Pilgrimage tragedy

The families of 52 Egyptian pilgrims who died in a horrific bus accident in Aqaba, Jordan, spent the first day of Eid Al-Fitr trying to identify the bodies of their loved ones. Lola Keilani reports from the scene of the tragedy
When news broke of the deaths of 52 Egyptian pilgrims in a tragic bus accident in Aqaba on Friday, hundreds of relatives rushed to Cairo Airport to await the military plane carrying their bodies. The plane, dispatched on orders from President Hosni Mubarak, was delayed and only touched ground at 8:30pm, Saturday night. This added to the agony of the relatives forced to spend the first day of Eid Al-Fitr going through the agonising procedure of identifying bodies, most of them charred almost beyond recognition. By Monday, 43 bodies were identified and the remaining nine were taken to Zeinhom morgue in Cairo. If not identified, they will be buried at the Martyrs' Cemetery belonging to the armed forces.
Speeding and brake failure were blamed for Friday's tragedy. The 52 pilgrims and their driver were killed after their bus slammed into a truck containers' terminal at Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba. The pilgrims were on their way home after performing Umra (out-of-season pilgrimage) in Saudi Arabia. They were scheduled to catch a ferry across the Gulf of Aqaba to Egypt's Nuweiba port. The group included 34 women.
According to eyewitnesses, the bus, belonging to the Egyptian travel firm Golden Bird Travel, was speeding towards the port after crossing the border with Saudi Arabia. As the speeding vehicle manoeuvred through a bend leading from a mountainside, the Egyptian driver apparently lost control because of brake failure and plunged off the highway into five containers plugged into electric cables in the terminal outside Aqaba port. The vehicle caught fire. The flames were so fierce that firefighters could do little, eyewitnesses said.
As the accident happened at around 8am local time on a Friday, the container port was largely deserted, police said. Firefighting trucks rushed to the spot when alerted by truck drivers who saw the accident, and managed to put out the flames. But no one could get near the vehicle to rescue victims and the doors were locked from the inside. The reason for the fire's intensity was not immediately apparent. Fire experts say the bus slammed into the terminal so fast that a huge blaze was ignited on impact, spreading immediately. Other vehicles nearby were damaged, though none caught fire.
"It was a horrible sight," said Mohamed Lutfi, one of the few truck drivers leaving the terminal at the time of the accident. "I could see the bodies burning, but I was unable to help since I couldn't get anywhere near the bus."
There was also confusion at first over the identity of the passengers. But civil defence officials say 46 Egyptian passports were recovered from the burnt- out coach. The passports appeared to have been kept together for presentation at the port immigration, and the rest of the passports were being collected at the time of the accident.
The Nuweiba-Aqaba-Saudi Arabia route is used by tens of thousands of Egyptians and other Muslims from Africa every year, who visit Mecca and Medina for Umra as well as Hajj (seasonal pilgrimage). Umra is very popular during the last 10 days of Ramadan.
Buses take pilgrims from Cairo and other Egyptian cities to Nuweiba, where the vehicles and passengers are loaded on to the regular ferries plying between Nuweiba and Aqaba. From Aqaba, they continue on land, driving southeast to the border with Saudi Arabia. Accidents are rare, though the main highway from Aqaba to Amman, the Jordanian capital, is notorious for its bad condition, heavy traffic and frequent accidents.
Jordan's King Abdullah sent a message of condolences to the families of the victims and to President Mubarak; Jordan's government leaders sent messages to their Egyptian counterparts.
Police at Cairo airport said nearly all the victims were residents of the Cairo suburb of Imbaba, Giza. Minister of Health Ismail Sallam, Cairo's governor Abdel-Rehim Shehata and other top officials were at the airport to offer condolences to the families. Officials from the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs were also at the airport to support the families and to remind them that their relatives were now considered "martyrs", according to Islamic teachings. In Islam, those who die while on pilgrimage to Mecca are considered martyrs.
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