Tragic Loss of Life!!!

[Devastatin Dave]

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/02/03/D8FHM5I8A.html
Terrible breaking news. Many were returning from their Mecca Pilgramige. My heart grieves for all my Muslim Brothers and Sisters lossed this day. My prayers go out to the victims.

[Vladimir]

Sounds like a horrible loss. I want to know the cause.

[Devastatin Dave]

Sounds like a horrible loss. I want to know the cause.

There are still little details. Has Egypt ever had this sort of tragedy with a ferry? I know many countries have had this happen to them before and a lot of times it was caused by faulty maintainance or negligence.

[Byzantine Mercenary]

This ship was carrying 2 less people then the titanic was!
That just shows the scale of this terrible disaster...

[Devastatin Dave]

So far they have only pulled out about 100 survivors. There is also a report from Sky News that it was over its capacity by 20%. I hope the numbers are wrong.

[Templar Knight]

At 7pm last night (1600GMT). RAF Kinloss, a search and rescue centre in Scotland, picked up a distant distress signal at 2358GMT which was immediately passed on to the Egyptian authorities.

[Tribesman]

There is also a report from Sky News that it was over its capacity by 20%. I hope the numbers are wrong.

It was below passenger capacity , it is rated for over 1400 passengers , though perhaps it may be cargo capacity they are talking about .
Ro/Ro ferries can be very succeptible to rapid sinking when something goes wrong due to the uncompartmentalised car decks , and this vessel dates from before the double doors system was introduced .

Anyway ..... Very very bad news .