Ferry on fire, the testimonies of the survivors – The XIX Century
The ferry on fire in the Adriatic
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Rome – originally were 478 people aboard the Norman Atlantic , the ferry went up in flames in the Adriatic, and not 466 as initially indicated. Already in the early hours of the emergency, some of them had already given the first dramatic testimony.
“ We hugged each other tight to try to keep warm. If you do end up drowned, die of cold, “he said on the phone with the Mega TV Channel a temporary Greek still on board the ferry on fire. It reports that children and elderly people were rescued by helicopter.
“The ship is tilted, we are in danger, will burn like rats , do not know how we will resist,” he told a castaway greek, Nikos Patheodosiou.
“We’re out on the deck, we are dying of cold and suffocate from the smoke, the fire spreads more and more,” is the story of another shipwrecked Greeks. Yorgos Stiliaras: “The floors are hot, people are shaking and coughing. Do not know if we’ll make it. “
” It looked like the Titanic ‘, said in broken English two teenage sisters of Greek nationality rescued and admitted to the hospital on Norman Atlantic Perrino in Brindisi. Their conditions are good but, like the other castaways rescued, are in shock and very scared. Soon will be discharged.
The Englishman, hands and face black smoke
It’s called Nick Channing-Williams, is a castaway Norman Atlantic ferry arrived safely at the base Air Force of Galashiels. Her face and hands blackened by the smoke but the smile is bright and to show gratitude to those who saved him we wanted to take a picture with the Air Force pilot Captain Paul Popes who worked in the rescue. Nick at home is a noted horseman.
The wife of a missing: “I saw him die,”
The wife tells of seeing him die after that, for four hours, hugging, holding hands, they had tried to escape. The son had gone to the hospital in Brindisi to recognize the corpse of his father, but has not been able to do. “It’s not him,” said a little ‘in Italian and some in greek. Georgios Doulis, 67, was returning from his land in Switzerland, Greece, where he had spent part of the Christmas holidays. That trip, ferry, going up the Adriatic, he had done on other occasions. At this time it is dispersed. But his wife Theodora, 56, admitted in the hospital in Galatina (Lecce), has lost hope: “I and my husband have been more than four hours in the water: I tried to save him but did not succeed, he told me “we die, we are dying. ‘” In tears, who is helping her get over the shock, also remembers some dramatic details, such as what, “my husband came out blood from the nose, perhaps because he had hit his head to the ship. At one point came a rescuer, tried to cut the plastic tarp that had been trapped and when my husband at the second attempt succeeded, he died in my arms. ” Labros, instead, crying but, even if it seems impossible now, still believes in a miracle. Because this morning had arrived safely in Brindisi of having to make a dramatic act, the worst of his young life: to recognize the corpse of his father. It, however, is out of the morgue a few moments later: “It is not my father,” he whispered to the representatives of the greek orthodox community of Brindisi and Lecce. In his heart, he still has hope.
The soprano: “There were people who beat the others to be rescued”
“I have witnessed dramatic scenes of panic and for hours I could not see the end of the nightmare, especially as darkness fell and the helicopters were slow to return. ” The greek soprano Dimitra Theodossiou, talking on the phone in a firm voice, while Lecce is reaching by car Rimini. Wants to return to the theater, where he hopes to sing in Nabucco, the theater of Rimini, as provided for the calendar of its commitments before boarding damned. “It was shocking – recalls the opera singer, yet proven – because the military brought before the children, women and the elderly to the level where they could go up in the helicopter, but there were at least fifty people, mostly Turks, Iraqis and Pakistanis, who beat them, pulling their hair and threw them out to take their place. I too was beaten and dragged, tried to pull me down the stairs, but I reacted strongly. I said: it’s up to us. ” Two of the most difficult moments in which Dimitr a Theodossiou had more fear: “The first time in the early morning, at five o’clock, when I saw the fire and heard the explosions; the second time at ten at night, when I was afraid of not being saved. From eight more helicopters did not arrive, and I was all ice. But then, in the end, we were taken away and were hospitalized in Scorrano. ” Hospital in Lecce, Dimitra spent the night of salvation and was subjected to checks before being discharged in the morning and be able to reach the house of friends.
