Italy ferry: 'Up to 38 still missing' amid confusion over Norman Atlantic passenger list, death toll rises to 8

The death toll in the Italian car ferry fire shipwreck in the Adriatic climbed to eight today as a Greek report said as many as 38 people may still be missing.

The latest figures released by the Italian coast guard said eight people had died after the fire broke out in the Norman Atlantic Sunday and that 407 people had been rescued.

Earlier Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi heartily congratulated Italian rescuers on averting a "hecatomb" and said everyone had been rescued from the ferry.

However the respected Greek online weekly To VIma reported that as many as 38 people were still missing from the ferry.

Italian transport minister Maurizio Lupi admitted at a news conference that authorities are uncertain how many people who were evacuated from lifeboats had been tipped into the sea Sunday.

He also said that while the ship was officially carrying 478 people including 56 crew some survivors picked up were not on the passenger list. Mr Renzi earlier on Monday during a news conference said there may have been illegal immigrants who were stowaways aboard the ferry.

Mr Renzi told the last man to leave the ship was Captain Argilio Giacomazzi, saying “there is only the captain [left on board], who like all serious captains is the last to abandon ship”.

Captain Argilio Giacomazzi later disembarked from the ship, handing over to Italian navy officers at 2.50pm on Monday.

Mr Renzi also paid tribute to the firefighters, Navy personnel and other rescuers who raced to the ship off Corfu using helicopters, motor launches and tugs.

“An intervention full of passion, dedication and tenaciousness allowed us to avert a real hecatomb,” he said. “We expect to end the rescue operation within a few hours.”

The fire broke out on the car deck of the five-year-old ferry at dawn, as it was passing 44 nautical miles north of Corfu, destroying the ship’s steering mechanism and leaving it drifting towards the Albanian coast.

The car ferry had been sailing from Patras in Greece and Ancona in northern Italy.

Photographs showed flames spreading quickly through the decks as passengers began to evacuate. Roughly 120 people were able to leave the ship, and were picked up by a nearby freighter, before the fire cut off access to the lifeboats.

Monday 29 December 2014

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/11316653/Italy-ferry-Up-to-38-still-missing-amid-confusion-over-Norman-Atlantic-passenger-list.html

Fire in Lahore shopping centre leaves 13 dead, 2 injured

A fire broke out in Khalid Plaza, Al-Kareem Market of Urdu Bazar near Lohari Gate, Lahore on Monday evening apparently due to a short circuit in which 13 people, including a woman, were killed and two were injured.

More casualties are feared as fire fighters of Rescue 1122 and the fire brigade are still trying to overcome the fire.

The fire broke out at 5.32 pm in the evening and intensified within 10 minutes. So intense was the fire, that it trapped a number of people inside.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Rescue 1122 spokesperson Jam Sajjad Hussain said that the operation was underway and the real cause of the fire could only be ascertained once the blaze has been put out. He added that 16 firefighting vehicles and around 80 firefighters are trying to overcome the blaze while 25 ambulances were present to evacuate the dead and injured to the hospital.

“More casualties are feared since we haven’t managed to overcome the fire completely as yet,” said Hussain, adding that the building has only one entry and exit point.

One of the firefighters told The Express Tribune that they could not predict how many of people were still inside the building. Rescue services and fire brigade officials were also facing problems owing to low visibility and narrow streets and the large crowd gathered at the scene.

SP City Asad Sarfraz Khan said he had to use a loud speaker on multiple occasions to ask the gathered crowd to clear the area outside the affected building so that the rescue workers could work unhindered.

However, District Co-ordination Officer Captain (retd) Muhammad Usman said that the fire broke out due to short-circuit.

One of the shopkeepers of the market, Abu Bakar Butt, told The Express Tribune that Waleed, the son of the market union’s president was also among the dead.

MS Mayo Hospital Dr Amjad Shahzad confirmed that 12 bodies had been brought to them, including that of a woman. He added that initial examination of the dead showed that most had died of suffocation, while some had also suffered from burns.

One of the injured Mazhar Afzal, who suffered 15 per cent burn injuries was discharged after treatment. The dead were identified by their relatives.

Meanwhile, CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif took notice of the fire and asked the city district government to submit the report of the incident within 24 hours.

“All the resources should be utilized in saving the lives of the people who are in the Khalid Plaza and best treatment facilities should be provided to the injured people who are rescued,” said Sharif.

