Original subtitles

a shipwreck in the Greek Islands

hundreds of people fight for survival in

a swirling

storm we need to help this with their

lives on the line some people become

Heroes I go others do whatever it takes

to stay alive keep her away she'll kill

us

both investigators uncover an

extraordinary chain of events small

mistakes which have deadly consequences

mayday mayday we're doing 90 mph out of

control take a life Jack where's the

cross guard Don't Let

Go a passenger Ferry pushes its way

through a storm what is

that

oh my

God within sight of land this Greek

Island's Ferry is sinking in high winds

and stormy

seas there was a hole and it was going

to sink and it was going to sink fast a

huge rescue operation kicks in Rescuers

must risk their own lives I never want

to be in that situation ever again

because it was

terrifying but I had enough time to

think okay well this is the part where I

die

it was like a catastrophe it was as if

it was coming the end of the world for

this

island for the people of Greece it's a

national disaster the worst of its kind

in 30

years discovering why it happened will

take months of detective work and raise

this question how safe are the ships we

sail

on

[Music]

the Greek Capital Athens this great

Metropolis has a 3,000 year History A

History built around the city's easy

access to the

[Music]

Mediterranean the harbor District of

Athens is called pus ferry boats ply

back and forth between here and the more

than 200 Islands scattered throughout

the aian sea for Island Hoppers this is

where the adventure

[Music]

begins it's here somewhere it has to be

today would be good I'm

hurrying are you sure you don't got

Tuesday September the 26th 2000

Christine Shannon and Heidi Hart from

Seattle are close friends they've bought

tickets for a ferry ride to the island

of paros 166 km to the

southeast

Express expr sounds good Christine's 32

and teaches prechool Heidi is 26 and

just graduated from college she wants to

go into business

management it's been a crazy kind of day

they planned on going to the island of

Santorini further south I had okay let's

go we have to

hurry I have the

tickets we've been enjoying Athens the

night before a little too much and we

overslept and missed our Santorini

boat I had never heard of paros I even

asked them well show me on a map where

the island is and then I said never mind

it doesn't matter let's just go it's the

next boat let's go somewhere so it was a

fluke that we were on that

boat here's where chance is steering

them it could be a whole lot worse if

you dream of a Greek getaway paros is

just what the guide books promise

[Music]

life is laid back and the backdrop is

enchanting around 12,000 people live on

paros year

round in tourist season add to that

100,000 visitors fairies from Athens

head for the harbor in the main town

peria There's constant traffic back and

forth to the mainland as one boat's

leaving another one shows up bringing

hundreds more eager

visitors Christine and Heidi are among

472 passengers Who board the Samina

[Music]

today as they get ready to embark one

thing becomes clear some of the boats on

the islands run are modern newly built

but the SEMA comes from a different era

she's been crisscrossing the

Mediterranean since

1966 the SEMA was launched before these

two were born and though they don't

realize it Greek safety laws say that in

little over a year the Samina will be

pulled out of service and sent to the

scrapyard I made a few jokes to

Christine about uh the lifeboats don't

look very safe if we get into trouble

out here I said we'll be screwed and I

said well there's no icebergs in the aan

so we should be

[Music]

okay the semina can carry more than a

thousand passengers along with her 61

crew so today the ship's less than half

full Katrina Stark and her cousin Sarah

Davis both from New Zealand are back

backpacking so that means we have to be

head like Heidi and Christine they're

literally sailing into the

unknown we had no plans we went to get

on the very first faery that was leaving

going wherever it was going to take us

and that happened to be first start

Paris at 7:15 2 hours into the journey

the Sun is setting there are still 3

hours to kill before the SEMA

arrives

the sports fans on board passengers and

crew know just how they'd like to spend

the time there's a major soccer game

playing live on TV Athens starside

pananos are up against their German

Rivals

Hamburg the reception wasn't very good

and so they had various staff come along

trying to fix the TV and everyone was

putting suggestions to how to fix the TV

and it seemed to be quite important to

everybody on board that they get to see

this

[Music]

