18 November 2008

Inaccurate chart blamed for cruise tragedy

An inaccurate shipping chart has been confirmed as the cause of a cruise accident off the Greek island of Santorini last year.

Louis Hellenic Cruise Lines, owners of MV Sea Diamond, claims new findings have vindicated it from blame for the incident last April, which killed two French tourists.

It says the Hellenic Hydrographic Office has confirmed that the official chart of the area where the Sea Diamond accident occurred was ââ¬Åâœerroneousââ¬~.

A year ago, Louis announced the findings of specialist company Akti Engineering who provided a mapping of the area of the accident of MV Sea Diamond showing serious errors in the charts of the area.

These findings have now been backed up by the Hydrographic Office of the Hellenic Navy, which is the official government authority for conducting hydrographic surveys in Hellenic waters.

The results confirmed that the reef struck by MV Sea Diamond is actually located 131 meters from the coastline, instead of only 57 meters as was inaccurately marked on the official Hellenic Hydrographic Service nautical chart.

By Bev Fearis

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