Navy divers found the bodies of two missing seamen from the Slovakian cargo ship that sunk in Haifa Bay on Thursday night after colliding with the Cypriot passenger liner
All traffic at Haifa port was suspended late last week following a collision of a passenger liner with a cargo ship 3 miles off Haifa Bay at approximately 2200 hours on August 30th.
According to a Haifa port spokesman 14 people were reported to be slightly injured and two missing when the "Salamis Glory", a Cypriot liner which has approximately 500 passengers on board, collided with the cargo ship "Shelly".
The reports said that the accident occurred after the passenger liner's steering system encountered technical problems. Reports say the cargo ship was literally cut in half by the collision.
A rescue operation was launched, including Israel Air force helicopters and a naval force searching for survivors.
Searches halted shortly after Thursday midnight. On Friday, Navy divers found the bodies of two missing seamen from the Slovakian cargo ship that sunk in Haifa Bay on Thursday night after colliding with the Cypriot passenger liner.
Israeli Army Radio reported that the bodies of the two seamen, one of whom was Indonesian and the other Ukrainian, were discovered inside the ship's hull, where rescue teams were still trying to extract them and bring them to shore.
The two dead men were, according to reports, the ship's first mate and an engineer, both residents of Slovakia. It is understood that "Salamis Glory", will not return to Cyprus in the near future after it was made to dock in Haifa until the investigation of the collision is completed.
The police has detained the ship's captain for questioning while the passengers remained on the boat.
All traffic at Haifa port was halted due to the accident and resumed late Friday morning.
