These rather unassuming rocks have a
story to tell. They look peaceful just
off the coast of the beautiful Greek
island of Paris. But like many
unassuming pieces of coastline, it can
be dangerous when you get too close.
This would be the story in the year 2000
when a massive rope ferry running an
autopilot struck and sank at these very
not so scarylooking rocks. Today we’ll
be looking at the MS Express Amina and
the series of events that led to her
final resting place. The disaster would
leave many people scratching their heads
as the collision shouldn’t have
happened. She was meant to be on a
different course and even if collision
had occurred, it shouldn’t have caused
her to sink. But we’ll look into this
and find out later why. My name is John
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[Music]
background. This is the MS Express
Samina. It was a ropeax ferry. More
simply put, it is a roll-on rolloff
passenger carrying ferry. But its life
didn’t start out as the Express Samina.
Instead, a few name changes and a
country change would stand between the
start of its life and the end of its
life. It actually began working as the
MS course under the French flag. She was
built at Chanti de Atlantic, Santa
Lazair, France for the company called
CGT. This first chapter would last from
her birth in 1966 until 1982 where she
sailed under three French operators
Compan general Translantique, Compan
General Trans Mediterranean
and Society National Maritime Course
Mediterranean.
I know I butchered all of that French
pronunciation. Anyh who, from 1982 she
would get her first name change to MS
Golden Vina
under the control of the Stability
Maritime Company. This change of name
and company also coincided with the
change of her flag to that of the
country of Greece. 6 years later, she
would be sold yet again in 1988 to the
Agapitos brothers. She was pressed into
service in the AGNC. Her final sale and
name change would happen in 1999 when
ownership was taken up by the
interestingly named company Manown
Flying Dolphins, a Greekbased ferry
company. Her name was then changed to
her final iteration as the MS Express
Samina, again tasked with sailing around
the Aian Sea. We are very close to the
disaster in our story, but first we need
to quickly talk about the ship’s
particulars. She had a length of 115 m
with a width of 18.1 m and a draft of
4.36 m with the Imperial units just
listed here on screen. Her two engines
powered her gross registered tonnage of
4,455
up to a top speed of 21 knots, 39 km or
24 mph. She had a capacity of,500
passengers and up to 170 vehicles in
which all of this was accommodated over
11 levels. She had thin stabilizers as
well as an autopilot system which aided
in keeping the ship on a predetermined
course or bearing without the need of
human intervention. Although often it is
required that the system is under
constant supervision. Her hole was
subdivided by transverse bulkheads into
12 watertight compartments with 11
controlled watertight doors. She was
relatively forgettable as a ship and was
built to the standards of her time.
Although by the late 1990s she was
getting long in the tooth, approaching
35 years old, which makes me feel very
old being 36.
But her remarkableness would end on the
evening of the 26th of September, 2000.
Now it’s time to move on to the next
part of our video, the disaster. It is
around4

Disaster

5 in the evening on the 26th of
September 2000, and the MS Express Amina
is about to leave the port of Prius,
Greece. She has 473 passengers and 61
crew aboard. In addition to this, she
also has 17 trucks and 34 cars. She is
bound for the island of Paros on an oval
journey that has stops at the
aforementioned Paris as well as Nexus,
Ikira, Samos, Patmas, and Lipy. Her
estimated time of arrival at the port of
Paris is meant to be around 18 minutes
past 10 p.m., but this would not be the
case. At roughly 8:00, the ship passed
the Cape of Cellos of Kifnas Island.
Visibility was reported at the time to
be around 7 to 10 nautical miles. In
order to counteract the ships bumping
around on the sea, the crew deployed the
stabilizer fins. However, unbeknownst to
the crew, only the starboard stabilizer
unfolded. At around the same time, the
ship was placed into autopilot. With the
predicted course, she should have
happily sailed along this line. However,
with just a starboard stabilizer
deployed, she was actually being dragged
off course towards starboard. This
shouldn’t have been too much of an issue
as it would have been picked up by the
crew on the bridge. However, everyone
had kind of buggered off, leaving the
ship automatically cruising towards
here. This was an eyelet around 3
nautical miles away from the entrance
way to the port of Paris. At around 10
minutes past 10, a member of crew had
actually checked the course on the MS
Express Amina and realized that they
were heading to a very very bad
destination. They attempted to change
the course, but at this point it was far
too late. At 12 minutes 10, the ship hit
the reef of Porislets on her starboard
side. The collision caused three raking
damages to the ship at both below and
above the waterline. The largest gash
was 6 m long above the water line and
also the crash caused severe damage to
her starboard stabilizer ripping it from
the hull. The ship carried on on its
bearing but just 3 minutes after impact
she was beginning to list by 5° to
starboard. Water was pouring in along a
3 m gash below the water line. This was
where the stabilizer once was on the
starboard side. It was also where the
engine room was and this was not very
good. Initially, none of the passengers
on board really knew what was going on,
but it would be hard to ignore as by 25
minutes past 10, the ship was listing
14°.