Monday 29 December 2014

http://tribune.com.pk/story/814038/fire-in-lahore-shopping-centre-leaves-12-dead-10-injured/

China: Beijing scaffold collapse kills 10, injures 4

Ten people were killed and four were injured following a scaffold collapse in a Beijing school on Monday morning, local sources said.

The accident happened at around 8:30 a.m. at a construction site of Tsinghua High School. The injured were all rushed to the nearby hospital.

Witnesses saw dozens of ambulances and fire engines at the site. Rescue work is under way.

29 December 2014

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2014-12/29/c_133884910.htm

Italy ferry: Death toll rises to seven as evacuation ends

The death toll following a fire on the Norman Atlantic ferry off Corfu has risen to seven, with the evacuation of all those on board now complete.

One man was killed when trying to escape the ship, and a further six bodies have since been found.

More than 400 people have been rescued, in a long and complex operation amid gale-force winds and thick smoke.

The captain of the ferry was the last to be rescued, more than 36 hours after sending out a distress signal.

It is unclear what caused the fire to break out on Sunday on the car deck of the ferry, which was carrying 478 people from the Greek city of Patras to Ancona in Italy.

Italian prosecutors announced on Monday that they had opened a criminal investigation into the fire and would look into whether negligence had played a role.

A 62-year-old Greek man was the first of the fatalities to be recovered. He and his wife, who was injured, had fallen into the water as they tried to reach a lifeboat.

Teodora Douli, 56, told Ansa news agency that her husband may have hit his head as he fell. "I tried to save him but I couldn't," she said.

Greek Coast Guard spokesman Nikos Lagadianos said six more bodies were found on Monday.

Helicopters crews fitted with night vision equipment had worked through the night to rescue passengers despite difficult conditions.

Italian Air Force helicopter pilot, Maj Antonio Laneve told Italian state TV that "acrid smoke" had filled his helicopter cabin, making the rescue even more challenging.

People were taken off the ship individually by helicopter, an Italian navy spokesperson said.

Most of the rescued passengers were transferred to nearby ships, although some were taken directly to hospital.

Three children and a pregnant woman were among those being treated in hospital for hypothermia, according to the Associated Press news agency.

Passengers described panicking as the heat on the ferry rose, then freezing as they stood on decks awaiting rescue.

The wife of one of the cooks told journalists she had had a call from her husband saying: "I cannot breathe, we are all going to burn like rats - God save us."

Another passenger told Greek TV station Mega: "We are outside, we are very cold, the ship is full of smoke, the boat is still burning, the floors are boiling, underneath the cabins it must be burning since 5 o'clock, the boats that came (to rescue us) are gone, and we are here. They cannot take us."

Coast Guard Adm Giovanni Pettorino said that a member of the Italian military had been injured during the rescue.

Most of those on board were Greek. Mr Lagadianos told AP that 234 passengers and 34 crew members were from the country.

Others came from Italy, Turkey, Albania, Germany and several other countries. Four British nationals have been rescued from the stricken ferry, according to the UK Foreign Office.

The chief executive of the Visentini group that owns the vessel, Carlo Visentini, said the ferry had passed a recent technical inspection despite a "slight malfunction" in one of the fire doors, Italy's Ansa news agency reports.

"The tests confirmed that the boat was in full working order," he said, adding that the fire door had been repaired "to the satisfaction of the inspectors".

Ferries are an important mode of transport between Greece's hundreds of islands as well as neighbouring countries.

Monday 29 December 2014

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30624086

The Tay Bridge rail disaster, 135 years on

It was, said the Glasgow Herald on a Monday morning exactly 135 years ago, a catastrophe of the most appalling description.

The night before - Sunday, December 28, 1879 - the central span of the Tay Bridge, at that time the longest bridge in the world, had collapsed during a violent gale estimated at Beaufort force 10/11.

A northbound ferry train from Burntisland had the misfortune to be on the bridge when the collapse happened. The six-carriage train plunged 130ft into the freezing waters of the Tay killing 75 people.

The wind was blowing hard that night, bringing down chimney pots and roof slates. The iron girders of the Tay Bridge, opened in June 1878, should have been strong enough to withstand any winds. But a half-mile span of the bridge collapsed just as a train was crossing.

A court of inquiry ruled that the collapse was due to an “insufficiency of the cross bracing and its fastenings” to withstand the gale.

