Missing sailors after Cyprus cruise ship, Israeli freighter collide

The Cyprus-owned Salamis Glory remains anchored off Haifa after an Israeli cargo ship collided with the cruise ship and sank late Thursday, with two crew from the freighter still missing.

All 700 passengers and crew of the main ship of the Salamis Lines fleet were unharmed.

Salamis announced that the ship’s scheduled return to Limassol port at 0900 Friday after a two-day cruise to the Holy Lands was delayed. The company said that it was trying to repatriate all passenger to Cyprus and that the 5-day cruise to the Greek islands embarking from Limassol late Friday was cancelled.

Israeli rescue teams saved 11 of the 13 mostly Indonesian and Ukrainian crew from the “Shelly” cargo vessel that was en route to Cyprus.

Officials in Haifa said that the passenger ship was sailing out of the harbour and at the entrance of the port, about three kilometres out, hit a docked vessel. The Israeli freighter was damaged and sank.

The cause of the collision is being investigated. Israeli officials speculated a problem in the cruise ship’s navigation system may have been to blame, according to a Reuters report.