Egyptian ferry carrying 1,400 sinks in Red Sea

[Shane]

This just in:
A rescue effort is underway, after an aging Egyptian passenger ferry carrying 1,400 people sank in the Red Sea, the head of the Egyptian Maritime Authority said Friday.
The 35-year-old ship, Salaam 98, went down 64 kilometres off the Egyptian port of Hurghada, according to Mahfouz Taha Marzouk. It was carrying around 1310 passengers and a crew of 96.
Coast Guard vessels pulled dozens of bodies from the water Friday and rescued 100 survivors, Egyptian media reports said.
Four Egyptian frigates travelled to the area to rescue survivors, Egypt's minister of transport, Mohammed Lutfy Mansour, told CNN.
Britain has also diverted warship HMS Bulwark to the Egyptian ferry disaster.
The cause of the sinking is still not clear.
Officials are reporting high winds and a sand storm on Saudi Arabia's west coast overnight, while others speculate that the ship could have hit something, said CTV's Middle East bureau chief Janis Mackey Frayer.
Another possibility is that maybe some of the vehicles that had been loaded onto the passenger ferry had shifted in what was likely windy weather "and that could have caused the ship to rock and then go down," Mackey Frayer said.
The majority of the passengers are believed to have been Egyptian, many of them workers returning from Saudi Arabia. Others are believed to have been Muslims returning from the hajj.
The Salaam 98 disappeared from radar screens shortly after sailing from the western Saudi port of Dubah at 7 p.m. local time on Thursday night, according to a maritime official in Suez, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The ship was headed for Egypt's southern port of Safaga, and was due to arrive at 3 a.m. local time. It never showed up.
The Salaam 98 is owned by the Egyptian company El-Salaam Maritime Transport Co.
A ship owned by the same company collided with a cargo ship at the southern entrance to the Suez Canal in October.
David Osler, the industrial editor for Lloyd's List, a London-based maritime newspaper, said these ships have a spotty safety record. He said following a series of accidents in Europe over the last two decades, standards have been raised tremendously.
"But sadly it is a 1970s-built vessel that won't comply to the latest stability standards," Osler said Friday from London in an interview with CTV's Canada AM.
"That means it is especially prone to rapid capsize. It only takes a small amount of water to get on board, and these ships can turn over very easily."


Too see the video to:
sympaticomsn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060203/egypt_ship_060203

[Shane]

Alot of European and Asian ferries are like that.
Most of them dont even meet safety standards, especially Asian ones.
Some company buys an old ferry and builds 3 extra decks on the ship and then a few years later it capsizes and sinks.

[hergfest]

Looks like although she was a RORO ferry, she didn't have a bow door.

[hergfest]

Sure looks like to me that she has a side door from that picture, not a bow door, but I just read this in an AP article about how dangerous RORO ferries are, comparing the design to the Estonia disaster:

The 35-year-old ferry Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98 had a similar - but older - door construction to the Estonia, said Johan Franson, safety expert at the Swedish Maritime Administration.

[SS San Mateo]

Some more info on the ferry:

www.faktaomfartyg.com/boccaccio_1971.htm

There's one picture of her prior to getting extra decks added.

Here's another site:

tinyurl.com/bx7yk

-- LB

[Doug]

Wow...that is one of the most hideous ferries I have ever seen...and the fact that it had SEVERAL decks (not one car deck, like the "V" Class Cascade) does make it very heavy on top. Very how this story has been developing.

[Curtis]

That must be the reason she sunk. It's obvious they put too many decks on it

[Dane]

That is, wow, I'm not even sure what to say. How it could not be obvious to the concerned parties that the ship would lack stability is beyond me. Although not many of us possess a lot of naval design knowledge, even my provincial physics 12 course screams "bad idea!"

[Low Light Mike]

The human element blows my mind. Over 1,200 people killed in a shipwreck in the year 2006 in a part of the world that has current technology (ie. military might, oil wealth, etc) Unbelievable.

[Mike C]

Ugh, it looks as if they put a giant sideways box on top of the North...

[SS San Mateo]

According to this article:

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060203/ap_on_re_mi_ea/egypt_ship_sinks

Additional changes were made when the decks were added to compensate for the additional height.

-- LB

[Starbucks Queen]

ferryfreakshane said:

Alot of European and Asian ferries are like that.
Most of them dont even meet safety standards, especially Asian ones.
Some company buys an old ferry and builds 3 extra decks on the ship and then a few years later it capsizes and sinks.

Shane, this is an interesting statement which I did not yet hear from someone else, and which puzzles me, as a frequent ferry-traveller.
HOW do you know that - and which European ferries have you travelled on

Well, I can not agree on your rather not so fact-based sounding statement !

The Egyptian ship was previously for an Italian company, who has done the conversions too. To avoid the ship getting top-heavy, they often do add "sponsons" on the sides, as you see. As after all, to have a ship insured via Bureau Veritas or another organisation you HAVE to meet the regulations.

When these ships are are too old, not meeting the standards, they are sold off and often to countries like Egypt or somewhere South East Asia. Previously it was Greece too but that has stopped since they have also started to build more modern fleets and a company can´t compete by having old ex. European ships in service anymore and they have also changed the regulations, due to the fact that the older ships have been more prone to accidents. Not because of the ship is old but because of careless owners who wanted to earn alot of money without using too much for the ships maintentance.

