CAIRO: A parliamentary inquiry into a February ferry sinking that killed more than 1,000 people blamed the ship s owners but also strongly implicated the government, the official MENA news agency reported Wednesday. The circumstances of the accident and its reasons point to a hideous image of corruption in a utility related to people s lives, said a preliminary report released by the parliamentary commission investigating the accident. The head of a committee investigating the disaster said earlier this month that there was negligence by both the captain and the company which owned the Al Salam 98, MENA said. There were failings by the captain and the company in managing the situation, MENA quoted investigator Mohammed Shama as saying. Transport Minister Mohamed Mansour also said there is evidence indicating negligence by the captain, the crew of the ferry and the operating company, MENA reported. Tons of water used in the crew s effort to put out a fire in the ferry s garage caused the boat to list, Mansour said. Some of the 387 people who survived said the ferry, heading to Egypt from Saudi Arabia, had sailed at a list for some two hours before capsizing and sinking quickly. The fire broke out shortly after the boat left Saudi Arabia, they said. Agencies
