|
Passengers panic as MV Victoria stalls near Mwanza
2007-06-03 10:05:42
By Khalfan Said and George Ramadhan, Mwanza
Passengers on mv Victoria, which was sailing from Bukoba to Mwanza, were yesterday cast into tremendous panic when the ship`s engines switched off for two hours, 30 kilometres from Mwanza port and stalled briefly only 100 metres from the port.
One of the passengers who declined to give his name said they were gripped with fear as they remembered the fateful mv Bukoba, which capsized in 1996, entombing nearly 1,000 people.
One crew member who also declined to give his name said it was a small technical problem which caused both engines to stall.
On the second hitch near the port, he said: ``It was not a big deal. We were just about to anchor when it happened, anyway.``
The General Manager of MSC, the company that owns the ship, Alexander Mchauru, could not be reached for comment as his mobile phone kept ringing and his secretary said her boss was too tired to speak to anybody.
|
