This is just came with the memory of Salam 98 ,it can become another Egyptian X-file : The missing Badr I.
Badr I is a 1700 ton cargo ship owned by Afro Asia Shipping company "I do not know if it was the one from Singapore or it is a native company", its crew consists of 14 men on board of t
he vessel : 9 Egyptians , 4 Sudanese and one Yemeni. The flag on the ship is the flag of Sierra Leone !!
In last January 2008 this cargo ship went from the Suez to Port Sudan harbour to deliver a cement cargo there . Badr I according to the owner of company was complied with all safety measures and all licenses . The voyage between Suez and Port Sudan is about 800 miles.
From more than 17 days ago the ship was supposed to show up at Port Sudan but it did not , it was reported to be missing in the red sea till now . We can't find it nor can the Sudanese , it suddenly disappeared , we do not know till now it was sunk or not , the Port Sudan harbour authorities reported that they did not receive any distress message signal through the GPS device or SOS message signals. The ship was disappeared after 3 days only from its departure from Suez.
The families of the crew began to answer questions and unfortunately the authorities for real do not have any answer , our Navy sent search and rescue time hoping to solve the riddle , yes the weather was bad during the past couple of weeks still it is strange that a ship suddenly disappear from the monitors with no trace .It could not be completely sunk 100% .There could be something in the Ship that made its GPS stop working and thus it can't send any signals and no one can see it.
The ship can be a victim of piracy ,yes there are modern piracy but not the type of Captain Jack Sparrow , still Piracy does not exit in that location in the red sea, there are pirates in other parts of the red sea but no this one , also if the pirates attacked the ship ,they would connect the company for the crew ,it would be a hostage situation then !! But nothing for 3 weeks was announced .
The Captain of the Ship is called "Sabri El-Battouty" ,I do not know if he is related to Captain
"El-Battouty" of the famous air Egypt flight 767 which crashed in NY from couple of years ,if he is well it would be a strange irony , a curse that is following the "El-Battouty" family. His son "Islam" told weekly magazine "Akhar Sa' " that his father works in the sea for 40 years and that he called the family on that last 12th of January saying that the ship was facing some trouble and that he found out that the fuel was mixed with Water !! Already captain Sabri joined the crew only month ago and on the 6th of January 2008 he called his family and told them that he was thinking not to sail with Badr I due to the way they handling the cargo with and the old age of the ship .
Oh yes the ship is old ,very old , it is 40 years old !! And listen to this , the ship has no insurance because of its old age,the insurance companies refused to insure it !!
The surprises are not finished yet ,it turned out the company did not send any plane to search for the vessel except after 17 days !!
The company is saying that the last connect with the ship was on the 12th of January , where as the foreign ministry says that the last connect was on the 29th of January !!??
The life of 14 persons are in danger , their families are waiting and I feel that it is going to be one hell of riddle .it is great to find that the Egyptian media is following the case till now .
I think there is something fishy concerning the company, the owner of the ship .
This is a clear carelessness case , the company is careless for sure because there is no Bermuda triangle in the red sea
Updated on the 14th of February the Ship was found safely thank God in front of the Sudanese shores,thank Goodness the crew is alive ,it had a malfunction in front of the Lebanese shore , it is not an Egyptian X-file , it is solved thank Goodness
Another Update on the 12th of April 2008 , it has not been found yet
I saw this on tv and thought the same thing that you did.
ReplyDeleteHow on earth, in this day and age, of cell phones, GPS, internet and other forms of communication and technology could a ship just vanish into thin air. It's not a small fishing boat either. It's a cargo ship. Very bizarre indeed.
Maybe they should ask the Israelis with their top of the line equipment and technology to help find it. Hell there must be satellite photos of this area for sure available somewhere in somebody's intelligence agency. This is just nuts.
I feel bad for the family of the crew. Inshallah they are okay but if they have been missing this long, it doesn't look goog.
Actually you would be surprised at the amount of piracy that goes on in the world. I had a colleague who looked up maritime piracy because her parents were going on a cruise in the Indian ocean and she was concerned for their safety. We were shocked at how many incidents occurred. The frequency and intensity of such acts was appalling.
Let's hope they at least find what happened to this ship and where it went. Very strange indeed.
@N.american princess , well I do not think that the Egyptian people or the Sudanese would welcome the Israeli expertise , already I trust the Egyptian navy ,still I believe there is something wrong ,the company is not giving all the details , already we do not know if it is in the international water or our water or the Sudanese
ReplyDeleteI share with you the feeling for the families of the crew , it is terrible thing still I am happy that press is speaking about it . I wish insh Allah that they will be found very soon
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ReplyDelete@Peter , welcome to Egypt then
ReplyDelete