Number missing in Indonesia ferry disaster jumps again to 192: official

Yahoo – AFP, Lazuardy Fahmi, June 20, 2018

The wooden boat was believed to be operating illegally, with no manifest or passenger
tickets -- hampering efforts to estimate how many passengers may have been on
board (AFP Photo/JON NST)

Simalungun (Indonesia) (AFP) - As many as 192 passengers could be missing after a ferry sank into the depths of a volcanic lake in Indonesia, the search-and-rescue agency said Wednesday, tripling initial government estimates.

But the agency's head cautioned that it was still unclear how many people were aboard the vessel when it capsized Monday in Lake Toba, a popular tourist destination on Sumatra island.

The traditional wooden boat may have been operating illegally with no manifest or passenger tickets, sparking confusion and a string of changing official passenger estimates.

Indonesia's disaster agency originally said some 80 people along with dozens of motorcycles were on the overloaded, 43-passenger capacity vessel when it overturned and sank.

So far, four bodies have been found and another 18 people rescued, according to the agency.

By Wednesday, the official number of missing had jumped several times to 192 passengers.

Authorities based the figures on reports from families whose missing relatives may have been on the doomed vessel, but their accounts are difficult to verify.

If confirmed, it would be one of Indonesia's deadliest maritime disasters.

"Many people got on the boat without a ticket so it's unclear how many were on board," Muhammad Syaugi, the head of the search and rescue agency, told AFP.

Later at a press conference, Syaugi added: "There are many people who have reported their relatives missing, but whether they were on the boat or not we don't know."

The search has now turned to recovering bodies -- including those that may still be trapped inside the sunken boat.

'Please bring back my son'

"We'll be here until they find my brother's body," said Nurhayati, among hundreds of grief-stricken people waiting by the shore for updates.

"We just want to see his body and take him with us."

Rescue team members prepare to search for missing passengers at the 

Lake Toba ferry port (AFP Photo/IVAN DAMANIK)

Sobbing mother Suwarni pleaded for news of her son and his fiancé, both believed to have been on board.

"Why are the rescue teams so slow?" said the 55-year-old, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

"I'm so disappointed -- there's no progress here. Please bring back my son."

Authorities have deployed divers and underwater vehicles, along with about 400 personnel, to search the enormous lake in an operation expected to last at least a week.

Lake Toba, popular with international and domestic tourists, fills the crater of a supervolcano that erupted tens of thousands of years ago.

It is one of the world's deepest lakes and extends some 1,145 square kilometres (440 square miles).

The rescue agency has said it plans to search as deep as 400 metres for the sunken vessel.

Images from the scene Wednesday showed rescuers covering up the bloated body of a woman who had washed ashore.

It was not clear if any foreigners were on board the ferry or what caused the disaster.

Survivor accounts said the boat began shaking as it struggled to navigate strong winds and high waves about halfway into the 40-minute trip from an island in the middle of the lake to shore.

Muslim-majority Indonesia has been celebrating the Islamic festival of Eid since Friday and millions go on holiday during the festivities, with Lake Toba among the top destinations.

The deadly disaster came just days after more than a dozen people were killed in an unrelated ferry accident in the Southeast Asian archipelago nation, where many people depend on boats to get around.

Traditional vessels -- like the one in the Lake Toba disaster -- are rarely equipped with enough life preservers and their condition can be dire.

Enforcement of safety standards also tends to be weak, underscoring Indonesia's woeful boat safety record.

In 2015 a ferry sank off the coast of the island of Sulawesi, leaving 78 dead or missing.

More than 300 people are estimated to have drowned in 2009 when a ferry sank between Sulawesi and Borneo.

Map of Indonesia locating the area where a ferry capsized on June 18 pic.twitter.com/k0OR3LfXpx

— AFP news agency (@AFP) June 20, 2018

South Korea raises sunken ferry: Yonhap

Yahoo – AFP, Hwang Sunghee, March 22, 2017

Barges during a salvage project to bring the sunken Sewol ferry back to
surface in the sea off the southwestern island of Jindo (AFP Photo/Handout)

Salvage operators raised part of South Korea's sunken Sewol ferry early Thursday, Yonhap news agency reported, nearly three years after the disaster killed more than 300 people and dealt a crippling blow to now-ousted president Park Geun-Hye.

