All language subtitles for Air.Disasters.S18E20.Collision.Course.1080p.SMIT.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-maldini_track3_[eng]

[music playing]

[waves crashing]

NARRATOR: A shipwreck in
the Greek islands, hundreds

fight for survival
in a swirling storm.

WOMAN: We need to help this man!

NARRATOR: With their
lives on the line,

some people become heroes.

Don't let go!

NARRATOR: Others do whatever
it takes to stay alive.

MAN: Keep her away!

She'll kill us both!

MAN: Mayday, mayday, we're
doing 90 miles an hour

out of control.

[horn]

[crashing]

[people screaming]

WOMAN: Take a life jacket!

COAST GUARD: We're
the Coast Guard.

WOMAN: Don't let go!

MAN: It's going to crash!

[storm sounds]

NARRATOR: A passenger ferry
pushes its way through a storm.

WOMAN: What is that?

Whoa!

[crashing]

[glass breaking]

Oh, my God.

NARRATOR: Within sight of
land, this Greek islands ferry

is sinking in high
winds and stormy seas.

HEIDI HART: There was a hole,
and it was going to sink,

and it was going to sink fast,
but I had enough time to think,

OK, well, this is
the part where I die.

MAN: It was, like,
a catastrophe.

It was as if it was
coming at the end

of the world for this island.

NARRATOR: For the
people of Greece,

it's a national disaster, the
worst of its kind in 30 years.

Discovering why it happened will
take months of detective work

and raise this question-- how
safe are the ships we sail on?

The Greek capital, Athens.

This great metropolis
has a 3,000-year history,

a history built around its easy
access to the Mediterranean.

The Harbor District of
Athens has called Piraeus.

Ferry boats fly back and forth
between here and more than 200

islands in the Aegean Sea.

For island hoppers, this is
where the adventure begins.

HEIDI HART: It's
here, somewhere.

It has to be.

Heidi, today would be good.

I'm hurrying.

Are you sure you don't--

NARRATOR: Tuesday,
September 26, 2000.

Christine Shannon, and
Heidi Hart from Seattle

are close friends.

CHRISTINE SHANNON: Come
on, which one's our boat?

Hey!

NARRATOR: They bought
tickets for a ferry ride

to the island of Paros,
100 miles to the Southeast.

It's been a crazy kind of day.

They planned to go to the island
of Santorini, farther South.

CHRISTINE SHANNON: OK, let's go.

HEIDI HART: We have to hurry.

CHRISTINE SHANNON: We'd been
enjoying Athens the night

before a little too
much, and we overslept

and missed our Santorini boat.

HEIDI HART: I had
never heard of Paros.

I even asked them, well, show
me on a map where the island is,

and then I said, never
mind, it doesn't matter.

Let's just go.
It's the next boat.

Let's go somewhere.

So it was a fluke that
we were on that boat.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Here's where
chance is steering them.

It could be a whole lot worse.

If you dream of a Greek
getaway, Paros is just

what the guidebooks promise.

Life is laid back, and the
backdrop is enchanting.

Tourist season brings
100,000 visitors.

Ferries from Athens dock
in the main town, Parikia.

Traffic back and forth to
the mainland is constant.

As one boat's leaving,
another one shows up, bringing

hundreds more eager visitors.

Christine and Heidi are
among 472 passengers who

board the Express Samina today.

As they get ready to
embark, one thing is clear.

Some of the ferries leaving
Athens are newly built,

but the Samina comes
from a different era.

It's been cruising the
Mediterranean since 1966.

The Samina was launched
before these two were born,

and though they don't
know it, Greek safety laws

say that, in a
little over a year,

the Samina will end its service
life and head to the scrapyard.

HEIDI HART: I made a few
jokes to Christine about,

the lifeboats don't
look very safe.

If we get into trouble out
here, I said, we'll be screwed.

And I said, well, there's
no icebergs in the Aegean

so we should be OK.

[music playing]

Cheese.

Cheese.

NARRATOR: The Samina can carry
more than 1,000 passengers,

along with its 61 crew members.

Today, the ship's
less than half full.

Katrina Stark and her
cousin Sarah Davis,

both from New Zealand,
are backpacking.

So that means we have
to be headed south.

