SAFAGA, Egypt: First came the frantic banging on Sayed Abdul Hakim s cabin door. Fire! Fire! he heard people yelling. Then smoke boiled through the corridors as terrified passengers scrambled to reach the ferry deck.
Everything is under control, crew members told passengers, according to survivors like Abdul Hakim.
Abdul Muhsin Rayan, a 35-year-old Egyptian plumber working in Saudi Arabia, spoke from his hospital bed in Safaga after hours in the chilly Red Sea. Some of the crew, he claimed, had even discouraged passengers from putting on readily available life jackets so as not to cause the women and children to panic.
The accounts of delay and denial have enraged those of who lost friends and relatives when the ship sank early Friday, and contributed to the anger that prompted mobs Monday to attack and destroy the offices of the ferry s owner, Al-Salaam Maritime.
The Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98 set sail from Dubah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday night carrying more than 1,400 passengers and crew and 220 vehicles. Fierce winds were whipping a sandstorm as the ship left port for the 200 kilometer (130 mile) crossing to Safaga, on the Egyptian coast.
Less than two hours into the voyage, which would have put the ship about 60 kilometers (40 miles) off the Saudi coast, fire broke out in the vehicle parking bay. The crew apparently thought it had the blaze extinguished and the captain pressed on for Egypt. Then the fire rekindled and finally raged out of control.
The captain had four hours to ask for help or to return to Saudi Arabia, but he did not. His pride made him believe that he could control the situation, said Abdul Hakim, who works as a painter in Kuwait. He was acting as if we were not human beings.
The ship sank after midnight Friday about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from its destination. So far, reports on the number of survivors vary between 388 and 401 of the 1,400-plus people who started the journey. Authorities report recovering 244 bodies of the roughly 1,000 people believed drowned.
As Abdul Hakim, Rayan and other passengers gathered on the deck, some recited verses from the Quran that they had committed to memory. Others shook with sobs. With no instructions from the crew, some of the passengers scrambled to put on life jackets when they felt the ship begin to list, they said.
Adbul Hakim theorized the ship began tipping badly and finally sank because water used to fight the fire was sloshing about in the hold and finally accumulated on oneside.
One survivor after another said that throughout the ordeal the crew had one message: Everything is under control. But it wasn t.
When the end came, the ship sank in minutes, said Abdul Hakim. He and others were swept off the deck and into the water as if skidding down a giant slide, he said.
None of the crew members lowered lifeboats or even told us how to use them, said Abdul Hakim, who battled the waves for three hours before climbing into an inflatable lifeboat. Around him, women and children were calling out for help. I couldn t help them, he said, shame mingled in his words.
The waves separated brother from brother and parent from child.
Rayan said that when the ship was sinking a giant wave threw him in one direction and his brother in another. He hasn t seen him since.
I saw no lifeboats around me, Rayan said, tears welling in his eyes. The men were yelling: ‘There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger. The children were calling out, Mother! Father! The women were crying. It was a very difficult situation.
Rayan said he swam for about an hour before he spotted a floating board that he clung to until he saw a rubber lifeboat. But the boat was already overflowing with people, so he and others ended up gripping a rope that dangled from the little craft.
As the hours went by, some grew too tired to hold on. They let go. The sea swallowed them, he said. In the dark and cold water, some survivors said they held onto barrels or suitcases. Several said they wildly signaled to helicopters hovering overhead, but got no responses.
Some survivors claimed the captain and some crew members were among the first to abandon ship. The authorities said the captain was among the missing. Officials cautioned that survivor accounts could include exaggerations caused by trauma.
In a statement on its Web site, the company which owned the ship said the vessel met international standards for safety and that crew members were well trained. The statement said it was too early to determine the reasons for the sinking and that the company was now focused on rescue efforts.
Such assurances did little to comfort hundreds of family members, many of whom have been sleeping on the street near the Safaga docks, desperate to learn if their loved ones were dead or alive.
Their anger boiled over Monday, and hundreds stormed the company s Safaga office, throwing furniture into the street. They tried to storm a hospital after administrators put up photographs of retrieved bodies so victims could be identified.
Transportation Ministry spokesman Mohammed Amin said Monday that investigators have spoken with surviving crew members and passengers to learn what happened.
He said the Egyptian port had not received a distress signal from the captain, who he said had tried to turn back for Saudi Arabia after the fire but could not.
Accumulated water from fighting the fire had made the ferry too unwieldy in the high wind.
Despite official assurances of a fair investigation and accountability, many of the victims families viewed the incident as proof of negligence by the company and a government they see as aloof to the needs of its people, too slow in rescue efforts and not serious about enforcing safety measures or punishing those responsible.
Many of those on board were Egyptians working in Gulf countries to escape Egypt s poverty and unemployment. AP