Emotional parents of victims -- the vast majority of the dead in the country's worst-ever maritime tragedy were schoolchildren -- had earlier urged people to pray for a successful recovery.

"As of 3:45 am (1845 GMT Wednesday), part of the Sewol's structure, which is believed to be its stabilizer, can be seen above the water with the naked eye," an official from the Oceans and Fisheries Ministry was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.

It is expected to take around eight days to fully raise the ship and move it to the port of Mokpo, and another four days to move it onto a dry dock, he added.

The vessel was lying more than 40 metres (130 feet) below the waves off southwestern South Korea and the operation, originally scheduled for last year, had been pushed back several times because of adverse weather.

It is thought that nine bodies still unaccounted for may be trapped inside the sunken ship, and raising the ferry intact has been a key demand of the victims' families.

Raising the Sewol sunken ferry (AFP Photo/Laurence CHU , Gal ROMA)

"I am a mother who just really misses her daughter. Please pray for us so we can go home with Eun-Hwa," said Lee Keum-Hui, one of a handful of relatives who have been living in makeshift homes at Paengmok, the closest port to the wreck, since the accident.

"We will be grateful if you pray with us so that the last remaining victims can return to their families," she said, breaking down.

Other bereaved family members have been maintaining a vigil at a camp on a hilltop on Donggeochado, the nearest island to the site, just 1.5 kilometres away.

Yellow ribbons -- a symbol for the victims of the disaster -- hang on nearby trees, their colour faded by the course of time.

"My heart is pounding," said father Jung Seong-Wook of the decision to go ahead with the lift. "I have mixed feelings that I cannot put into words. I'm also a little scared."

In a tense atmosphere during the day, another father nervously watched through binoculars, trying to get a glimpse of the operation. Some 50 bereaved family members went out to sea by boat to watch the proceedings, he added.

Two enormous barges were positioned on either side of the 6,825-tonne ship and air bags inserted for the salvage effort, which is being led by a Chinese consortium.

Beams were installed by digging through the seabed underneath the wreck, which was lying on its side, and cables attached to bring it painstakingly towards the surface.

Once two-thirds of it is exposed, a semi-submersible will be positioned underneath to raise it out of the water and transport it Mokpo to carry out investigations and search for the missing.

A monk bowed in prayer before a memorial to victims of the Sewol ferry 

disaster, at Paengmok harbour on the southern island of Jindo (AFP 

Photo/Ed Jones)

Wilful negligence

A senior official from the maritime ministry said it took three hours to raise the wreck one metre off the seabed in what was initially a feasibility test.

The ministry then decided to go ahead with the full lifting, it said in a statement. The operation is expected to take three days.

The disaster and its aftermath gripped South Korea and overshadowed the presidency of Park, who stayed at her residence for seven hours in the crucial initial phase of the sinking.

She has never specified what she was doing, sparking wild rumours including a tryst and cosmetic surgery.

A permanent Sewol protest site targeting her was subsequently set up in the centre of Seoul, with effigies of the head of state on display alongside pictures of the dead schoolchildren.

Negligence over the sinking was one of the grounds for which parliament impeached Park in December, although the constitutional court ruled that it was not an impeachable offence when it upheld her dismissal on other charges earlier this month.

Donggeochado island has a population of only around 300, but the once-a-day ferry to it was packed with reporters Wednesday and at least one broadcast truck.

Investigations into the disaster, in which 304 people died, concluded it was largely man-made -- the cumulative result of an illegal redesign, an overloaded cargo bay, inexperienced crew and a questionable relationship between the ship operators and state regulators.

Even though the vessel took around three hours to sink, those on board were never ordered to evacuate, while the crew escaped to safety.

Captain Lee Jun-Seok was sentenced to life in prison for "murder through wilful negligence" and 14 other crew members given terms ranging from two to 12 years.

South Korea's sunken Sewol ferry moves a step closer to reaching port https://t.co/cObM847pqu pic.twitter.com/9uVD4yYnhs

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 25, 2017

Related Article:

Captain sentenced to jail in Sewol ferry case

Rescue crews in Indonesia battle high seas to reach ship with 120 on board

Rescue crews in Indonesia are braving high seas to rescue more 120 passengers aboard a boat at risk of sinking.