game at 8:00 p.m. the Samina passes the

island of kithnos they're on schedule to

reach paros at around A4

10 the wind is rising the sea is growing

rougher but these Northerly winds known

as the Meli are frequent at this time of

year the Serina has conditions much

worse than this over the past 3 decades

I'm going to take a nap Heidi and

Christine are the only people left

outside they think their tickets don't

allow them to go

inake when we're there I said we have

third class tickets we have to stay out

on the deck it's going to be a cold wet

terrible night but I didn't even think

to go downstairs where most of the

people on the boat

were for the crew of the SEMA the

nighttime journey is routine hazards

such as reefs and rocks are all clearly

marked on their charts many have warning

lights two Jagged outcrops rise from the

sea within sight of the main Harbor on

paros peria Bay known as the PES or the

gates they lie 5 1/2 kilm from the town

for every Mariner sailing these Waters

the gates of paros are a familiar

Landmark they're welcoming but dangerous

[Music]

too the Rocks rise 25 M out of the sea

every passing ship must give them a wide

clearance at night a Beacon Light on the

taller of the two rocks sends a clear

warning to Sailors stray too close to

the gates of paros and disaster will

follow

they're still 2 hours

away but they're sailing into a growing

storm despite the weather Christine and

Heidi are still out in the

open had I known we could go to any

other part of the boat at that point in

time I would have but I didn't know and

actually being in that part of the boat

I think was very fortuitous for us

because we we were able to be aware of

what was going on

later being out on the deck will help

save their lives soon everyone aboard

will be fighting for

[Music]

survival on the evening of September the

26th 2000 the passenger Ferry Express

Samina leaves Athens Harbor pus heading

Southeast she's making for the island of

paros 5 hours away in the aian

[Music]

