Cowardly captain cops out

Survivors of the Red Sea ferry disaster, which caused the deaths of more than 1,000 people, say the captain was the first person to hit the lifeboats hard, long, and strong, after a car-fire broke out below deck.

"We were wearing lifejackets but they told us there was nothing wrong, told us to take them off and they took away the lifejackets. Then the boat started to sink and the captain took a boat and left," he added, speaking to Reuters Television.

"The captain was the first to leave and we were surprised to see the boat sinking," added Khaled Hassan, another survivor.

Other survivors also reported that the crew had played down the gravity of the situation and withheld lifejackets.

"There was a fire but the crew stopped the people from putting on lifejackets so that it wouldn't cause a panic," said Abdel Raouf Abdel Nabi, one of the survivors.

"There was a blaze down below. The crew said 'Don't worry, we will put it out.' When things got really bad the crew just went off in the lifeboats and left us on board," said Nader Galal Abdel Shafi, another arrival on the same rescue boat.

No word on whether or not a string quartet was instructed to play.

The captain is nowhere to be found, and the coast guard is saying they never got a distress signal, but the captain and crew somehow ended up on lifeboats. This situation is just odd to me. Unless the crew 'n captain leaving thing was made up, I'll betcha that this fire was intentionally set to perhaps allow for someone on the crew to leave the ship undetected and escape something. It would be a good way to disappear forever: Never found and presumed dead in the sinking.

H/T to the aptly titled post "Chicken of the Sea" @ Six Meat Buffet.

Feisty blogs at Feisty Republican Whore

posted by Feisty at 07:14 PM

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