Deutsche Welle, 19 December 2015

The ferry boat carrying around 120 passengers was hit by 3 to 5 meter waves off the coast of the Sulawesi on Saturday, forcing the captain to send out a distress signal.

Initial media reports suggested the fiberglass boat carrying passengers from Kolaka to Siwa on Sulawesi island had sunk, but authorities later said the boat was taking in water and its engine had broken.

"The ship has not sunk," a South Sulawesi police spokesman said by phone.

A search and rescue official told Reuters that rescue teams were trying to reach the stranded passengers, including at least 19 children.

There was no mention of casualties, but Indonesia's search and rescue agency and navy have been notified.

Indonesia relies heavily on passenger boats to connect 17,000 islands but the transport sector has a poor safety record.

cw/jm (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)

Greece charters ferry to house Syrian refugees in port

Authorities have begun loading some 2,500 refugees aboard the 176-meter Eleftherios Venizelos passenger ship to give relief to the island of Kos. The influx of war refugees has overwhelmed the touristic island.

Deutsche Welle, 17 Aug 2015

Hundreds of Syrian refugees boarded the 580-foot chartered ship late Sunday to be housed, fed and processed as Greek authorities receive thousands of new arrivals and relieve overwhelmed officials on the island.

Several thousand migrants are staying in island hotels if they can afford it; many more sleep in tents, abandoned structures or in the open.

Requested by local authorities, the passenger ferry docked Friday and is expected to remain for about two weeks, government officials said.

Officials on board will register Syrians who are already on the island, as well as any new arrivals, according to UN refugee agency spokeswoman Stella Nanou.

Arrivals cross from Turkey

A Syrian migrant holds her children as they
 arrive on an overcrowded dinghy on a
beach near the port on the Greek island
of Kos.

Most of the migrants have crossed the sea from neighboring Turkey and are fleeing the unremitting bloodshed in Syria's civil war, now in its fifth year.

Migrants say they are intent on reaching Athens and points west in Europe to look for work and join friends and relatives who are already established.

"We hope the procedure will be smoother now. We just want to be registered so we can leave to Athens," Muhammad, a refugee from Syria's divided city of Aleppo, told the AFP news agency; he declined give his family name.

Nearly 250,000 refugees have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe this year, according to the International Organization for Migration. About half have come to the Greek islands – due to proximity from Turkey – and numbers are surging in the hot summer weather when calmer winds makes sea crossings safer.

Non-Syrians already on the island must register with police officials, UNHCR's Nanou said. And in a sign of rising tension between migrant groups, some 20 Iraqis at the entrance to the harbor protested, demanding to be allowed onto the ship for faster processing.

Meanwhile, in Athens, the government has transferred hundreds of migrants who were living in a tent city to a newly built reception center in the neighborhood of Eleonas, west of the capital.

jar/bw (Reuters, AFP)

Hundreds still missing after China cruise ship sinks

Yahoo – AFP, Neil Connor, 2 June 2015

Chinese divers rescue an elderly passenger from the Dongfangzhixing ferry

 which sank in the Yangtze river, Hubei province, on June 2, 2015 (AFP Photo)

Rescuers pulled at least three people from the wreckage of a capsized Chinese cruise ship Tuesday as fears mounted for the more than 400 people still missing after the boat sank in a storm.

Just 14 people have been confirmed as surviving after the Dongfangzhixing, or "Eastern Star," a tourist boat rapidly overturned late Monday on the Yangtze river in central China, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Six bodies have been recovered from the wreckage, leaving hundreds more still missing, possibly trapped within the ship which apparently sank in a matter of seconds with 458 people on board, state media said.

An elderly survivor is rescued from the

 Dongfangzhixing ferry which sank in the 

Yangtze river on June 2, 2015 (AFP Photo)

Local reports said the passengers were mostly aged over 60.

Television footage showed rescuers on top of a section of the ship's hull which remained above water, some pressing their ears against it.

"Rescuers knocked on the ship and received responses," the Hubei Daily newspaper said. "Three people were found alive."

Zhang Hui, a 43-year-old tour guide on board, described a storm roiling the boat which tilted by as much as 45 degrees just after 9:00 pm local time (1300 GMT) on Monday, Xinhua said.