sea as the sun sets the weather

deteriorates until by Nightfall the ship

is being buffeted by a Northerly Gale

but the crew are used to such conditions

their ship is big enough Tough Enough To

Survive far worse the SEMA is 115 M long

more than a soccer field and 18 M

wide passengers are widely dispersed

Heidi and Christine are out on the open

deck Katrina and Sarah are inside the

main passenger

Lounge the nerve center is here the

engine

room it's below the water line but is

protected by a ser series of watertight

doors the crew need to move about but

the ship is safe so long as they lock

the doors tight behind

them to reduce the rolling effect of the

Waves the ship also has a stabilizing

system like small wings that extend out

into the

water it's still a bumpy ride but it

doesn't stop passengers moving about

when they want to

as we got further away and night began

to fall The Seas got rougher and it

became stormy until it got to the point

where you couldn't even walk on board

you had to kind of stumble

sideways people were kind of laughing it

was kind of funny at the

time being from a place where we ride

fairies quite often it was wasn't really

a concern to us at the time but it was

pretty rough out

there it's 10 p.m. the wind has now

risen to nearly 50 km an hour waves are

cresting 2 m

High despite the Gale visibility is

good those are the lights of paros the

seam is on time and still pushing

forward at 33 km an

hour then

suddenly

the ship lurches sharply to the left

what's that I don't

know the boat turned enough that it

startled me awake and I woke up and was

kind of Dazed a little

bit you can't just park a boat like

you're parking a car and so I thought it

was odd that I felt this gForce of the

boat turning Christine said hey there's

lights I see sure we must be getting

pretty close to docking the lights of

paria even car headlights are clearly

VIs visible just 5 1/2 km away but then

another light cuts through the darkness

what

the oh my God oh my God this rock just

comes out of nowhere just out of the

black night and I'll never forget what

it looks like in my mind it was you know

this brown kind of craggly sandish

looking rock that had lights on top of

it shining down so it illuminated it

and it it just it made it look like a

movie set the side of the boat scraped

along the

side I could have walked over and

touched it and you could hear down in

the lower decks of the boat that the

metal was just ripping apart the

unthinkable has happened the Samina has

crashed against the gates of paros 1

million kilos of ship grind against the

rocks it was the worst sound and it was

the loudest sound I've ever heard in my

life it sounded like fingernails on a

chalkboard just God's fingernail on the

biggest chalkboard in the world there

was a hole and it was going to sink and

it was going to sink

fast the shock wave reverberates through

the ship suddenly there was a big Lurch

to the right side of the boat and people

who were standing up got thrown off

their feet everything in the bar smashed

I looked out the window and there were

two large rocks went past that looked

White lit up by the Light inside the

ship I don't know what that was oh man

it just doesn't sound good you know in a

situation like this the time frame is so

hard to put back

together but it it seemed like maybe a

minute or two until the boat started to

noticeably L to the side and and tip and

that's kind of when the chaos

started get out of this

place get off this

sh L people were crying lots of people

were praying holding on to each other

yelling there was no alarm or siren it

was no one to tell us what we were

supposed to do we need to get off this

boat and we need to right now we don't

have the Panic Christine said to me the

Titanic took hours to sink and I said we

don't have that much time we don't have

hours Christine we need to leave now

okay okay okay in my mind I thought this

boat's going to sink and we're all going

to

die all these people trying to get life

check at being tall I I was able to

reach over the heads of most people who

were trying to get hold of life jackets

and grab two the seina has 61 crew

members but where are they passengers

must fend for themselves so I yelled to

Christine come here I think I found life

F hey do open

take at this point people were starting

to run past

us and I was saying here take these and

throwing them out and people were just

panicking

within minutes of the Collision the

ship's Lights Go Out passengers are

plunged Into Darkness until emergency

generators kick

in and then the first flare went

off this Eerie red glow coming down over

the ferry gave it a whole another

feeling of just Terror that we out in

the night in the dark and the fair is

going to

sink out of the way at the harbor Port

officials are now aware of the

developing crisis Port Authority Vice

Commander Demetrios malamas starts to

organize a rescue he needs all available

boats right now what vessels do we have

in the

area Alexis bisbas runs a yacht charter

business in par

here the first I heard of the disaster

was a phone call that I got from the

port police at about

10:15 can I get out there with my boat

as quickly as possible just to help with

whatever might be necessary there's no

way that we had any idea that it was

going to be a disaster of that

magnitude paros has a medical center

equipped for the Islanders basic needs

not a major disaster

Dr John polyzoides was an ER surgeon for

35 years though retired he helps run the

center we saw the ship was going down

and there were a lot of boats and lights

and so on we did I personally did not

expect anything tragic to come out of

that because you're so close also to the

harbor aboard the Samina many of the 472

passengers are in a state of sheer

Terror it was chaos it was people not

knowing what to do and waiting for a

captain or a crew to help

us there was a woman who went through

the door just before us and she as soon

as she got out onto the deck she climbed

over the railings and just jumped off

like didn't look back or didn't say

anything to anybody and just climbed

over and threw herself off into the

water there was people holding children

over the railings wanting to throw them

down to people in the

water it was it was quite a terrible

scene the wind hamper efforts to abandon

ship they were releasing inflatable life

rafts they weren't attached to the ship

so as soon as it was released it was in

a big storm it would get picked up by

the wind as soon as it was inflated and

they were just blowing halfway to

[Music]

Athens the rafts blow beyond the reach

of many passengers who've already leapt

into the

[Music]

