It’s been five days since the car deck of the Italian ferry Norman Atlantic caught fire in the Adriatic and there are still 18 people missing, including nine Greeks. Italian and Greek search efforts have been ongoing, however there is a great deal of confusion regarding the number of missing passengers and there are fears that the details are not accurate. The Greek side has called on Italian authorities to give the details of the missing passengers as soon as possible.

According to the site of the Coast Guard, the nine missing Greeks are:

1. ALEXANDROS KOUFOGIORGIS
2. IOANNIS SYMEONIDIS
3. VASILIS TSAMIS
4. APOSTOLOS NIKOLARAS
5. GERASIMOS KAZANTZIDIS
6. NIKOLAOS SAGIRIDIS
7. GEORGIOS PAPADOPOULOS
8. EVANGELOS PAPAVANGELIS
9. IOANNIS SOFOS

The 127 Greek survivors arrived at the Athens International Airport on New Year’s Eve. 106 of the rescued people arrived on an Aegean flight and another 21 arrived shortly after 10 p.m. on a C-130 plane of the Hellenic Aviation. The reunion with their loved ones was emotional with tears and details of the saga they had been through.

“For ten hours, only one person every half hour was winched from the ship,” says one of the survivors of the Norman Atlantic, noting that there was nobody there to guide the passengers as to what to do. “I saw people jumping overboard,” he says.

“The passengers had to share out life jackets among themselves,” says a truck driver that describes the chaos and panic on the plane.

“A colleague had to hang from a rope to tie the ship onto the towboat,” says a driver, describing how the passengers had to help themselves in order to be rescued, battling with the waves, winds and fire on board the Norman Atlantic that burnt their feet as they walked on the deck.

“I broke my arm on the ship, there was a blackout and no alarm, within half an hour the ship had caught alight,” says another passenger. “I saw people jumping overbaord, drowning and the crew was the first to leave.”