"Rain poured down on the right side of the boat, many rooms were flooded," Zhang said, according to Xinhua. "Even if the windows were shut, water leaked through."

Passengers began taking soaked quilts and TV sets into the ship's hall around 9:20 pm (1320 GMT), Xinhua quoted Zhang as saying, in what appeared to be an attempt to keep the items dry.

Passengers seemed to have little warning before the ship sank minutes later with Zhang recalling he had "30 seconds to grab a life jacket".

Chinese relatives of passengers on the

 Dongfangzhixing ferry which sank en

 route from the eastern city of Nanjing to

 the southwestern city of Chongqing, react

 as they wait for information at a hotel

in Nanjing, on June 2, 2015 (AFP Photo)

The captain and chief engineer, who were among the few survivors and being questioned by police, both reportedly said it had been caught in a freak "cyclone".

Foreign journalists were barred from coming closer than about two kilometers from the centre of rescue efforts, which appeared to be a hive of activity where army personnel had parked trucks and pitched tents.

As heavy rains continued to hit the area, an AFP photographer saw more than a dozen ambulances driving away from the rescue area, and at least two body bags apparently containing dead passengers.

CCTV said the 250-feet (76.5-metre) long vessel had floated three kilometres (1.9 miles) down river after it capsized in Jianli county, part of the central province of Hubei.

Teams of police worked to get small motorboats in the water to search for survivors in the rain, while other emergency personnel looked on from the shore.

Xinhua reported that three divers found one 21-year-old man in a small compartment Tuesday afternoon, saying he was given diving apparatus and able to swim out by himself.

State broadcaster CCTV showed rescue workers carrying an elderly woman on a stretcher, adding that another 65-year-old woman was in "good physical condition," after being hauled from the boat.

It also showed Chinese Premier Li Keqiang peering through binoculars and giving instructions at the scene.

A local man surnamed Wang told AFP the storm on Monday night was the worst he had seen in years.

Chinese rescue workers carry a body

from the capsized passenger ship 

Dongfangzhixing which sank in the

Yangtze river in Hubei province on 

June 2, 2015 (AFP Photo/

Johannes Eisele)

'All-out rescue efforts'

Xinhua said an investigation by the ministry of transport had determined the ship was not overloaded and had a sufficient number of life jackets.

There were 458 people on board the Dongfangzhixing when the ship capsized at 9:28 pm, CCTV said, including 406 Chinese passengers, five travel agency workers and 47 crew members.

The vessel was owned by a firm that operates tours in the scenic Three Gorges dam region, some distance from the accident site.

The boat sent no emergency signal and seven people from the boat swam to shore to raise the alarm after it sank, according to reports.

The ship started operations in 1993 and was due to be retired in three years, the 21st Century Business Herald quoted an unnamed former senior executive with the Chongqing Eastern Ship Company as saying.

The accident occurred in the middle reaches of the Yangtze, a wide and rapidly flowing waterway which at 6,300 kilometres is Asia's longest river.

Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier ordered "all-out rescue efforts" to find any survivors.

The Hubei Daily said about 150 boats -- including about 100 fishing vessels -- and more than 3,000 people were involved in the rescue effort, including 140 divers.

A survivor is rescued by divers from the Dongfangzhixing vessel which sank

in the Yangtze river, Hubei province, on June 2, 2015 (AFP Photo)

Distraught relatives of the passengers gathered at a Shanghai travel agency on Tuesday, sobbing and pleading for information on their loved ones' fate.

One man expressed his grief with a tearful apology to his parents, who were among the hundreds of missing.

"I still have so many things I want to tell them. I thought they would come back safe and sound," added the man.

A 64-year-old man surnamed Zhang said he spoke to his wife on the boat Monday evening hours before the accident, and she told him about poor weather and heavy rain.

"I usually call her twice a day. But today, after I heard the news... the phone call never got through," he said.

US authorizes commercial ferry services to Cuba

Yahoo – AFP, 5 May 2015

US flags are seen in a bici-taxi near the capitol in Havana, Cuba,

on January 23, 2015 (AFP Photo/Yamil Lage)

Washington (AFP) - The United States authorized commercial ferry services to Cuba for the first time in more than a half-century on Tuesday, another major step in improving relations between the two countries.

