Egyptian Passenger Ship Sinks

[Bullseye]

From Sky News.

Egyptian passenger ferry carrying more than 1,400 people has sunk in the Red Sea - with only 12 survivors rescued.

A massive air and sea rescue is underway and dozens of bodies have been pulled from the sea where the ship disappeared.

Four Egyptian frigates are on their way and boats have taken the survivors to the Egyptian port of Sa***a.

Admiral Sir Alan West, Britain's first sea lord, has diverted a British warship, HMS Bulwark, to help in the rescue. It will arrive in a day-and-a-half.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said: "Our hearts go out to all those who we think have suffered so badly in this tragedy."

The rescue operation is being hampered by bad weather and there are reports of an electrical storm in the Red Sea overnight.

The ship, Salaam 98, disappeared shortly after sailing from the Saudi Arabian port of Duba last night.

Its last position on the radar screens was 62 miles from Duba and it was expected to arrive at Sa***a at 3am today.


Liner has vanished in Red Sea El-Salam Maritime Transport official Adel Shukri said they had not received an SOS message.

Richard Clayton, editor of Fairplay Shipping Magazine, said the ship "disappeared very quickly".

Most of the passengers are believed to be Egyptians working in Saudi Arabia but some are believed to have been on their way home from the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

David Osler, industrial editor at Lloyd's List, said: "It does look like we are fearing the worst."

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

He said: "The problem is with this type of ferry is they only need a relatively small amount of water to get on board to start an uncontrollable rocking effect that capsizes the ship."

The ship is owned by Egyptian company El Salaam Maritime Transport, which is run by Mamdouh Ismail. He said the ship was more than 25 years old and registered in Panama.

A sister ship, the Al Salam 95, sank in the Red Sea in October after a collision with a Cypriot commercial vessel.

[ant-man]

really tragic....my 1st thought nowadays.....would be terrorists?

I hope im wrong....but very sad very sad none the less...my prayeres for the families and passengers...

[Tetragrammaton]

The fact that there are so few survivors and no distress was sounded does make me suspect that it sank very quickly.

This does not necessarily indicate terrorism as this class of ship has among the worst safety ratings.

Terrible and tragic that so many people can lose everything so quickly.

[J Storm]

This sounds like another case of people taking part of the "unlucky lottery". The ship was really old and I guess it was worn out. It's sad to hear something like this.