By
The Associated Press
KIEV, Ukraine - Rescue workers plucked freezing passengers off rafts on the open waters yesterday after a Ukrainian cargo and passenger ship sank in the Black Sea. At least 14 people were killed, and five were listed as missing.
The Pamyat Merkuriya was trying to cross the Black Sea from Istanbul, Turkey, with 51 people on board when it sank Friday night, said Volodymyr Pashynskyi, a spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry.
However, rescuers only began searching Sunday after the ship failed to arrive on schedule at the Ukrainian port of Yevpatoria, he said.
Rescuers first found a life raft carrying six survivors and eight dead bodies in the cold sea. Later in the day, rescuers picked up 23 people who were spotted on two rafts by passing ships.
Three more passengers were rescued early yesterday morning, Pashynskyi said. Aside from the five unaccounted for, survivors confirmed the deaths of six others whose bodies have not been found, said another Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman, Tetiana Pomazanova.
The survivors, suffering from hypothermia and skin inflammation from prolonged exposure to saltwater, were brought to the port of Sevastopol, about 560 miles south of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.
The 979-ton Pamyat Merkuriya was carrying 25 crew members, 21 travelers and five representatives of the Sata tourism company, which owned the ship.
Most of the people on board were Ukrainians, one was Turkish and several others were Russian citizens, said a spokesman for the Sevastopol branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry.
Passenger Grigory Kozov told Russia's NTV television station that the ship tilted for nine minutes before sinking.
When the crew failed to act, the passengers scrambled for life jackets but found none in the cabins, said Elvira Prikalab, 25.
"We were jumping into the sea at our own risk, hoping to reach rafts as soon as possible," she said.
Twenty-three survivors squeezed onto a raft designed for 10 people, said Viktor Korzh, 21. "Nobody slept during the first night because we were afraid we'd freeze to death," he said.
The ship's captain, 62-year-old Leonid Ponomarenko, was rescued and reported to be in critical condition, Pashynskyi said.
Officials said the travelers were likely small traders who buy goods such as clothing in Turkey to sell in Ukraine for a profit. The Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman in Sevastopol said the ship was probably overloaded with wares.
Pashynskyi said that the captain didn't make a distress call because his radio was old and apparently malfunctioning. However, a radar station in the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta received a distress signal Sunday night, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
Pashynskyi said it was already clear that the 37-year-old boat had violated safety rules.
It was only considered safe for travel in coastal waters no more than 19 miles from land, he said. The life rafts were discovered about 100 miles south of the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol.
The captain had set a course "straight from Istanbul through the open sea," Pashynskyi said. "Such an old ship should not go in the open sea."