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control lifted the ban and at least one Florida company confirmed it had been licensed to launch boat services to the island.

That adds to the charter air services that had been permitted up until now, focused on enabling Cuban-Americans to visit families.

Joseph Hinson, president of Miami-based United Americas Shipping Services, confirmed his company had received permission from the Treasury to provide ferry travel.

"Today's action was a great step forward," he told AFP, while saying other permissions were still needed from authorities in both countries before launching the first trip.

Whether by plane or ferry, American travelers still have to come under one of 12 categories permitted in the landmark easing of US sanctions announced by the White House in December -- including family visits, official government business, humanitarian projects and sports gatherings.

The ferries will also be allowed to carry cargo to the communist island, which sits just 150 kilometers (90 miles) off the southern tip of Florida.

On December 17, US President Barack Obama broke a nearly six-decade Cold War-rooted estrangement between the two countries by lifting sanctions on travel and some trade as the first step toward normalizing relations.

Hong Kong captain jailed for 8 years over ferry tragedy

Yahoo – AFP, February 16, 2015

Hong Kong captain jailed for 8 years over ferry tragedy

Hong Kong (AFP) - A Hong Kong boat captain was on Monday sentenced to eight years in prison for the manslaughter of 39 people in a 2012 ferry collision, the city's worst maritime disaster in nearly four decades.

Sea Smooth skipper Lai Sai Ming, 56, was found guilty on Saturday following a trial that gripped the city, over the accident between his high-speed ferry and a pleasure boat near Lamma Island.

"I have concluded you should go to prison for eight years," judge Brian Keith told a court.

"You were in command of a fast ferry, not a small pleasure boat. You knew if you didn't check for the presence of other vessels you would be risking lives... your conduct that night fell way below the standard of professionalism," he said.

"The case has been personal tragedy for your and your family but that cannot begin to compare with the unimaginable grief to those who lost their loved ones," he said, as Lai listened from the dock with his head lowered.

Lai was jailed for a further 18 months for endangering the safety of others at sea, but the terms will be served concurrently.

Chow Chi-wai, 58, who was piloting the leisure boat Lamma IV with 120 people on board in the collision, was jailed for nine months for endangering others' safety at sea. He was acquitted of all 39 charges of manslaughter.

His lawyer Gerard McCoy said that, after the October 1, 2012 incident, Chow "has deep, abiding fear of the sea" and cannot go on ferries anymore.

Saturday's verdict came after a nine-member jury deliberated for four days following a 60-day trial.

Irene Cheng, who lost her 24-year-old son in the accident, told AFP that the sentences could not bring back the families' loved ones.

"I respect the court decision. But even if they were given a death penalty it cannot compensate... his life will not return and my family will never be the same," she said.

The collision raised questions over safety in the crowded waters of Hong Kong, one of the world's busiest ports, with an inquiry pointing to a "litany of errors" that caused the disaster.

Victims could have had vital extra minutes to escape if the Lamma IV had been equipped with a watertight door, while several were actually left trapped when seats fell on top of them, the inquiry found.

The boat also had no children's life jackets onboard when it sank, claiming the lives of eight youngsters.

It was the city's most serious maritime accident since 1971, when a ferry between Hong Kong and Macau sank off the island of Lantau during a typhoon, killing 88 people.

Related Article:

Costa Concordia captain Schettino sentenced to 16 years

Ferry disaster survivors describe chaos and panic

Yahoo – AFP, Ljubomir Milasin, 30 Dec 2014

A survivor of the Norman Atlantic hugs her children after arriving at the
 Elefsina military airport in Athens on December 29, 2014 (AFP)

Survivors of the Norman Atlantic ferry disaster described chaos, panic, and anger as they sought to escape the vessel after it burst into flames in stormy weather Sunday.

"It was panic because there were over 400 of us who were all supposed to use the same emergency exit," Greek passenger Urania Thireou told AFP at a hotel in the Italian port city of Brindisi, after waiting 23 hours on the burning ship to be rescued.

"There were crew members around, but even they were panicked (because) it was impossible to organise so many people," Thireou said.

