Search for bodies abandoned
NZPA-Reuter Zeebrugge With 53 people confirmed dead in the British car ferry disaster, weary divers have called off their dangerous search in the dark, water-filled wreck for a further 82 corpses believed entombed inside.
“The danger inside is too great to risk human life to recover bodies,” a Zeebrugge port official said on Belgian television yesterday. Experts said recovery of the remaining bodies was now likely when the Herald of Free Enterprise had been pulled upright and refloated.
This was expected to take up to four weeks. With salvage work already under way on clearing debris in and around the wreck, relatives and some of the 408 survivors have identified 22 of the bodies laid out in a temporary mortuary. Those bodies would be sent . home tojay, officials said. Two crewmen were known to be among the dead. Forty-two other seamen survived and 36 are still missing. A floating crane towered over the ferry yesterday ready to start work on righting it.
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Press, 10 March 1987, Page 6
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166Search for bodies abandoned Press, 10 March 1987, Page 6
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