Chch woman believed safe aboard liner

Press, 11 October 1985, Page 5

Chch woman believed safe aboard liner

Miss Sheryl Herrington, the Christchurch woman who was aboard the hijacked passenger liner Achille Lauro, is believed to be safe and well.

Last evening she was believed to be detained by the authorities aboard the vessel with a number of other crew and passengers at Port Said, in Egypt. Her parents, Mr Ray and Mrs Gwendolyn Herrington, still had not heard from their daughter last evening. “We will just have to wait until she calls and then we will really believe that all is well,” said Mr Herrington. “I was 25 years at sea myself all through the last war and nothing like"this

happened.” The New Zealand Ambassador to Italy, Mr G. N. Parkinson, told “The Press” from Rome last evening that the embassy had been in touch with the Italian Foreign Ministry about the welfare of Miss Herrington.

The Ministry had said that the vessel and all her crew, which includes Miss Herrington, a stewardess, were safe. Mr Parkinson said that the latest news he had was that an elderly American man was the only casualty in the hijacking. He said, however, that the embassy would keep in touch with the authorities in Italy to confirm that Miss

Herrington was unharmed. Attempts by “The Press” to get further details from the shipping line, Flotta Lauro, which is based in Naples, were unsuccessful. The company’s telephone number was overloaded and an Italian telephone operator said that people from throughout the world were trying to get in touch with the firm.

Miss Herrington, aged 37, speaks fluent Italian and has workeed for the Lauro group, which owns the vessel, for several years.

She is the eldest of four children in the Herrington family. She has worked overseas since her early 20s.