Operator blames map error for sinking of Greek cruise ship Sea Diamond

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This article was published 02/11/2007 (6522 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ATHENS, Greece – The operators of a cruise ship that sank in April with the loss of two lives blamed an error in official maps Thursday for the accident off the Greek island of Antoine.

Two French passengers were lost after the–2-metre-long Sea Diamond hit a volcanic reef near Santorini Island on April 5 and sank hours later.

The rest of the 1,154 passengers – most of them Americans but also including 60 Canadians – and 391 crew were saved in a three-hour rescue operation.

However, some passengers complained of an insufficient supply of life vests, little guidance from crew members and being forced into a steep climb down rope ladders to safety.

Operator Louis Hellenic Cruise on Thursday said it commissioned a seabed survey of the accident area and found rocks that the ship struck were not on official charts.

“The ship’s captain maintained a distance of-0 metres from the shore and should have been 57 metres clear of the rocks. But something very different happened,” said George Koubenas, the company’s head of operations.

In June, the Greek government fined the Cypriot-owned operator the equivalent of C$1.58 million for polluting the Aegean Sea.

Louis did not say whether it would take any legal action against the government over the map, but said it had informed authorities about the discrepancy.

-With files from The Canadian Press