[rocksblues]

“They informed me that the company director Mamdouh Ismail was asking me to continue on my course to avoid a second catastrophe,” he added.

The captain said that he alerted all other vessels in the area and asked them to come to the rescue. Yet a search and rescue operation was not launched until seven hours after the ferry sank

Any chance that the affected families will be able to sue over this? /S

[Antonello]

From another, related article:

Survivors have blamed on crew errors and the captain's stubborn refusal to sound the alarm and turn back to port, only 90 minutes away, after a fire broke out on the ferry's car deck.

Crew members fought the fire for three hours before the ship began to list, unbalanced by the amount of water taken on board to fight the fire, before suddenly capsizing and sinking. Passengers, who had been told not to panic, were urged to rush to the port side of the vessle to counteract the weight of the water.

The 35-year-old Panamanian-flagged vessel had caught fire only 20 miles from the start of her journey but had limped on for 110 miles until she was 57 miles from the Egyptian coast.

Simply an amazing combination of arrogance and incompetence.

[Anti-Bubba182]

Did they ever find the Captain of the ferry?