However, the inquiry did not hear the testimony of one witness, engineer WB Thomson, who reported seeing “two luminous columns of mist or spray”, perhaps 100 metres tall, travelling across the river. The spray from one column struck a nearby house with hissing sound, leaving the windows caked with salt. A second witness, William Robertson, also described the columns.

Researchers at tornado research organisation Torro believe these columns were waterspouts – tornadoes over water made visible by the water droplets they carry. They believe the impact of one or more tornadoes brought down the bridge after it had been weakened by the wind.

After the disaster rules were introduced requiring new bridges to be built stronger. As McGonagall observed: “For the stronger we our houses do build / The less chance we have of being killed.”

Monday 29 December 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2014/dec/22/weatherwatch-tragedy-new-twist

Indonesia set to resume search for missing AirAsia plane, relatives wait

Indonesia was set to resume at first light the search for an AirAsia plane carrying 162 people from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore, which went missing on Sunday just after the pilot requested a change in course to avoid bad weather.

Singapore said it had sent two naval vessels to help the Indonesian military look for the Airbus A320-200 operated by Indonesia AirAsia, adding a C-130 air force plane took part in the search on Sunday.

Malaysia would send three naval vessels and a C-130 to assist, Singapore's Channel News Asia television reported. Australia, the United States, Britain, South Korea and India also offered help ranging from planes and navy ships to experts and investigators.

"We are deeply shocked and saddened by this incident," said Indonesia AirAsia Chief Executive Sunu Widyatmoko. "We are cooperating with the relevant authorities to the fullest extent to determine the cause of this incident."

The carrier is 49 percent owned by Malaysia-based budget carrier Air Asia. The AirAsia group, including affiliates in Thailand, the Philippines and India, has not suffered a crash since its Malaysian budget operations began in 2002.

Onboard Flight QZ8501 were 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans, one person each from Singapore, Malaysia and Britain, while the co-pilot was French.

The plane was about halfway between Surabaya and Singapore when it lost contact with air traffic control at 6:17 a.m. on Sunday (2317 GMT Saturday), Indonesian officials said.

It issued no distress call, officials added.

There was bad weather over nearby Belitung island at the time and the aircraft had been flying at 32,000 feet before asking to fly at 38,000 feet to avoid clouds, said Joko Muryo Atmodjo, air transportation director at Indonesia's transport ministry.

The pilot "was requesting deviation due to en-route weather before communication with the aircraft was lost", the airline added.

The Indonesian pilot was experienced and the plane last underwent maintenance in mid-November, the airline said. The aircraft had accumulated about 23,000 flight hours in some 13,600 flights, according to Airbus.

Malaysia AirAsia chief Tony Fernandes flew to Surabaya and, along with Indonesian officials, updated distraught relatives of passengers at a makeshift crisis centre at the airport in Indonesia's second-largest city.

"This is my worst nightmare," Fernandes said on Twitter. "But there's no stopping", he said of the search.

AirAsia swapped the distinctive bright red of its logo for grey on social media accounts and the company website as it faced its biggest ever challenge.

The incident caps a disastrous year for Malaysia-affiliated airlines. Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 went missing on March 8 on a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board and has not been found.

On July 17, the same airline's Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

PRAYING FOR PASSENGERS

Indonesian President Joko Widodo urged his people to pray for the safety of the passengers and crew. During his Sunday address at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican, Pope Francis said those on board were in his prayers.

Louise Sidharta was at Singapore's Changi Airport waiting for her fiancée to return from a family holiday.

"It was supposed to be their last vacation before we got married," she said.

A man named Purnomo told TVOne in Surabaya of his lucky escape. "I should have been on the flight ... but this morning I had an emergency. I had my passport in hand."

Like all affiliates of AirAsia, Indonesia AirAsia operates Airbus jets, of which it has 30 of the A320 model.

AirAsia has ordered several hundred jets from the European planemaker, making it one of its most important customers. The missing plane has been in service for just over six years, according to airfleets.net.

Indonesian officials from the civil aviation authority and transport safety committee, which are responsible for crash investigations, arrived in Surabaya on Sunday. A transport ministry official said Indonesia would handle the probe.

"The aircraft was registered in Indonesia and it looks to be missing over Indonesian territory, so we will lead the investigation," said the official, who asked not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

"We have the expertise to do this."

Monday 29 December 2014

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/12/28/uk-indonesia-airplane-idUKKBN0K601G20141228