NARRATOR: Like
Heidi and Christine,

they're literally
sailing into the unknown.

KATRINA STARK: We had no plans.

We went to get on the very
first ferry that was leaving,

going wherever it
was going to take us,

and that happened to
be first stop, Paros.

NARRATOR: At 7:15, two hours
into the journey, the sun

is setting.

There are still three hours to
kill before the Samina arrives.

[side conversations]

The sports fans on board,
passengers and crew,

know just how they'd
like to spend the time.

There's a major soccer
game live on TV.

Athens star team
Panathinaikos are

up against their
German rivals Hamburg.

KATRINA STARK: The
reception wasn't very good,

and so they had various staff
come along trying to fix

the TV, and everyone
was putting suggestions

for how to fix the TV.

And it seemed to be quite
important to everybody on board

that they get to see this game.

NARRATOR: At 8:00 PM, the Samina
passes the island of Kythnos.

They're on schedule to
reach Paros at around 10:15.

[waves crashing]

The wind is rising, the
sea is growing rougher,

but these northerly winds,
known as the Maltami,

are frequent at
this time of year.

The Samina has weathered
conditions much worse

than this over the
past three decades.

I'm going to take a nap.

NARRATOR: Heidi
and Christine are

the only people left outside.

They think their tickets
don't allow them to go in.

Wake me when we're there.

HEIDI HART: I said, we
have third class tickets.

We have to stay out on the deck.

It's going to be a cold,
wet, terrible night,

but I didn't even think to
go downstairs, where most

of the people on the boat were.

NARRATOR: For the Samina's
crew, the nighttime journey

is routine.

Hazards, such as
reefs and rocks,

are all clearly marked
on their charts.

Many have warning lights.

Two jagged outcrops
rise from the sea

within sight of the main
harbor on Paros, Parikia Bay.

Known as the Portes,
or the Gates,

they sit 3 and 1/2
miles from the town.

For Mariners of these
waters, the Gates of Paros

are a familiar landmark.

They're welcoming,
but dangerous, too.

The rocks rise 82
feet out of the sea.

Every passing ship must
give them a wide clearance.

At night, a beacon light on
the taller of the two rocks

sends a clear warning.

Venture too close to the
Gates of Paros and disaster

will follow.

Paros is still two hours
away, but the Samina is

sailing into a gathering storm.

[waves crashing]

Despite the weather,
Christine and Heidi

are still out in the open.

CHRISTINE SHANNON: Had I known
we could go to any other part

of the boat, at that point
in time, I would have,

but I didn't know.

And actually, being in
that part of the boat,

I think was very
fortuitous for us

because we were able to be aware
of what was going on later.

NARRATOR: Their
location on the deck

will help save their lives
when everyone else on board

is fighting for survival.

[waves crashing]

On the evening of
September 26, 2000,

the passenger ferry
Express Samina

leaves Athens harbor
Piraeus heading southeast.

It's making for the island
of Paros, five hours away

in the Aegean Sea.

As the sun sets, the
weather deteriorates

until, by nightfall,
the ship is being

buffeted by a northerly
gale, but the crew

is used to these conditions.

Their ship is big enough, tough
enough to survive far worse.

The Samina is 377 feet long,
more than a soccer field,

and almost 60 feet wide.

Passengers are widely dispersed.

Heidi and Christine
are on the open deck.

Katrina and Sarah are inside
the main passenger lounge.

The nerve center is here--

the engine room.

It's below the waterline,
but is protected by a series

of watertight doors.

The crew can move
about, but the ship

is safe, as long as they lock
the doors tight behind them.

To reduce the rolling
effect on rough seas,

the ship also has stabilizers
that, like small wings,

extend out into the water.

Tonight, It's a bumpy ride,
but passengers are able to move

about when they want to.

KATRINA STARK: As we got further
away and night began to fall,

the seas got rougher,
and it became stormy,

until it got to
the point where you

couldn't even walk on board.

You had to kind of
stumble sideways.

People were kind of laughing.

It was kind of
funny at the time.

NARRATOR: It's 10:00 PM.

The wind has now risen to
nearly 30 miles an hour.

Waves are cresting at 6.5 feet.

Despite the gale,
visibility is good.

