The list of the dead from the Norman Atlantic sea tragedy is growing with another two bodies found on board, according to the Italian Guardian Coasteria. Italian Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti announced another dead body on Monday, whereas shortly after 9 p.m. on Tuesday evening, another two bodies were found lifting the total tally of deaths to 10 people.
The son of George Doulis, the unlucky 67-year-old who died while trying to escape from the burning ship, could not recognize his father amongst the five dead. This means that the identity of the first corpse is still unknown. Meanwhile, Italian authorities have confirmed that a second Greek is amongst the dead though his identity has yet to be publicized. The other nine bodies have yet to be identified.
The Italian Guardian Coasteria said that all the people have been taken off the ship, however there are fears that there may be more missing people as the tally of people rescued, crew members and the dead does not add up to 478 people that were reportedly on the ship.
The Greek side states that there may have been over 479 people such as the wife of the boatswain who was not listed on the passenger or crew list. At this time there appear to be at least 39 missing people as only 432 people of the 478 originally thought to have been on the ship have survived.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi made a statement shortly after 4 p.m. on Monday, stating that the rescue operation had ended with the captain being the last to leave. During a press conference, Mr. Renzi had said that the passengers had been transfered to the Italian Naval Ship San Giorgio and would be transfered to the port of Brindisi by the evening.
The identity of the rescued:
234 Greeks
56 crew members
54 Turks
22 Albanians
22 Italians
18 Germans
10 Swiss
Italian Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi said that the list of names from the passenger list need to be matched with the names of people rescued. “We don’t want to make any prediction about the number of missing people,” he said, adding that he is discussing the difference with his Greek counterpart. “Did everyone go on board? Was there a stop where someone may have left the ship? We hope that the number of missing people isn’t the case.”
The Italian coast guard said that two people jumped overboard and were picked up alive.
Recent Italian authorities state that 475 passengers were on board of which 425 have been rescued and 40 are still missing, 32 of which are Greek nationals.
Shipowner Carlo Visentini and captain Argilio Giacomazzi are facing charges of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck through negligence and causing of injuries through negligence.
43 Survivors of the Norman Atlantic accident were flown to Greece from Bari, Italy. A C-130 aircraft landed at Elefsina airfield late last night. The passengers rescued were received by a medical unit of the armed forces and emergency personnel for first aid. The 43 were made up of 40 Greek nationals and three foreigners. They expressed their frustration to the press and said that Italian crew members did not cooperate with Greeks when the fire broke out and had a bad attitude overall.
“Cruise Europe” arrived at Igoumenitsa, western Greece, with 69 passengers, mostly of Greek nationality. The ship then continued to Patras where more got off.
