off the Saudi coast, Egyptian maritime officials said Friday. The ship Salaam 98 disappeared from radar screens shortly after sailing from the port of Dubah, western Saudi Arabia, at 7 p.m. local time on Thursday night, the maritime officials in Suez said, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the press. The ship was due to have arrived at Egypt's southern port of Safaga at 3 a.m. local time, but did not, the officials added. "We lost all contact with the ship shortly after it left the Saudi port," said one maritime official at Suez. Its last position on the radar screens was 100 kilometres from Dubah. The ship is owned the Egyptian company El-Salaam Maritime Transport Co. and was carrying 1,300 passengers, the official added. Some of the passengers are believed to be pilgrims returning from the annual hajj to Mecca, which ended last month. The Canadian Press, 2006

[joshfox0]

how odd :| i hope noting bads happened to it :-(

[high psi]

[quote]Some of the passengers are believed to be pilgrims returning from the annual hajj to Mecca, which ended last month[quote]


That's not Sarcasm,it's plain stupid!!!

[oldsoak]

hope they are ok

[magicpie]

prehaps bemuda triangle has moved

[Andy S]

this happened a while back too, the salamm express???

All the divers in the red sea went diving on the wreck to get the rolex's and stuff off the bodies!

[black templar]

this happened a while back too, the salamm express???

All the divers in the red sea went diving on the wreck to get the rolex's and stuff off the bodies!


I dont believe it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[muede]

Helicopters have spotted bodies floating on the sea and one lifeboat carrying three people in the vicinity of where the ship, the "Salaam 98," was last seen on the radar screens, the maritime officials said.
Oh f*ck.. doesnt look good.

[Argyll]

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1211215,00.html

Not looking good at all.........too soon to speculate

[Vandervahn]

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1211215,00.html

...He described the ship as a roll on, roll off passenger ferry dating back to the 1970s....

Sounds like an "Estonia"esque incident - disappearing so quick from Radars and shortly after departure.

[JoaMei]

It must have sunk very quick, the article said they didnt send an SOS Signal.

[Argyll]

If the watertight doors were not closed she would have sunk in minutes,like the Zeebruge Ferry/Estonia disasters

[Andy S]

I dont believe it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fair enough. I know someone who got of the dive boat as he didnt want to go.

Maybe i shouldnt have put ALL but certainly some.

[Lazarou]

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/WORLD/meast/02/03/egypt.ship/t1.al.salam.boccaccio.98.jpg

Looks very top-heavy, maybe it capsized. :|

[Scottie]

Update

From NYTimes (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/03/international/middleeast/03cnd-ship.html?hp&ex=1139029200&en=ac66a0ffc1eb1b47&ei=5094&partner=homepage)
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Egyptian Ferry Carrying 1,300 Sinks in Red Sea

Published: February 3, 2006
An Egyptian ferry carrying about 1,400 people sank overnight on its way across the Red Sea from Saudia Arabia.
Egyptian officials told news service reporters that 12 survivors have been rescued so far, and that 14 bodies had been recovered.
Early reports said that rescue teams on helicopters sent to the scene saw survivors in boats and clinging to debris as well as bodies floating in the water.
There was no distress call, and no immediate indication of what caused the ferry, the 6,650-ton al-Salam Boccaccio 98, to go down.
An official from the ferry's owner, al-Salam Maritime Transport, told ******* that weather had been very poor overnight on the Saudi side of the Red Sea, with heavy winds and rain. But visibility should have been good out at sea, he added.
The ferry was on a trip between the Saudi port of Duba and Safaga, both at the northern end of the Red Sea. It had originally come from Jeddah, the main port for the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Another company spokesman told the BBC that the ferry was carrying 1,310 passengers, 96 crew members and about 40 vehicles.
He said that most of the passengers were Egyptians returning from work in Saudi Arabia (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/saudiarabia/index.html?inline=nyt-geo), but that there were also pilgrims returning from Mecca, and about 100 Saudi and Somali citizens.
A shipping expert, Paul Beaver, told the BBC that the ferry would have had a capacity of 1,400, making overloading an unlikely factor.
.
Four Egyptian coast guard frigates had been sent to the area, along with search and rescue helicopters, but the effort was hampered by poor weather, said the country's minister of transport, Mohammed Lutfy Mansour.
"The seas were very high and the weather was not good," Mr. Mansour told CNN.
The ferry left the port of Duba in Saudi Arabia about 7 p.m. Thursday night, and was due in the Egyptian city of Safaga eight hours later. It was last recorded about halfway through the voyage, 62 miles from Duba, and searches began when the ship failed to arrive and could not be located on radar, Egyptian officials said.
"We lost all contact with the ship shortly after it left the Saudi port," one maritime official at Suez, told the Associated Press.
Accounts from news agencies described the ship as 35 years old. Andrea Odone, an official with al-Salam Maritime Transport's Cairo headquarters told Agence France-Presse that the ship complied with all safety rules.
"The ship is registered in Panama. It met all the safety requirements, and it fully complies with international safety rules," he said. "The number of passengers on board was less than the maximum number," he said.
A sister ship of similar build sank in October after colliding with another vessel, killing two and wounding 40, according to the BBC.
The governor of the Safaga region, Bakr al-Rashidi, declared a state of emergency in the area's hospitals.


Sad to hear this.. :-(

[Adz]

sounds like the persian triangle......or terrorists boatnapping the ferry to use in their evil schemes

[Navy]

Innapropriate comment

[black templar]

see above..........