sea in the confusion Heidi Hart is

knocked flying striking her

head are you okay kept thinking if I

black out now you know I'm done for this

boat's sinking I have to stay conscious

I had this adrenaline rush and there was

I mean a feeling that I would call

Terror I mean I knew instantly this was

going to be a fight for our

lives there was some point in time where

I literally felt myself leave my my body

and instincts kicked

in everybody was running to the rear of

the boat and Christine just looked at me

and said go that way to the front of the

boat and she said but nobody's up there

it was the darkest part of the boat it

was very it was the highest part of the

boat she said nobody's up there I said I

don't care

go and luckily for us that's where we

found a Lifeboat hanging over the side

of the

ship

Heidi and Christine have escaped the

sinking ship but they're still at the

mercy of the

storm when we jumped into the Lifeboat

it wasn't orderly here's your seat it

was jump where you land is where you are

and so we were just kind of all Pig

piled in this Lifeboat together the

battle for survival takes an ugly turn

each passenger must decide help others

or fend for the

themselves there was five or six men in

the back of the boat and they were

fighting with each other they were

yelling at each other they as the fairy

was stinking they kept pointing at the

fery and fighting with each other and

and then you know this is when I see the

guy swimming up to the boat and I

started getting ready I'm thinking okay

I I need a rope I got to throw him

something he has no life best

on get him get

him you what do you grab him the only

thing you could see was his eyes and his

nose coming out of the water and he was

just barely making it swimming towards

us everybody else on the boat was

yelling no no we can't take any more

people on I've got you don't worry I've

got you now Heidi leaned over and

grabbed this gentleman's hand and I

reached over and grabbed her by the

waist and she told me I'm not letting go

and I yelled to the other people she's

not letting go he had taken off almost

all of his clothes he was wearing just

his

underwear we need to this man get up get

I mean I'm not a very big person I'm 5

ft

tall just me trying to pull him in the

boat wasn't going to

work the men in the Lifeboat realized

that hidy won't let go and finally help

haul the drowning man on board I don't

know what they were thinking they were

panicking so I mean who am I to judge

with the other what other people were

thinking and doing but

there was a lot more that could have

been done that

night of the 533 people who set out on

the semina many are now in the sea

others are still trapped on the vessel

[Music]

itself the ship begins to roll over if

it goes down dozens of people will be

dragged down with

it oh my God the passenger fery Express

Samina has struck rocks near the island

of paros in the aian sea 533 passengers

and crew face a battle to survive in

high winds and stormy

seas some people have managed to clamber

into a Lifeboat others have stayed with

the ship and now fear it will sink

beneath

them at that stage we were on the deck

trying to figure out whether it was a

good idea to jump overboard as well um

but we were thing further and further

and it was getting to the point where we

didn't really have that choice

anymore it's 10:50 40 minutes after the

Collision

s are you me as the Samina continues to

roll Katrina Stark has little Choice she

hauls herself over the

rail the ship has turned completely on

its side

Katrina is sitting on the hull should

she try to swim for Shore or wait for

rescue well I was sitting there thinking

about

that all of a sudden the ship just sank

underneath us and sucked us down and

everything around

it I like I don't know how much time we

were under the water but I had enough

time to think okay well this is the part

where I die this is the part where I

drown I kind of thought well okay that's

fine and had enough time to be okay with

[Music]

that just as we got there we saw the

ferry

sinking um which

was an extreme sight to see this entire

ship sink beneath the waves and to be

gone and just leave us in our little

Lifeboat it was it was amazing it

was almost beautiful in a sad sort of

way and then complete Blackness Darkness

huge

[Music]

waves the Samina sinks 2 and 1/2 kilm

from the gates of paros even without its

engines wind waves and the ship's own

momentum carry the Samina closer to the

shore the sea here is 38 M deep as the

Samina goes down huge bubbles of air

escape from the ship making the water

less dense making objects in the water

sink more

quickly Katrina Stark sinks several

meters before the buoyancy of her life

jacket pulls her up

again as suddenly as our head being

sucked under suddenly I popped out the

top Sarah her priority now is to find

her cousin Sarah in the storm she can't

tell where she

is the waves were so big that for one

second it sounded like she was over

there and so I tried to swim that way

and then the next second it sounded like

oh she's over there I tried to swim that

way

s

[Music]

Sarah I can hear you but I can't see you

Sarah Sarah eventually I just said to

okay make sure that you get on a boat

and get back to land and I will see you

back on

shore

at 11:15 p.m. Dr polyzoides receives his

first casualty of the night but

something doesn't add up the brought a

man on a stretcher he was semiconscious

and then we started working on him he

had hardly any blood pressure and when

we were resuscitating him I realized

that he was dry uh which it meant that

he didn't actually he was not from the

[Music]

ship anyway we carried on eventually we

lost him he died in our hands and then

people came and he said you know who who

it was and they said no his patient

isn't from the Samina but the disaster

still claims its first victim the man is

Demetrios malamas who'd been helping

organize the rescue in the crisis he'd

suffered a heart attack he was 40 years

old so you can understand even at this

early stage although we did not know the

number of people that they're going to

lose there was that sense of tragedy

immediately from the very

beginning a local shopkeeper George

scandalis grabs his video camera and

captures these first raw images as

survivors begin to

appear as soon as we got close enough to

Shore and when I

saw this white Cathedral with the Blue

Dome top that was when I finally knew we

made it we're going to get to shore

we're going to be

alive

[Music]

