MS al-Salam Boccaccio 98

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• Boccaccio

The Al -Salam Boccaccio 98 (Arabic Salām سلام means peace ) was a ro-ro ferry, which fell on 2 February 2006 in the Red Sea. Of the 1,414 persons on board - including 104 crew members - died more than 1,000. Only 387 people survived the accident.

Most of the passengers were Egyptians who were returning from their work in Saudi Arabia in their home or returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca.

History

The ship was as Boccaccio, one of six sister ships in Monfalcone in Gorizia, Italy built. The keel-laying ceremony was on June 8, 1969 the completion on 30 June 1970. His length was 130.99 m.

1990 burned down the transport ship in the port of Marseilles and was sold then to Egypt.

The ship was in 1991 converted into a ferry, refurbished and provided with a higher structure. Then it had a size of more than 11,000 tons, was 118 feet long and up to 17 knots ( 31.5 kilometers per hour) fast. On board was room for nearly 1,500 passengers. The passenger capacity was increased to 320.

In 1999, the ship of the El Salam Shipping in Suez, Egypt, bought and renamed Al -Salam Boccaccio 98. Joined the ship in Panama was on the shipping company Al Salam Maritime Transport Co..

On 2 February 2006, the ferry sank in the Red Sea. The area was in the past, a place of misfortunes, as is, for example, off the coast of Safaga the wreck of the Salem Express, with its demise 500 people died.

The disaster

On the journey from Duba, Saudi Arabia to Safaga, Egypt misfortune took shortly after leaving the port its start when the vehicle deck got a truck on fire, or - according to other sources - a cable fire broke out. Since carbon dioxide fire extinguishers were not available, tried to extinguish the fire with water the team.

The ship's crew to the passengers calm during the fire and have asked to take the life jackets again.

However, this is in vehicle deck collecting firefighting water could not be spent through scuppers or bilge pumps by powerful outboard and caused, due to the large free surfaces in the vehicle deck, a heeling moment. This led to a strong imbalance of the ship.

A captain's error seems to have lain in the fact that he now hove the ship to return to Duba. The time of the accident prevailing strong winds, a major attack. Thus, the heeling moment was still enlarged and brought the ship to capsize. The ferry finally fell between 23:00 and 24:00 UTC ( 1-2 clock local time) about 90 km from the port of destination and about 70 km from the resort of Hurghada.

Although the Egyptian sources confirmed to have received no emergency signal was received on 2 February 2006 at 23:58 UTC in the British SAR headquarters in Scotland Falkirk an automatic emergency signal the ferry, which probably came from a locator beacon.

The alerted at 0:45 UTC still in the harbor from the owner of St. Catherine was only at 5:00 UTC to contact an officer in a lifeboat. Overloaded with 1,800 passengers themselves, the captain, however, did not trust claims to be to turn the ship around, to get to the crash site. He was afraid to capsize also due to the strong wind.

On February 3, 2006, several survivors were found in lifeboats and recovered corpses. According to the Egyptian Minister of Transport, four rescue ships of the military were deployed. Other ships located near the crash site were involved in the rescue. On February 4, helped a Lockheed P -3 Orion - a maritime patrol aircraft of the U.S. Navy - 15 hours in the search for survivors. The offered for help from Britain HMS Bulwark, a military ship, which was on patrol in the Red Sea, was not requested. The ship could reach the crash site until two days later.

Of the 1,414 people 388 people survived the accident; about 400 corpses were recovered by 14 February 2006. In the port city of Safaga waited desperate relatives and caused a riot in which even the Al Salam Maritime Transport Company office was vandalized in Safaga on February 6.

In one ordered by the Egyptian President Mubarak investigation, some days were named after the accident, neglect, indifference and corruption as causes of accident. The black box of the ship was salvaged on 21 February from 800 meters depth by British and French divers and evaluated in the UK. The Egyptian government made ​​the captain of the Al -Salam Boccaccio 98 responsible for the accident because he - has revealed how the evaluation - a distress signal sent out only when the ship already sank.