Near the stricken Italian-flagged ro-ro ferry MS Norman Atlantic rescuers have traced 4 bodies floating on the sea. Greek coastguard officials said, bringing the death toll from the burning ship’s accident to 5.
One Greek is passenger is already known to have died in the ship’s escape shoot.
Meanwhile, the airborne evacuation of the vessel’s nearly 500 passengers and crew continues at a steady pace, with 407 people having been rescued so far, according to Greek coastguard officials assisting the Italian led operation.
26,900-gt MS Norman Atlantic (built 2009) sent an SOS signal in the early hours of Sunday 35 miles north of the Greek island of Corfu after a fire broke out on the car deck for reasons that aren’t clear yet. There has been speculation that the seat of the fire was a tanker or other vehicle carrying a large cargo of olive oil.
The fire quickly spread to other parts of the ship, forcing passengers and crew to go on the water on lifeboats or flee to the upper deck to await rescue as the ship was drifting by strong winds to north, towards the Albanian coast.
Several commercial and other vessels rushed to assist the MV Norman Atlantic but the fire and bad weather made it impossible to approach it, leaving airborne evacuation as the only solution. Italian and Greek helicopter crews have been since winching small groups of passengers to safety, despite difficult weather conditions including rough seas and high winds.
MS Norman Atlantic is part of the fleet of Italian ferry operator Visemar di Navigazione but was on charter to Greece’s Anek Lines.
6 non-detainable deficiencies were identified when the vessel was boarded by Greek port state control inspectors at Patras less than ten days ago. These included issues relating to fire safety and watertight doors as well as emergency lighting.
MS Norman Atlantic has protection and indemnity cover, which includes passenger and crew liability insurance, from Gard.
The Italian-flag ferry is understood to have undergone its last port state control inspection on 19 December in the Greek port of Patras. The authorities discovered a warning light malfunction on fire door number 112 situated on the 5th deck of the ferry, which is thought to have been one deck above where the fire started.
5 year old vessel was built at Cantieri Visentini shipyard in Porto Viro in the Veneto region of northeast Italy.
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