External links
- BBC
- Beeld, South Africa
- Bahrain ferry disaster kills 48; 63 rescued from Fox News Channel
- Report from Al Jazeera
- Many die in Bahrain boat disaster from BBC
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The al-Dana was a motorised Arabic dhow or passenger ferry. It was sailing off Manama, Bahrain, when it capsized in the Persian Gulf on March 30, 2006. As of March 31, 67 out of the 150 people on board had been rescued, and 58 have been confirmed dead. Around 40 more are missing. The confirmed dead include 17 Indians and 12 Britons.
Most of the passengers were foreigners from the Nass-Murray & Roberts joint venture construction company who were celebrating completion of part of the Bahrain World Trade Centre towers. Ten of the dead were employed by the South African construction company Murray & Roberts Limited; four of these were South African employees, two were Indian, one was from Pakistan and another was a South African partner. SABC has reported that a sixth South African died in the tragedy.
Bahrain's coastguard service was involved in an immediate rescue operation, reaching minutes after the disaster. The United States Navy's Fifth Fleet helped with the rescue effort with divers and small naval craft.
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MS Herald of Free Enterprise was a roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ferry which capsized moments after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on the night of 6 March 1987, killing 193 passengers and crew.
TEV Wahine was a twin-screw, turbo-electric, roll-on/roll-off ferry. Ordered in 1964, the vessel was built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland for the Union Steam Ship Company's Wellington-Lyttelton Steamer Express Service in New Zealand. The ship's name, Wahine, is a word for 'woman' in some Polynesian languages, including Māori.
MV SuperFerry 14 was a Philippine registered roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) ferry that was attacked on February 27, 2004, by a terrorist group Abu Sayyaf that resulted in the destruction of the ferry and the deaths of 116 people in the Philippines' deadliest terrorist attack. Six children less than five years old, and nine children between six and 16 years of age were among the dead or missing, including six students on a championship team sent by schools in northern Mindanao to compete in a journalism contest.
MV Le Joola was a Senegalese government-owned roll-on/roll-off ferry that capsized off the coast of The Gambia on 26 September 2002, with 1,863 deaths and 64 survivors. It is thought to be the second-worst non-military disaster in maritime history.
Gulf Air Flight 072 (GF072/GFA072) was a scheduled international passenger flight from Cairo International Airport in Egypt to Bahrain International Airport in Bahrain, operated by Gulf Air. On 23 August 2000 at 19:30 Arabia Standard Time (UTC+3), the Airbus A320 crashed minutes after executing a go-around upon failed attempt to land on Runway 12. The flight crew suffered from spatial disorientation during the go-around and crashed into the shallow waters of the Persian Gulf 5 km from the airport. All 143 people on board the aircraft were killed.
The MS al-Salam Boccaccio 98 was an Egyptian Ro/Ro passenger ferry, operated by El Salam Maritime Transport, that sank on 3 February 2006 in the Red Sea en route from Duba, Saudi Arabia, to Safaga in southern Egypt.
MV Princess of the Stars was a passenger ferry owned by Filipino shipping company Sulpicio Lines, that capsized and sank on June 21, 2008, off the coast of San Fernando, Romblon, at the height of Typhoon Fengshen, which passed directly over Romblon as a Category 2 storm.
Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is a country in the Persian Gulf. The island nation comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered around Bahrain Island which makes up around 83 percent of the country's landmass. The country is situated between the Qatari peninsula and the north eastern coast of Saudi Arabia to which it is connected by the 25-kilometre (16 mi) King Fahd Causeway. According to the 2020 census, Bahrain's population numbers 1,501,635 people, of which 712,362 are Bahraini nationals. At 760 square kilometres (290 sq mi) in size, it is the third-smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore. The capital and largest city is Manama.