Those are the lights of Paros.

The Samina's on time
and still pushing

forward at 20 miles an hour.

Then, suddenly--

[crashing]

--the ship lurches
sharply to the left.

What's that?

I don't know.

HEIDI HART: The
boat turned enough

that it startled me awake,
and I woke up and was

kind of dazed a little bit.

NARRATOR: The lights of
Parikia, even car headlights,

are clearly visible, just
3 and 1/2 miles away,

but then another light
cuts through the darkness.

What the?

[crashing]

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

This rock just
comes out of nowhere,

just out of the black
night, and I'll never forget

what it looks like in my mind.

It was this brown, kind of
craggly, sandish-looking rock

that had lights on
top of it shining

down so it illuminated it.

And it just, it made it
look like a movie set.

The side of the boat
scraped along the side.

I could have walked
over and touched it.

And you could hear down in
the lower decks of the boat

that the metal was
just ripping apart.

NARRATOR: The
unthinkable has happened.

The Samina has crashed
against the Gates of Paros.

Its 1,100 tons grind
against the rocks.

It was the worst sound
and it was the loudest sound

I've ever heard in my life.

It sounded, like, fingernails
on a chalkboard, just Gods

fingernail on the biggest
chalkboard in the world.

There was a hole, and
it was going to sink,

and it was going to sink fast.

[crashing]

NARRATOR: The shock wave
reverberates through the ship.

[commotion]

KATRINA STARK: Suddenly,
there was a big lurch

to the right side of the boat,
and people who were sitting up

got thrown off their feet.

Everything in the bar smashed.

I looked out the window and
there were two large rocks

went past that looked white,
lit up by the light inside

the ship.

I don't know what that was.

Oh, man, it just
doesn't sound good.

HEIDI HART: In a
situation like this,

the time frame is so hard
to put back together,

but it seemed, like, maybe a
minute or two until the boat

started to noticeably
lilt to the side and tip,

and that's kind of
when the chaos started.

--get out of this place.

Where are we
supposed to run to?

[screaming]

WOMAN 1: Where are these doors?

WOMAN 2: Here's the doors.

Here's the doors.

[commotion]

Lots of people were crying.

Lots of people were praying,
holding on to each other,

yelling.

[screaming]

There was no alarm or siren.

There was no one to tell us
what we were supposed to do.

We need to get off this boat,
and we need to leave right now.

We don't have to panic.

Christine said to me, "The
Titanic took hours to sink."

And I said, "We don't
have that much time."

In my mind, I thought,
this boat's gonna sink,

and we're all gonna die.

[gasp]

WOMAN: Life jackets.

KATRINA STARK: All these people,
trying to get life jacket--

being taller, I was able to
reach over the heads of most

people who were trying to
get hold of life jackets

and grab two.

NARRATOR: The Samina
has 261 crew members.

But where are they?

Passengers fend for themselves.

So I yelled to
Christine, "Come here!

I think I found life vests!"

Here, just throw them.

Just take them out.

Just take them out anyway.

HEIDI HART: At
this point, people

were starting to run past us.

[commotion]

And I was saying, "Here, take
these," and throwing them out.

And people were just panicking.

Take the life jackets!

[commotion]

[screaming]

NARRATOR: Within minutes
of the collision,

the ship's lights go out.

Passengers are plunged into
darkness until emergency

generators kick in.

And then the first
flare went off.

[flare explodes]

This eerie red glow
coming down over the ferry

gave it a whole other
feeling of just terror,

that we're out in the
night, in the dark,

and the ferry is gonna sink.

MAN: Get out of the way!

NARRATOR: At the harbor,
port officials are now

aware of the developing crisis.

Port Authority Vice-Commander
Dimitris Malamas

starts to organize a rescue.

He needs all available
boats right now.

What vessels do
we have in the area?

NARRATOR: Alexis
Bisbas runs a yacht

charter business in Parikia.

The first I heard
of the disaster

was a phone call that I got from
the port police at about 10:15.

Can I get out there with my
boat as quickly as possible just

to help with whatever
might be necessary?

There was no way that we had
any idea that it was going to be

a disaster of that magnitude.

NARRATOR: Paros has
a medical center

equipped for the
islanders' basic needs, not

a major disaster.