I

felt more alive than I've ever felt in

my life giddy almost

giddy and actually afterwards one of the

things that I had to come to terms with

was that people died and I felt so

alive one of the local fishing boats now

appears crowded with people who've been

Dred from the

sea local boat owner Alexis bisbas is

part of the rescue flotilla searching

for

survivors one minute we were flying

across the top of a wave the next minute

we were burying the bow of the boat into

the previous wave we had water coming

across the decks I've been sailing all

my life I've never had a situation like

that I never want to be in that

situation ever again because it it was

terrifying he plucks 25 people from the

sea in three trips out into the stormy

waters one of the amazing things in

these situations is the way the people

behave a young man we pulled out was

still carrying his portable stereo

system so the one hand trying to grab

hold of the boat and the other hand as

we realized was being hampered by this

stereo system that he still had in his

other

hand

[Music]

one of them was an old lady who had tied

to her life jacket her bag as we were

trying to drag her into the boat we

realized that something was stopping her

and I went to cut her free of this bag

and she said to us that if we did we

should throw her back because that was

her entire life in this

bag many survivors are in a State of

Shock

all are cold wet and

exhausted just a few hundred meters away

dozens of people are still in the water

trying to stay alive until they're

spotted by a rescue

boat Katrina Stark and a fellow Survivor

a total stranger are now clinging

desperately to a piece of

wreckage my first surprise about being

in the water was that it was warm I was

really expecting water to be

cold there were big waves and you just

had to cling on tight to the piece of

wreckage not too far away from us was an

older greatek woman who couldn't

swim and she was panicking and was

screaming and yelling trying to get

someone to come and save her

and the guy that I was with was saying

she's going to want to come over to us

and if she grabs hold of us she's going

to drag us

down keep her away she'll

kill she had kind of wild eyes like she

was clearly panicking and a big wave

came um and washed over her and she

didn't come back up out of the water she

had drowned

there are still some signs of Hope some

people have been pushed South by the

wind miraculously avoiding being smashed

onto the Rocks they've wound up on a

Sandy Beach the Bay of St Irene a LIF

raft beaches in the same

[Music]

spot

[Music]

they're safe now but the terror these

little children have gone through is

hard to

comprehend more than 400 survivors have

now wound up on the dock

side many have suffered a terrifying

ordeal in the water their rush to the

medical Center where Dr polyzoides has

now assembled a team of 15 Medics some

doctors and nurses based on the island

others tourists who've come in to

assist between 11:30 and 12 the first

drown uh was brought in on a

stretcher and although I worked for 35

years as an accident surgeon it was a

horrible experience and that was the

beginning of the horrific feeling which

I had that this is serious

now at midnight after an hour in the

water Katrina Stark is brought to shore

we were the last people that they were

able to bring up onto the

boat they headed back for the harbor um

and on the way they stopped a couple of

times to um pick people up but they

would go to pick them up and realize

that they were dead and so they' just

leave them they

were Katrina doesn't know if her cousin

made

it Sarah

krina I was just never been so happy to

see anybody in my whole life how did you

get here and I just grabbed hold of her

and wouldn't leave her side for a second

to see

you you you okay are you keeping warm

yeah it was terrifying I mean it's been

5 years since the accident and I still

have not nightmares I still think about

it it will still make me cry you guys

had quite a shocking in the water it was

traumatic and it was very scary but it

was also a singularly defining moment in

my life where I was able to use all of

the resources I had to survive I think

we'

got pull pull pull pull I don't think I

would have chosen not to live through

this

at halfast midnight more than 2 hours

after the Collision the rescue operation

is becoming more and more a search for

bodies when you start seeing the bodies

in the sea somebody that I knew that an

hour ago they were breathing and

suddenly they're dead and

they're and it was very

distressing I mean it took me a very

long time to put it out of my mind um

it was very difficult 25 people are now

confirmed dead as victims continue to

arrive Dr polyzoides is

overwhelmed do I go to this room and try

and save someone do I wait and and see

whether is worth saving and it was like

a catastrophe it was as if it was coming

the end of the world for to this island

so it was almost like you're seeing a

movie that's not happening to you every

half an hour the number number of bodies

increased by 2:30 a.m. the number of

dead reaches 60 there's no room for so

many bodies in the medical center the

Church of St Nicholas on the waterfront

now becomes a temporary

morg the search for people alive or dead

continues right through the

night very soon investigators will begin

to ask tough questions who's to blame

for the sinking why did so many people

have to

die the passenger Fair Express Samina

has sunk in a storm in the aan sea

already 60 people are confirmed dead

many more need medical

[Music]