The sinking of MV Dumai Express 10 occurred on the morning of 22 November 2009 when a ferry carrying more than 300 people sank near the island of Iyu Kecil in Karimun Regency, Riau Islands during bad weather. Eyewitnesses reported that massive waves had struck the ferry repeatedly, causing the starboard side of the ship to crack. Subsequently, a considerable amount of water poured into the deck. By 9:55 a.m. the ferry was fully submerged.
The Bahraini uprising of 2011 was a series of anti-government protests in Bahrain led by the Shia-dominant and some Sunni minority Bahraini opposition from 2011 until 2014. The protests were inspired by the unrest of the 2011 Arab Spring and 2011–12 Iranian protests and escalated to daily clashes after the Bahraini government repressed the revolt with the support of the Gulf Cooperation Council and Peninsula Shield Force. The Bahraini protests were a series of demonstrations, amounting to a sustained campaign of non-violent civil disobedience and some violent resistance in the Persian Gulf country of Bahrain. As part of the revolutionary wave of protests in the Middle East and North Africa following the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia, the Bahraini protests were initially aimed at achieving greater political freedom and equality for the 70% Shia population.
On 10 September 2011, MV Spice Islander I, a passenger ferry carrying over 2,000 passengers, sank off the coast of Zanzibar. The ferry was travelling between Unguja and Pemba, two islands off the coast of mainland Tanzania, when it capsized. Early estimates put the death toll at around 200, but a report published by the Tanzanian government in January 2012 claimed that over 1,500 people had been killed.
On 30 April 2012, a ferry carrying about 350 passengers capsized in the Brahmaputra River in the Dhubri district of Assam in Northeast India. The disaster killed at least 103 people.
On 1 October 2012, at approximately 20:23 HKT, the passenger ferries Sea Smooth and Lamma IV collided off Yung Shue Wan, Lamma Island, Hong Kong. This occurred on the National Day of the People's Republic of China, and one of the ships was headed for the commemorative firework display, scheduled to take place half an hour later. With 39 killed and 92 injured, the incident was the deadliest maritime disaster in Hong Kong since 1971.
MV St. Thomas Aquinas was a Philippine-registered passenger ferry operated by 2GO Travel. On 16 August 2013, the vessel collided with a cargo ship named MV Sulpicio Express Siete of Philippine Span Asia Carrier Corporation causing it to sink. As of 3 September 2013, there were 108 dead and 29 missing with 733 rescued as a result of the accident.
The sinking of MVSewol, also called the Sewol ferry disaster, occurred on the morning of 16 April 2014, when the ferry MV Sewol was en route from Incheon towards Jeju in South Korea. The 6,825-ton vessel sent a distress signal from about 2.7 kilometres (1.7 mi) north of Byeongpungdo at 08:58 KST. Out of 476 passengers and crew, 304 died in the disaster, including around 250 students from Danwon High School. Of the approximately 172 survivors, more than half were rescued by fishing boats and other commercial vessels that arrived at the scene approximately forty minutes before the Korea Coast Guard (KCG).
MV Sewol was a South Korean vehicle-passenger ferry, built and previously operated in Japan. She operated between Incheon and Jeju. On 16 April 2014, Sewol capsized and sank with the loss of 304 passengers and crew.
MV Sinar Bangun sank on 18 June 2018 in Lake Toba, North Sumatra, Indonesia, during its trip from Simanindo Harbour in Samosir Island to Tiga Ras Harbour in Simalungun Regency. The ferry was carrying 188 passengers and crew. After the sinking, authorities immediately deployed search and rescue personnel to the area. Twenty-one survivors were rescued, three bodies were found and 164 people were listed as missing and presumed dead.
MV Nyerere is a Tanzanian ferry that capsized on 20 September 2018 while travelling between the islands of Ukerewe and Ukara on Lake Victoria. The Tanzanian government have declared that 228 people died as a result of the capsizing while 41 could be rescued. The capsized ferry was successfully righted, retrieved and unloaded more than one week after the disaster.
