The story of the Norman Atlantic, an Italian ferry that caught fire on December 28 2014 en route from Greece to Italy, still leaves many questions open, as Greece and Italy have issued widely different figures of those still missing.
On 28 December 2014, Norman Atlantic caught fire in the Strait of Otranto, on a ferry run from Patras to Ancona carrying 478 passengers and more than 200 vehicles. Passengers and crew remained trapped on the burning ferry, freezing as they stood on the ferry's upper decks awaiting rescue.
The bodies of nine victims (three Greek, two Italian, two German, a Georgian and a Turkish passenger) were recovered from the sea, while nineteen others (nine Greek, four Turkish, two Italian and a German passenger and two Syrian and one Iraqi stowaways) remain missing. Additionally, two Albanian seamen were killed during the rescue operations on December 30.
The Greek trucking association OFAE offered the families of truck drivers who were victims of the tragedy €1,000 each in compensation but complaint that the Greek state is now calling for the victims’ families to pay 40% of the amounts they received as charity tax, Proto Thema reported.