treatment mour reveals the power of last

night's

storm a Lifeboat lies smashed to pieces

on the

rocks

life rafts blew away

empty a message board at the Harborfront

lists who's alive and who's still

missing bodies will continue to wash up

on the beaches for days to

come there aren't enough Coffins on

paros more arrive even the most

experienced professionals are touched by

the

trauma I was so shaken by this that I

didn't sleep for 2 night night and on

the third night where I went to sleep I

dreamed that my son was

drown very quickly the grief turns to

anger where were the crew when the ship

hit the Rocks where were they when the

passengers needed help rumors spread

like wildfire and are picked up by the

media were some members of the crew

watching the soccer game on TV when they

should have been steering the ship

the captain 53-year-old vasilis yanakos

is held for questioning by the

police on paros the funerals begin here

a 4-year-old boy drowned with his

father divers discover 10 bodies trapped

inside the hull of the

Samina the last body is found floating 2

weeks after the sinking 50 km north of

paros altogether 80 people have died 75

passengers five crew members this is

Greece's worst shipping disaster in more

than 30 years a national

tragedy in the bitter aftermath the

spotlight falls on the company which

owned the Samina and its vice president

pantelis spinas he could face criminal

charges as well as multi-million dollar

compensation

claims 2 months after the sinking police

surround a body lying on the sidewalk

outside company headquarters in Athens

spinas has jumped out of his sixth floor

window committing

[Music]

suicide Maritime experts at the National

Technical University of Athens begin an

inquiry detailed testimony has gathered

GED from 46 crew members as well as 192

passengers the Greek legal authorities

want the university to give them a

thorough explanation of what

[Music]

happened Professor David molu of the

national Research Center of Canada is

one of the world's leading experts on

ferry safety he's studied the findings

of the Greek investigators who came up

with a startling

realization

what they found at the inquiry defied

some of the initial speculation

concerning the age of the ship and the

accident in fact turned out to be caused

by something completely

different testimony reveals each small

but critical factor that together turn a

routine Ferry Crossing into a national

disaster 3 hours into the journey the

crew switch on the ship's

autopilot the autopilot is an electronic

link between the compass and the rudder

correcting the r a little bit one way or

the other to bring you back where you

want to

be even on autopilot a crew member

should constantly monitor the ship's

position it's bad practice to leave an

autopilot unattended particularly in bad

weather because the wind the waves and

the current are all acting to drift the

ship in One Direction and that kind of

steady drift is not compensated for by

the electronics in the

autopilot as the weather grows worse the

crew deploy the ship's stabilizer system

to make the ride more comfortable for

the passengers the stabilizer uses two

small fins to counteract the role of the

ship but something extraordinary has

happened only the starboard or right

hand stabilizer fin has

extended very unusual normally we'd

expect both stabilizers to be working at

any one time with just one one

stabilizer the ship is no longer

symmetrical so the flow around the ship

is unbalanced and as a result the ship

will tend to drift One Way rather than

go in a straight

line with only the starboard stabilizer

the Samina is pulled slowly but surely

to the right it's a deadly

malfunction captains aim to stay at

least 740 M left of the gates of paros

but when the Samina arrives she's on

collision course a crew member makes a

last minute attempt to steer the ship to

the

left but the ship can't turn quickly

enough oh my God oh my

God it was very unfortunate the ship got

hold but there was really no reason why

the ship should have sank the damage was

within the range that you would normally

expect a ship to

survive the East face of the taller

Pinnacle is where the ship strikes at 12

minutes 10

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p.m. there's a 6 M lengthways gash as

