MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Sunken Greek cruise ship's skipper arraigned; two passengers still missing

Cruise Sea Diamond on her route to Santorini

The captain of a Greek cruise ship that sank in the Aegean Sea was due to appear before a prosecutor on Saturday as coastguards continued to search for two missing French tourists, the Greek merchant marine ministry said.

The 45-year-old Frenchman and his daughter have not been seen since Thursday's accident in which the ship's 1,600 passengers and crew had to be evacuated. "The captain is en route to the prosecutor's office on the Aegean island of Naxos," a merchant marine press officer told news agencies. The ship's first mate, ensign, lieutenant, chamberlain and cabin manager will also appear before the prosecutor, she added. Greek authorities are trying to unravel the mystery of how a cruise ship described by its operating company as "ultra-modern" crashed into a reef off the Aegean island of Santorini in broad daylight and in mild weather conditions. Meanwhile coastguard vessels continued the search for the missing passengers, the ministry officer said, adding that "divers and a plane may be added to the operation later today." Anti-pollution vessels were also on site to prevent oil seeping from the sunken ship's tanks from dispersing around the holiday island's shores. Jean-Christophe Allain, 45, and his 16-year-old daughter Maud, from Nantes, in western France, were reported missing by Allain's wife Anne several hours after the accident on Thursday. Early reports indicated the pair may have been trapped on the Sea Diamond as water-tight doors closed. "Everything happened in fractions of a second," said Greek Tourism Minister Fanny Palli-Petralia, who accompanied to Athens Anne Allain, 43, her 14-year-old son Raphael and other passengers returning on other ships Friday. "She told me their cabin filled with water. She managed to pry open the door and plunged out, but she wasn't sure if the others followed," the minister told private TV station Alpha. The Greek-flagged Sea Diamond listed dangerously after hitting a reef half a nautical mile offshore as it was preparing to dock at Santorini, prompting a major evacuation effort. It sank early on Friday morning in a nearby bay where it had been towed after the passengers, most of them from the United States, Spain and France, had been taken off by boats from the island and other ships. Cyprus-based Louis Hellenic Cruise Lines, which operated the 143-metre (472-foot) Sea Diamond, said 1,156 passengers and 391 crew were on board. The ship's company and the Greek authorities have come under criticism for initially giving conflicting information on the number of passengers on board, and many evacuees said the crew's response was belated and confused. The Sea Diamond was launched in 1986 and renovated nearly a decade ago. The ship was completing an Aegean cruise to the Greek islands of Mykonos, Rhodes, Patmos and Crete and the Turkish coastal town of Kusadasi.