The other thing - that night the accident happened, there were 10 meter high waves. Expose your Spirit of Vancouver Island or one of your bigger ones to 10 m waves and you can imagine that it will struggle, and in the worst case something happens.

Also, the case of Estonia: It is very easy to say "ro-ro ferries are not secure" - it would include all of the BC fleet too, btw. But, the problem is something much different - it´s lack of maintenance. Most ferry-accidents happen because the ships are not well maintenanced and the crews not trained very well. I think some of you might remember the accident of the "Express Samina" Accident where the ship hit some rocks - because the captain and officers were more interested in watching football than steering the ship. It´s not the ro-ro design of the ships, it´s the lack of maintenancing it.

[Ferryman]

I don't know if this is true or not, but I am now also hearing from the news this morning that this ferry caught fire and sank. But there was 10 m waves, and how tall that ship is, it's more believable that it capsized. Pretty interesting case.
I don't really think our V-Class have that problem, because they're not noticably tall, but they are a little bit narrow. I have to admit though, that the last time I was on the Newwest, that the ship was rocking pretty good. Even when I was having dinner, my plate was sliding on the table in the direction we were rocking, and that was with doing the slightest of turns for when the captain was doing the normal heading change. That ferry even had hull modifications to accomodate the extra car deck. But I don't think there's anything to worry about like that with our ferries, as most of them have lasted over 20 years in that format. Even look at the Victoria for example. The V-Class that has withstanded the most abuse, with all of the accidents. Then after it all, BCF sells it, and it's then sailed down to the Dominican Republic through the Panama Canal. It had to deal with the usual Pacific Ocean Swells, and there was a huge storm that it went through as well, and the crew had to block the bow doors from breaking open because it was pounding the huge swells. So as far as we know, it survived the hurricane season in the past 5 years. So I would think, that our V-Class are fine.

[Shane]

chivapcici said:

ferryfreakshane said:

Alot of European and Asian ferries are like that.
Most of them dont even meet safety standards, especially Asian ones.
Some company buys an old ferry and builds 3 extra decks on the ship and then a few years later it capsizes and sinks.

Shane, this is an interesting statement which I did not yet hear from someone else, and which puzzles me, as a frequent ferry-traveller.
HOW do you know that - and which European ferries have you travelled on

Well, I can not agree on your rather not so fact-based sounding statement !

The Egyptian ship was previously for an Italian company, who has done the conversions too. To avoid the ship getting top-heavy, they often do add "sponsons" on the sides, as you see. As after all, to have a ship insured via Bureau Veritas or another organisation you HAVE to meet the regulations.

When these ships are are too old, not meeting the standards, they are sold off and often to countries like Egypt or somewhere South East Asia. Previously it was Greece too but that has stopped since they have also started to build more modern fleets and a company can´t compete by having old ex. European ships in service anymore and they have also changed the regulations, due to the fact that the older ships have been more prone to accidents. Not because of the ship is old but because of careless owners who wanted to earn alot of money without using too much for the ships maintentance.

The other thing - that night the accident happened, there were 10 meter high waves. Expose your Spirit of Vancouver Island or one of your bigger ones to 10 m waves and you can imagine that it will struggle, and in the worst case something happens.

Also, the case of Estonia: It is very easy to say "ro-ro ferries are not secure" - it would include all of the BC fleet too, btw. But, the problem is something much different - it´s lack of maintenance. Most ferry-accidents happen because the ships are not well maintenanced and the crews not trained very well. I think some of you might remember the accident of the "Express Samina" Accident where the ship hit some rocks - because the captain and officers were more interested in watching football than steering the ship. It´s not the ro-ro design of the ships, it´s the lack of maintenancing it.

I meant to say alot of old European ferries that are aging and dont meet safety standerds are sold to Asian companies and then the asian companys add extra decks and stuff to the ferries and make them unsafe.
I dont have any bad things to say abpout European ships, I accually really like ferries from Europe, especially Norweigen ferries.

[Starbucks Queen]

Norwegian ferries... Hello Queen of Chilliwack ?

Well, the add-ons on this particular ferry of Al Salam Lines have been done in Italy. To avoid the ship to get top-heavy and to increase safety, they have added sponsons on the sides.

I though think, the main problem is bad maintenance and bad seamanship. My suspects were right, sadly - they said in the news that surviving passengers blamed the crews and the captain - the first thing they did after they realized there is big trouble a head is, right into the lifeboats & away - without taking care of the passengers first.

[SS San Mateo]

Besides the cold water, anyone in the water would've had to deal with sharks .

-- LB

[SS San Mateo]

The wreckage has been found:

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4722158.stm

-- LB

[Retrovision]

Egypt ferry probe raps officials

An investigation into the sinking of an Egyptian ferry has blamed the ship's owners, the maritime authorities and the government.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


Many people have been frustrated at the lack of information


. . .
Ambulances have been rushed into the town, amid reports that survivors and the dead will be brought to Safaga.


Check it out

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4924802.stm

[Starbucks Queen]

Thanks for providing additional information, although this is a while ago now, it´s always interesting and who is to blame for ? The usual suspects really... Sad to say, or I am such a pessimist, I don´t think this is the last accident of this kind.