long as a telephone pole and 1 M

wide but this hole is well above the

water line no no water should enter the

ship moments later a second

impact the stabilizer fin bends

backwards it stabs like a dagger through

the ship's side oh my God this 3 m gash

is below the water line even worse it's

exactly alongside the engine room the

main generators are knocked out

electrical power is cast throughout the

ship

the investigating team orders divers to

make a detailed survey of the wreck of

the

Samina inside they discover the final

piece of the puzzle even with two large

holes the ship could have been saved one

final error sealed the fate of the

Samina the passenger Ferry Express

Samina strikes rocks near the Greek

island of paros with two gaping holes in

her starboard side she capsizes and

sinks in 38 M of

water divers go down to survey the wreck

and make a startling

Discovery like all large seagoing ships

the Sala is divided into separate

compartments sealed by watertight doors

like this one safety laws insist they

remain locked while the ship's at Sea on

the samina's last journey some of the

doors were open if you imagine in your

house every time you went through a door

from the kitchen you had to close it

lock it move on to the living room open

that door close it lock it and carry on

it really does slow down your everyday

life so there is a tendency sometimes to

leave these doors

open because they're left open water is

no longer confined to the engine

room and now that the power is cut the

crew can't close the doors remotely

29 of the crew were called back for a

second grilling by

investigators this testimony provides an

exact picture of the ship's last moments

data which is now built into a computer

model at 10:15 3 minutes after the

Collision the ship is listing only 5° to

the right but filling fast through that

hole in the engine

room by 10:25 she's listing

14° now the 6 M gash which was above the

water line is exposed to the

Sea this is the point where the Samina

and 80 of those on board are doomed the

ship can't withstand this degree of

damage the SEMA is what's called a roro

ferry it stands for roll on roll off

this is a modern roro ship vehicles

simply reverse in through the stern

doors and then drive out at their

destination

it's a cost effective design with a

potentially fatal

floor the worst shipping disasters in

recent times have involved vessels

designed this

way the herald of free enterprise went

down with the loss of 193 lives at

zebger in Belgium in

1987 850 were drowned aboard the rorro

ferry Estonia in the Baltic Sea in

1994 unlike a cruise ship or a cargo

vessel which are divided into many

smaller compartments the vehicle deck of

a roro ship is one large open area

highly vulnerable to Rapid

flooding imagine comparing flooding in

egg box with flooding just an empty

cardboard shoe box The Shoe Box would

tend to fill up very very quickly

whereas an egg boox would tend to fill

up each compartment to time so the egg

boox would stay afloat whereas The Shoe

Box wouldn't this open space is

especially vulnerable because it's so

close to the water line the car deck on

aoro ferry is low to make driving the

vehicles on and off easy as a result

you're relying on those watertight

compartments to keep the ship afloat in

the event of

damage by 10:29 the Samina is listing

23° they almost there yes she's now

tilting so much that it's impossible to

launch more

lifeboats only three of the h she

carried Got

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Away 3 minutes later at 10:32 she's

listing

33° at around 1050 the ship turns

completely on her

side we know the exact time that the

ship sank because the clock on the

bridge was stopped at 2 minutes past

11 divers surveying the wreck make their

most important

discovery of the ship's 11 watertight

doors nine were left

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open the most important aspect of this

accident was leaving the watertight

doors open as a result the ship flooded

it lost all its reserve of buoyancy and

eventually sank if the doors had been

locked despite the navigational error

which put the ship on the Rocks despite

the hole in the engine room this would

probably have been a survivable

accident

the trial of ship's captain vasilis

yanakos and seven others began in May

2005 more than four years after the

disaster the sinking of the Samina led

to safety improvements Greece cut the

maximum working life of Passenger

faeries from 35 to 30

years the tragedy also helped speed the

introduction of voyage recorders like an

airplane black box then now mandatory in

all passenger

fairies some good came out of

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bad for the first time since those

dramatic events Katrina Stark has come

back to paros it's an emotional

return it was a pretty traumatic thing

to go through but it's quite a character

building experience and I think it plays

a large part in in who I am today for

their role in helping to save lives

Heidi Hart and Christine Shannon were

given an award for heroism by the city

of

Seattle I understand my strength a lot

more and I can

live

freely without the restraints of being

scared of what's unknown because life is

an

unknown even for a heroine it's tough to

look

back Christina and

I we always say we were the lucky ones

we were in the right place at the right

time and that that is the only thing I

can think of why we made it and so many

other people

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didn't and it breaks my

heart