Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 11, 1991 TAG: 9104110690
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LEGHORN, ITALY LENGTH: Medium
The only known survivor from the ferry said he clung to a rail for two hours because the water below was covered by a huge sheet of flame.
"I heard screams from the passengers and other crew members, but there was nothing I could do," cabin boy Alessio Bertrand said.
"Flames erupted and smoke was everywhere, we couldn't see anything," Bertrand, 23, said by telephone hours after the disaster off the coast of Tuscany.
In an unrelated accident at sea, fire raged today aboard a Cypriot oil tanker off the northern Italian port of Genoa, 85 miles to the northwest.
Thirteen seamen were missing and perhaps a score injured, reports said. One official said there were about three dozen crew members aboard the tanker Haven.
The tanker fire broke out after an explosion, officials said. They did not know what caused the blast.
In the ferry disaster, the survivor said he and two other men fought their way to a door in the dark and got outside "but we couldn't jump off because oil was burning in the sea." Bertrand said the other two men died from the smoke that quickly covered the ferry.
"I hung on, I don't know how, for about two hours. Then the coast guard came and told me to jump off. I don't know why I'm here and the others are all dead, it's a miracle," he said from his hospital bed.
The ferry hit the back of the tanker on its right side in thick nighttime fog, opening a wide hole and spilling crude oil into the Ligurian Sea off northwestern Italy.
Authorities held out little hope of finding more survivors.
By midday today, two bodies had been recovered, search teams said.
The tanker, at anchor 2 1/2 miles offshore, also caught fire after the 10:30 p.m. collision but all 28 of its crew members were reported safe.
Port officials said the tanker's crew jumped into lifeboats after fighting the flames without success.
Civil Defense and port authorities said 72 passengers and 67 crew members of the 6,187-ton Moby Prince ferry were missing. All were believed to be Italian.
The ferry had been bound for Olbia, Sardini, when it hit the tanker, the AGIP Abruzzo, port authority chief Sergio Albanese told state-run RAI-TV. The tanker is owned by the Italian oil company AGIP.
While about 100 relatives of passengers kept up a vigil outside shipping offices, the charred shell of the ferry was towed through the main harbor and then back out for fear it would sink. The wreck was still smoking.
As dawn broke and helicopters were sent up, rescue workers reported that the fire aboard the tanker was dying out, but the ferry was destroyed and there was no sign of life in the water.
An attending physician said Bertrand appeared to be in good condition but was still in shock. "There are no obvious signs of injury but he's very stressed," said Dr. Daniele Barbaro.
Initial fears of a major environmental disaster lessened when authorities reported that only one tank aboard the AGIP Abruzzo had ruptured.
Alessandro Pierangeli, a local government official, said the tanker carried about 550,000 barrels of crude but only 16,000 barrels had leaked out and much of that burned off or evaporated.
Bertrand, from the Naples suburb of Ercolano, was in his first year aboard the Moby Prince, a roll-on-roll-off ferry with doors at the bow and stern.
by CNB