The castaway greek: “No one told us anything,”
“No one gave the alarm, no communication, no one told us what to do and where go. Alone we climbed and we wore life jackets. ” Tzonas Athanasios, 47-year old trader greek traveling with his family on the Atlantic Norman told the agitated moments of the sinking. You landed this morning in the port of Bari with his wife Natasha, 43-year old Canadian-born, and sons Sebastian and Dimitri of 14 and 11 years. They were headed to Germany for a vacation. “We will return to Greece today with the aircraft,” he said. Recounting the fire the 47-year old Corfu said: “Nn know what happened. We have not heard no explosion. We were sleeping and we heard voices of people talking in the corridors of a fire. I thought of a small fire and we’d be back to sleep but when we went upstairs we saw smoke and flames everywhere. Everyone was like crazy, panicked. We waited about an hour and a half before boarding the boats, around 5:30, and then after about four h ours we climbed the largest ship that brought us here. ”
The rescuer: “I pulled the strings from the hands”
He still sore eyes from smoking for eight hours spent aboard the ferry Norman Atlantic in flames but to weigh on him the most is having to choose who was to rise before helicopter and leave so that circle of hell. Fernando Rollo is the aereosoccorritore fell among the first, from a helicopter of the Air Force, to board the ferry to organize relief efforts. And to think that with his 54 years is on the verge of retirement. “But Renzi – jokes – I sends us.” “With each passing hour, the flames grew, the black smoke that gave no respite, water thrown by tugs on the ship and the dark advancing – adds – the ferry passengers were in panic.” “At that point – he continues – it has become difficult to adjust the climb to the helicopter. As soon as the basket or the winch on the bridge came down the desire to escape from the trap became stronger around a thousand hands and attacked the sling. ” “He stepped over each other, screaming and tearing hand the rope.” “To try to salvage, as it always does, before children, women, the elderly and the wounded – says Rollo – I screamed and threatened several times to leave the helicopter and leave them there.” “We are prepared for this type of relief but, say, that what has been among the hardest in which I participated.” “The difficulty – he explains – was also to keep as still as possible the helicopter, a HH139, which with the wind threatened to swing dangerously basket and harness while the survivors were taken on board. ” “As soon as the survivors arrived in front of the opening of ‘helicopter – says Shepherd – is arpionavano to handle and there was no way to remove them. It was the salvation and would not let go. ” “The most dramatic moment – adds the commander Laneve – is when the ship is tilted. Everyone then thought of ending up in the sea and the waves and the cold would not have saved anyone. From that moment it was the chaos which, thankfully, along with the preparation of the men of the Air, has taken over. “
A castaway: I saw four dead
“I saw four people dead, with my own eyes, I’m quite sure, were in front of me.” He told reporters a man of Turkish nationality, just come down from the merchant ship that brought him, along with 48 others shipwrecked ferry Norman Atlantic, in the port of Bari.
“On the spear – he said – we had four dead, two men and two women, I think, because you could not see well in the dark. ” “Many people – said the man – unfortunately fell overboard. I also saw a dozen people who were on board a boat which then ended up in the sea and do not know what happened to them. ”
“We could hear yelling fire, fire, fire, fire, and in five minutes – says the man – the whole ship was on fire. It was dark and there was a lot of smoke. There was little to be done: many people fainted, we were isolated. “
” I was trapped, “
” When I saw the fire I was near the restaurant. I went down to the lower level and are trapped by the flames. ” It is the short story of Leonidas Costantiniris, a truck driver who was on Norman greek Atlantic and that this morning arrived in Bari. The man has burns on his face and in particular on the soles of the feet.
is Costantiniris was among the first castaways who was sent down from the merchant that led him to Bari and transferred to hospital. His condition is not serious, said the coordinator of the operations room of 118 in Bari, Alexandros Charitos.
The most serious burns are those soles because when the man was trapped in the ship, the shoes, the contact with the floor glowing, they are liquefied. Along with him was taken to hospital a young Georgian woman pregnant.
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