Greek Ferry on fire - being abandoned.

[FiF]

Norman Atlantic former LDLines channel ferry

Route Patras -Ancona

Anek owner also super fast ferries somewhere in the mix

High winds, 45nm NW Corfu
411 pas 55 crew 222 vehicles.

Fire lower decks, boats lowered, not all passengers made boats.

Some reports of people in water.

[FiF]

Yep one of my nightmares frankly. Even on short crossings always make sure I know and keep tabs on routes to muster station. (Plus the same on checking into hotels on land being totally honest. Plus having a torch handy at night)

Paranoid? Moi?


May God have mercy.

[wildcat45]

When my late Dad was a little boy the ship he was being evacuated to Canada in caught the attention on a U-boat and was hit. They had to abandon ship.

It didn't give him a fear of ships but when I travelled with him at sea he'd always (apparently casually) go for a wander round the decks with me pointing out escape routes and muster points.

It's a good safety tip that's stayed with me.

Fingers crossed for the PAX and crew here. A thought too to the SAR teams.

[V41LEY]

That photo on the BBC News website of it ablaze in very big seas does not look good.

[Magog]

Now reporting ten dead, I'm surprised this hasn't got more coverage in the UK press, it took them a long time to get everyone off.

[hidetheelephants]

Pretty abysmal fire suppression; of the risks RoRo vessels face fire is immediately after flood in seriousness, and should be readily contained by closing dampers and activation of the fixed suppression systems. It will be interesting to see what the report says when/if it's published.

[FiF]

Yep to say it reportedly started on car decks looked like it had even spread right up onto upper passenger decks.

36 hour rescue. At least the skipper was the last man off.

[Eric Mc]

It now seems that two more fatalities have occurred. Two Albanian workers have been killed in an accident involving the tow line.

[Enricogto]

The fire originated from the trucks' deck. Possibly originated by some illegal migrants trying to warm themselves up and setting accidentally some vehicles on fire.
It then expanded and moved to the other decks using the ventilation holes.

The rescue saw the total inactivity of the Greeks despite the boat being only 10 nm off their coasts. Most of the passengers were rescued by the Italian coast guard helicopters and by other ships/ferries.

All in all it seems was quite a successful operation considering also the conditions of the sea and the very low temperatures in the area (currently it's snowing, quite an event for south of Italy).

[Simpo Two]

Enricogto said:

The rescue saw the total inactivity of the Greeks despite the boat being only 10 nm off their coasts. Most of the passengers were rescued by the Italian coast guard helicopters and by other ships/ferries

At least the Captain didn't jump into the first lifeboat, so that's an improvement...