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Robotic sub to search for missing passengers

Greek rescuers were expected to deploy a robot submarine yesterday to search for the bodies of two French tourists believed to have drowned when a cruise ship sank off a resort island last week.

The ship's captain has blamed Thursday's accident on sea currents that swept the Sea Diamond onto a charted reef, tearing a hole in the ship's hull.

Nearly 1,600 people were rescued before the vessel sank.

Some of the oil that has leaked from the ship has washed ashore, Santorini Mayor Angelos Roussos said on Monday, though he added that "the clean-up company has the situation under control."

Roussos said that the island's local government would not take legal action against the operator of the ship, Louis Cruise Lines, part of a Cyprus-based tourism group. But he said he was concerned about how to guard against such accidents.

"Our island and its beaches are of unique natural beauty and we must protect them in the best possible manner," the mayor said. "The island's economy depends on tourism."

An oceanographic vessel due at Santorini early yesterday will deploy the unmanned sub to take footage of the wreck, looking for the missing passengers and the ship's voyage data recorder, the Merchant Marine Ministry said on Monday.

Jean-Christophe Allain, 45, and his 16-year-old daughter, Maud, are believed to have been trapped in a flooded lower cabin. The missing man's wife told authorities she had narrowly escaped from the cabin.

The rest of the passengers, most of them Americans, reached safety after scrambling onto lifeboats, crossing narrow gangways and climbing down rope ladders.

The 21-year-old Sea Diamond sank some 15 hours later, causing an oil slick that experts worked to clean up on Monday.

Crews worked to contain more than 50 tonnes of oil that have spilled since the 143m vessel sank, while plans were made to seal off or remove the remaining 400 tonnes from the wreckage.

An official involved in the clean-up, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said as many as 100 tonnes may have leaked out.

Although the spill appeared to pose no immediate threat to Santorini's main beaches, the fate of the remaining oil on board was a concern.

"The oil is continuing to leak from the vessel. ... The situation is being contained in the present conditions," said Vassilis Mamaloukas, who is leading the clean-up operation for private Greek contractor Environmental Protection Engineering SA.

"Our priority is to pump the oil from the source of the leak, because it is difficult to control oil from a leak from such a depth. ... If the weather conditions are not favorable we may lose that control."

Investigators queried island boatsmen over allegations the crew had delayed starting the evacuation.

Six crew members of the Greek-flagged ship, including the captain and chief mate, have been charged with negligence.

Coast guard divers on Monday inspected the site of the wreck -- under the 300m-high volcanic cliffs that make Santorini a major tourist attraction -- but the depth and security concerns stopped them from entering the hulk, said a spokesman for the Merchant Marine Ministry.

"They could not enter the wreck, which lies about 130 meters deep, as it still has not yet reached the sea bottom and has a tendency to shift," he said.
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