A photo grab from a video by the Marina

 Militare Italiana on December 29, 2014,

shows the rescue operation of passengers

by helicopter from the Norman Atlantic,

adrift in the Adriatic Sea off Albania

She said her own salvation came from feeling "anger that gave me the force to stay alive."

French passenger Philippe Moyses gave an equally emotional account of "terror" amid the disaster, during which he "looked death in the face" in a way that has deeply marked him.

"This morning I got up (after) sleeping like a log, I sat on the edge of the bed, and... I just started crying," Moyses, a 62-year-old resident of Bordeaux, said from his hotel after being among the last passengers lifted by helicopter from the burning ferry.

Thireou said the lack of coordination aboard in responding in the emergency early on was the most critical failing in the catastrophe, which as of Tuesday afternoon had claimed a provisional total of 13 lives.

"At the start, there were people who got into the biggest lifeboat," she told AFP of the amorphous rushing of passengers. "They got it into the water, but we were told afterwards that they were not rescued."

Despite that news and the bleak situation aboard the Norman Atlantic, Thireou says she quickly focused all her energy and emotions on surviving the calamity.

"I wasn't scared of dying then, (and) I understood that I had to remain positive," Thireou says.

"I was also angry, and this anger kept me alive (and) gave me strength, though I lost that courage when night fell."

Look death in the face

Moyses similarly described an atmosphere of growing dread as passengers counted hours ticking by during the long and laborious rescue operation.

"There were 30 men left to evacuate at the end," the Frenchman recalled. "There were flames under the floorboards. I nearly passed out, and they lifted me out by helicopter.

Rescued passenger of the Norman Atlantic 

accident Marko Gondolo, 40, holds his

 daughter Serafina, 5, at the airport in 

Elefsina, Greece, on December 29, 2014

"I'm completely emptied -- it was terrible. But it was when only 30 of us were left that we looked death in the face and said, 'That's it, we're going to make it out of this'," Moyses said, his eyes becoming moist with emotion again.

Moyses, one of ten French passengers on the ferry, paid tribute to the Italian military helicopter pilots who performed rescue flights in the midst of a violent storm, often at night, and at times as heavy black smoke billowed around the ship.

Thireou was also quick to thank rescuers, authorities involved, and in particular "the truck drivers aboard who tried several times, black with smoke, to hook the rescue tug's cable to the ferry."

Two Albanian sailors died when one of those cables snapped during rescue operations.

Wearing Red Cross-supplied slippers because all his luggage was lost in the ferry fire, Moyses said moves were afoot to get him outfitted again.

"I'm going with the (French) ambassador to buy shoes," he said, leaving his hotel to meet with diplomats who have assisted French nationals as they were brought from the ferry back to land.

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Albanian sailors killed during ferry rescue operation

Burning ferry to be towed to Italy as rescue airlifts continue

Safety standards on passenger ships

Albanian sailors killed during ferry rescue operation

Two Albanian sailors have died during efforts to tow a wrecked Greek ferry that has been adrift on the Adriatic Sea since a fire broke out on board. The official death toll from the disaster has reached 12.

Deutsche Welle, 30 Dec 2014

Police said the sailors were on a tugboat when they were reportedly hit by a rope they had attached to the charred Norman Atlantic ferry near the Albanian port of Vlore on Tuesday.

"One man died on the spot when one cable broke after it got stuck in the propeller. The other died on board a few minutes ago when being assisted by a helicopter medical team," a port authority official told Reuters.

The crippled ferry has been drifting in the Adriatic Sea since one of its car decks caught fire near the Greek island of Corfu on Sunday. The official death toll from the disaster now stands at 12.

Dutch company Smit Salvage is overseeing the operations to secure the ferry after 427 people, including 56 crew, were safely evacuated during a 36-hour rescue

mission that ended on Monday.

Martijn Schuttevaer, a spokesman for Smit's parent company Royal Boskalis Smit, said one line had been successfully connected to the ship early Tuesday, and that the priority was to get a heavier tow line attached. It was not clear if that was the operation underway when the Albanian sailors were struck.

‘Still smoke' on board

The Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic, chartered by Greek ferry operator ANEK Lines, was sailing from Patras in western Greece to Ancona in Italy when the blaze broke out on board.

According to Schuttevaer, crews were still patrolling the vessel to put out any remaining fire.

"There is still smoke," he said.

