Cruise ship officers charged after sinking

A Greek prosecutor today pressed negligence charges against the captain and five officers of a cruise ship that sank off an Aegean Sea island, state television reported.

The six officers were charged with causing a shipwreck through negligence, breaching international shipping safety regulations and polluting the environment. All were released pending further investigations.

Earlier it was revealed that divers are searching the sunken wreckage of the ship for the bodies of a Frenchman and his daughter, missing after the vessel foundered on a volcanic reef in Greece.

They are the only two people missing after what passengers described as a chaotic evacuation in the Aegean Sea.

Nearly 1,600 people were rescued from the sinking ship in a three-hour operation, but some passengers complained of an insufficient supply of life vests, little guidance from crew members and being forced into a steep climb down rope-ladders to safety.

The 469ft Sea Diamond struck rocks on Thursday in the sea-filled crater formed by a massive volcanic eruption 3,500 years ago off the island of Santorini.

Tourists gathered on clifftops to watch the rescue effort at the reef, which is marked with warning lights and clearly indicated on navigation charts. The ship sank about a quarter of a mile off the island’s coast, in waters of uneven depth, a few minutes before it was due to dock.

The ship’s operator, Louis Cruise Lines, said the Frenchman and his teenage daughter were the only passengers missing and insisted the 21-year-old vessel had been well maintained.

The missing French passengers were identified as Jean-Christophe Allain, 45, and his 16-year-old daughter, Maud, from Doue-la-Fontaine in western France.