This then allowed water into the 6 m
gash that was originally above the water
line. Needless to say, this then further
accentuated the list. A distress call
was sent out and it was picked up by a
nearby NATO exercise fleet. The ship’s
power supply subsequently failed,
plunging the decks into darkness. As the
ship continued to list, only three of
its eight lifeboats aboard were able to
be dispatched. At roughly 32 minutes 10,
she had listed 33°. 18 minutes later, at
10 minutes to 11 p.m., the ship was
lying on her side. Many had to jump into
the water wearing life jackets. During a
sinking, complete chaos had hit all
those board. The crew started jumping
off the ship themselves, leaving
passengers to fend for themselves. This
would contribute to the death toll later
on. The first responders were made up of
Royal Navy and Greek Port Authorities
vessels. As stated by BBC report, a
helicopter from the aircraft HMS
Invincible, which was exercising near
Paros, rescued 12 survivors who were
stranded on a rock. Two of them
suffering from hypothermia. HMS
Liverpool, HMS Cumberland, and RFA Fort
George also joined the Greek military.
Local fishing boats, pleasure craft, and
the coast guard vessels in the huge
rescue effort. Many survivors were stuck
clinging to rock protruding from the
sea. By the time 11 p.m. had come
around, the ship was fully submerged.
From start to finish, she had fully sunk
in just under an hour. The sinking
caused the death of 80 passengers.
Interestingly, in addition to this death
toll, one other person is attributed to
the disaster. They were in Paris at the
time of the accident. They had died of a
heart attack. This was the port officer
on duty. Likely his demise was brought
on from the stress of the disaster
unfolding in front of him. The MS
Express Samina sank to the very bottom
of the ocean where she is still to this
day. Almost soon as the waves calmed and
her battered body settled amongst the
fishes, divers were sent down to the
wreckage.
This was in preparation for the
investigation. Officially sanctioned
divers were sent down to the wreckage
and video was shot and important
locations of the vessel were noted.
However, it was also said that before
this happened, some unknown divers went
down to the wreckage. This leads us onto
the next part of our story,
the investigation and aftermath. In
January 2001, the Court of Appeal for
the ANC appointed a five member
committee to investigate the cause of
the sinking of the MS Express Samina.
Their report was released a day before
the first anniversary of the accident.
During the investigation, the crew came
onto extreme scrutiny. Her captain and
mate were arrested and charged with
manslaughter due to, as stated by a
tourist guide website named Greek Island
Hopping. Allegations that at the time of
the collision, the crew had left the
bridge to watch a replay on one of the
ship’s TVs of a goal in an important
local soccer match. The results from the
report resulted in charges against 17
persons. This included ship’s crew,
Coast Guard, and shipping company
officers. but put a pin in that for
later on. But although the crash was the
result of clear negligence in the ship’s
navigation, another investigation would
be launched to find out the reason why
she sank as it was fairly thought that
the extent of their damage shouldn’t
have resulted in a rapid lack of
buoyancy. The investigation was called
investigation into the sinking of the
row passenger ferry express by a pepin
ikau at al. This would delve into the
mechanics of the sinking, especially
when she probably shouldn’t have with
the damage she had sustained. She had
watertight compartments after all.
However, it was found that nine of her
11 watertight doors hadn’t been sealed
off. The crew had often sailed with the
doors open instead of closed. For
example, in proper operation, the doors
should always be shut and only open to
allow access, after which they should be
closed immediately. The crew had left
them open and was planned to close them
on the ship’s main panel after any
incident. However, due to the collision
happening in the engine room, remote
control was lost during the power loss.
This then relied on the crew going to
close the doors individually locally,
which clearly didn’t happen. The sinking
was solely down to the fact the doors
were left open, which of course was
ultimately down to the incompetence of
the crew. Now the legal ramifications
were pretty bad for the indicted
persons. One would avoid criminal
proceedings though by using a less than
ideal trick as on the 29th of October
2000 the manager of Manoan Fine Dolphins
decided on not being alive anymore via
the help of gravity out of a sixstory
window. The ship’s officer would be
found guilty of criminal negligence and
was sentenced to 19 years while the
captain received a 16-year sentence.
Three other members of crew were handed
down much lighter sentences ranging from
15 months to 1.5 years. In the
aftermath, griefs would put on a limit
of 30 years for service life of vessels
in the country’s fleet, although this
would be relaxed with a provision of
following strict safety standards.
Interestingly, Manoan Flying Dolphins,
the ship’s owner, was planning on going
public with a stock offering around the
same time of the crash, but
understandably they walked back this
plan. Interestingly, the company is
still in operation today, albeit under
the name Helenic Seaways. So, that’s my
video on the MS Expressi.
It’s going to be a five on my scale. And
this is what I’ve got for my root cause
analysis card. Do you agree? Let me know
in the comments below.
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