Greek cruise ship captain charged over sinking

The captain of a cruise ship that sank in the Aegean Sea has been charged with negligence.

The charge came as divers said they had failed to locate two missing French passengers on the Sea Diamond, which had been carrying 1,154 tourists, most from the US, and 391 crew members.

The liner hit a reef off the volcanic Greek island of Santorini on Thursday, taking on water and prompting a massive rescue effort.

Yesterday the ship’s Greek captain was charged with causing a shipwreck through negligence, breaching international shipping safety regulations and polluting the environment, a Merchant Marine Ministry spokeswoman said.

Another five officers were questioned, but the spokeswoman was unable to confirm a state TV report that they had also been charged. All six officers will give testimony next week.

The 469ft vessel sank about 15 hours after hitting the well-marked and charted reef in fair weather, inside Santorini’s sea-filled volcanic crater.

The Sea Diamond had been due to dock minutes later under the spectacular cliffs that make Santorini one of Greece’s top tourist destinations.

The stricken vessel was evacuated in a three-hour operation, but Jean-Christophe Allain, 45, and his 16-year-old daughter, Maud, from Doue-la-Fontaine in western France, were later listed as missing, feared to have been trapped in their flooded lower-deck cabin.

A three-day search has found no trace of them and officials said a robot submarine would investigate the hulk – lying more than 330ft deep – next week.

Thursday’s evacuation revived memories of the September 2000 Express Samina ferry shipwreck off the holiday island of Paros, which killed 80 people.

But tourism chiefs hastened to play down the potential impact on Greece’s vital travel industry, which accounts for an estimated 18% of the country’s gross domestic product.

“Whoever is responsible for this will be held accountable in the strictest way,” tourism minister Fanny Palli Petralia said. “Greece is a major tourism destination and incidents like this must not be allowed to occur. … Authorities handled the rescue very well.”

The head of Greece’s association of travel and tourist agencies said the shipwreck – at the start of a promising tourist season – could put off prospective cruise-goers.

“It does come at a very bad moment,” Yiannis Evangelou said. “But … an error by one human being cannot be seen as typical of safety and accident prevention measures in the country.”

A spokesman for the ship’s Cyprus-based operator, Louis Cruise Lines, said the company was working closely with Greek investigators.

“We would like to express our deep sorrow over the accident, and our thoughts are with the two missing people and their family,” said Giorgos Stathopoulos. “The Sea Diamond was fully up to date with its inspections.”

But some passengers had 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.

Parents of US schoolchildren said the youngsters lost all their possessions during the scramble to evacuate ship.

Michael Dennis, of Boca Raton, Florida, waiting for his 17-year-old daughter, Drew, to arrive at Miami International Airport yesterday, said: “She was totally a basket case. She lost everything she owned except the clothes on her back.”

Mindy Hochfelsen said her 18-year-old diabetic daughter Amanda lost her insulin and syringes and criticised the cruise line and the Greek government for being unhelpful to people with health needs.

“It was absolutely a disaster,” Hochfelsen said.

The 21-year-old Sea Diamond joined the company fleet in 2006. It sank at the end of a four-day cruise, which included visits to the islands of Mykonos, Rhodes, Patios and Crete, and to the Turkish resort of Kusadasi.

Greek newspapers were critical yesterday in their reporting of the accident.

Liberal Eleftherotypia carried the headline: “They sank in a teaspoonful of water” and questioned why the Sea Diamond had drawn so close to land.