"We thought we were going to die." The accounts of some passengers reveal the tragedy of what happened on the GNV ferry, which was stranded last night off the coast of Corsica due to a fire that broke out in the engine room and caused the engines to fail, turning the Porto Torres-Genoa journey into a nightmare for 763 passengers and 113 crew members.
"When they lowered the lifeboats halfway, we thought, 'This is the end,'" a woman from Esporlatu who was traveling with her family recounts with a trembling voice. "We were finishing dinner in the ship's pizzeria, we heard a loud engine noise, and then smoke started to fill the ship. We immediately went to the deck to try to understand what was happening, but all we could see was a lot of smoke. Shortly afterward, the crew told us to go to the assembly points on the decks because there was a fire in the engine room."
Then they put on their life jackets, and when they saw the lifeboats being lowered, ready for an evacuation, panic set in: "We thought of the Moby Prince; it was terrible. My daughter was crying, and the information we were receiving was fragmentary and not reassuring," the woman continues.
Initially, it was considered to continue sailing using the reserve engines, a possibility that was later abandoned following the intervention of the French maritime authorities: "They decided to tow the ship back to port because it could not continue sailing."
Then a never-ending night on deck: "They gave us water and blankets, but this morning we had run out. They allowed us back to our cabins, but there's no air conditioning, and it was hard to breathe because of the heat and the smell of smoke," says the passenger, who nevertheless wants to thank the crew. "They did everything they could to assist us."
Finally, a thought about what would have happened if the flames had reached the garage: "It would have been a tragedy."
(Unioneonline)