Meanwhile, authorities say discrepancies in the ferry's passenger list of 478 people are making it difficult to know how many individuals were on board, or how many of them, if any, are still missing.

Italian Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi said it was possible there were illegal migrants on board, and added that authorities were looking for a definitive list of passengers to cross-check it with the names of survivors.

Italian and Albanian magistrates ordered that the ship be seized in order to investigate the cause of the fire, which is still unknown, and magistrates in both countries are deciding together where the vessel should be towed, Italy's Transport Ministry said in a statement.

nm/es (Reuters, AP, dpa)

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Dual criminal investigations launched into Adriatic ferry tragedy - New
Burning ferry to be towed to Italy as rescue airlifts continue

Safety standards on passenger ships

Safety standards on passenger ships

Passenger ships are monitored regularly following international standards for the safety of passengers and crew. Minimum standards were put in place more than a century ago, after the sinking of the Titanic.

Deutsche Welle, 29 Dec 2014

When was the first convention for the safety at sea created?

The first convention originated in the wake of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912. An international conference was called in November 1913, aimed at creating international minimum standards for the safety at sea. A first version of the "International Treaty for the Safety of Life at Sea" (SOLAS) was compiled, and has since been repeatedly updated. The London-based International Maritime Organization (IMO) has held responsibility for the treaty since 1960; currently a 1974 version is in place. The IMO depends on mutual decisions by its members, so change often takes quite some time. The most recent amendment entered into force on January 1, 2013.

How are safety regulations monitored?

In 1993, the IMO adopted the International Management Code for the Safe Operations of Ships and for Pollution Prevention (ISM Code). The code defines what needs to be done to guarantee safe operation of a ship. Every ship owner and operator commits to compiling a set of documents known as the Safety Management System (SMS). They are bound to enforce the regulations, and check compliance. As a rule, the state under whose flag the vessel sails authorizes a recognized Classification Society to survey compliance. The Adria Norman Atlantic, which caught fire on Sunday morning, was last inspected five months ago.

When does inspection begin, and what doe monitors check?

The burning Ferry was finally evacuated

Inspection begins with the construction of the ship. The Classification Society checks building materials and components, and watches over the construction the on the wharf. Once the vessel is finished, the rescue and safety technology is tested. After the ship has been cleared, the Classification Society checks it on an annual basis. The state of the ship is thus constantly documented.

What happens after the inspection?

Port State Control gives a ship that meets all the requirements a class "A" document. If there are defects, they are noted in the inspection report along with the measures needed to correct the problems. Finally, the ship's data and the inspection report findings are transmitted to a central electronic data bank in Lisbon. If a ship does not meet the safety requirements, local authorities have the right to prevent it from leaving port. After the cruise liner Costa Concordia ran aground on rocks, numerous major shipping companies committed to stricter self inspection and higher safety standards.

How are safety standards ranked among various states that have ships sailing under their flag?

The Costa Concordia, shipwrecked
off the Italian coast

The Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Port State Control takes care of that. It was created at France's initiative after the oil tanker Amoco Cadiz sank off the coast of Brittany in 1978. The memorandum has 27 signatories. Every year, the Paris MOU specifies the states' safety levels in "white", "grey" and "black" lists. According to the most recent list, published in July, France has the safest ships, followed by Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Germany ranks ninth. The poorest performing flags are the island nation of Dominica, Honduras and the United Republic of Tanzania.

How many passenger ships sank over the past years?

Insurers "Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty" document the loss of 90 passenger ships from 2001to 2012. They didn't all necessarily sink, however: the figure documents their final failure. Losses have dropped significantly in the past eight years. While more than ten ships were lost annually until 2006, that figure decreased to six ships that were written off every year over the past six years.

When a ship threatens to sink - on average, how long does it take to evacuate?

According to the SOLAS accord, lifeboats must be ready to be boarded and launched at the latest 30 minutes after the captain has given the appropriate signal. Within this time frame, they must also reach an acceptable safety distance from the ship in distress. Since 2002, cruise ships must be fully evacuated within 80 minutes. The Adria Norman Atlantic's disaster off the Greek coast shows, however, that this time frame is exceeded many times over if conditions are unfavorable.

Related Article:

Burning ferry to be towed to Italy as rescue airlifts continue