100 rescued as ferry sinks
2006-03-23 11:21
Vancouver - A ferry carrying about 100 people sank after it strayed off course in the early morning darkness on Canada's rugged Pacific Coast on Wednesday, but officials believed everyone was rescued safely.
The Queen of the North apparently struck a submerged rock about 00:25 near Gil Island, about 120km south of Prince Rupert as it sailed through the Inside Passage on the northwest coast of British Columbia.
Passengers described being jolted awake by a loud noise, followed by the ship's alarm. Sylvia Rice, a vacationer from England, said: "Anything like that, and you know something is wrong."
99 people 'escaped'
The passengers said they watched from lifeboats in rough water as the 125m ship went down, with some likening the ship's final moments to descriptions of the sinking of the Titanic.
Officials said 99 people were known to have escaped the stricken vessel, but there was confusion about the fate of two people. They were believed to have survived the sinking, but were unaccounted for in the final count of passengers.
The company said: "BC Ferries has unconfirmed reports that the two passengers disembarked from the rescue vessels at Hartley Bay and found their own transportation back to Prince Rupert", adding police were investigating it as a missing persons' case.
No serious injuries reported
Residents of Hartley Bay, a remote aboriginal village of about 200 people, heard the ferry's distress call and sent boats to the scene. Victims were given blankets and food as they were brought to shore.
No serious injuries were reported, but 11 people were transported by helicopter to a Prince Rupert hospital and later released.
The ferry, which had a capacity for 700 passengers and 115 vehicles, sank along a popular route for cruise ships that traveled the coast from Vancouver and Seattle to Alaska each summer, carrying thousands of tourists.
The ship was on a 15-hour trip from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy, on the northern tip of Vancouver Island after it apparently veered off course in a relatively narrow passage area.
Oil pollution emergency declared
BC Ferries President David Hahn said: "It was fairly severely off course." He declined to speculate what might have caused the problem.
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada were heading to the scene, where an oil pollution emergency had been declared because of fuel leaking from the submerged ship and the vehicles it was carrying.
The Canadian Coast Guard ship Sir Wilfrid Laurier was on patrol in the area and was able to reach the scene quickly to assist the rescue.
It also transported survivors back to Prince Rupert, where they greeted by British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell and other officials.