Dr. John Polyzoides was an
ER surgeon for 35 years.

Though retired, he
helps run the center.

We saw the ship
was going down.

And there were a lot of
boats and lights and so on.

I personally did
not expect anything

tragic to come out of
that because they are

so close, also, to the harbor.

NARRATOR: Aboard the Samina,
many of the 472 passengers

are in a state of sheer terror.

HEIDI HART: It was chaos.

It was people not
knowing what to do

and waiting for a captain
or a crew to help us.

There was a woman who
went through the door

just before us.

And she-- as soon as she
got out onto the deck,

she ain't climbed over the
railings and just jumped off--

didn't look back or didn't
say anything to anybody,

and just climbed over and threw
herself off into the water.

There was people holding
children over the railings,

wanting to throw them down
to people in the water.

It was quite a terrible scene.

NARRATOR: The wind hampers
efforts to abandon ship.

KATRINA STARK:
They were releasing

inflatable life rafts.

They weren't
attached to the ship.

So as soon as it was
released-- it was a big storm--

it would get picked
up by the wind

as soon as it was inflated.

And they were just
blowing halfway to Athens.

NARRATOR: The rafts blow beyond
the reach of passengers who've

already leapt into the sea.

[coughing]

There was some
point in time where

I literally felt myself leave my
body, and instincts kicked in.

HEIDI HART:
Everybody was running

to the rear of the boat.

And Christine just
looked at me and said--

Go that way, to the
front of the boat.

And she said, "But
nobody's up there."

It was the darkest
part of the boat.

It was the highest
part of the boat.

She said, "Nobody's up there."

I said, "I don't care.

Go."

And luckily for
us, that's where

we found a lifeboat hanging
over the side of the ship.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Heidi and Christine
escaped the sinking ship.

But they're still at
the mercy of the storm.

KATRINA STARK: When we
jumped into the lifeboat,

it wasn't orderly,
here's your seat.

It was jump.

Where you land is where you are.

And so we were just kind of
all pigpiled in this lifeboat

together.

NARRATOR: The battle for
survival takes an ugly turn.

Each passenger must decide--

help others or fend
for themselves?

HEIDI HART: There
was five or six men

in the back of
the boat, and they

were fighting with each other.

They were yelling at each other.

As the ferry was sinking, they
kept pointing at the ferry

and fighting with each other.

And then, you know, this
is when I see the guy

swimming up to the boat.

And so I started getting ready.

I'm thinking, OK, I need a rope.

I got to throw him something.

He has no life vest on.

Ah!

We need help here, somebody.

Get him.

Get him.

CHRISTINE SHANNON:
You've got to help us!

Would you-- would you grab him?

The only thing you could
see was his eyes and his nose

coming out of the water.

And he was just barely making
it, swimming towards us.

Everybody else on the
boat was yelling, "No!

No!

We can't take any
more people on."

HEIDI HART: I've got you.

Don't worry.

I've got you!

CHRISTINE SHANNON: Then
Heidi leaned over and grabbed

this gentleman's hand.

And I reached over and
grabbed her by the waist.

And she told me,
"I'm not letting go."

And I yelled to the other
people, "She's not letting go!"

He had taken off almost
all of his clothes.

He was wearing
just his underwear.

CHRISTINE SHANNON:
Somebody grab him!

HEIDI HART: We need some hands!

We need to help this man!

CHRISTINE SHANNON: Get up!

Get up!

HEIDI HART: I mean, I'm
not a very big person.

I'm five feet tall.

Just me trying to pull him in
the boat wasn't gonna work.

There we go!

That's it!

NARRATOR: The men
in the lifeboat

realize that Heidi won't
let go and finally help

haul the drowning man on board.

HEIDI HART: I don't know
what they were thinking.

They were panicking.

So, I mean, who
am I to judge what

the other-- what other people
were thinking and doing?

But there was a
lot more that could

have been done that night.

NARRATOR: Of the 533 people
who set out on the Samina,

many are now in the sea.

Others are still trapped
in the vessel itself.

The ship begins to roll over.

If it goes down, dozens will
be dragged down with it.

The passenger ferry Samina has
struck rocks near the island

of Paros in the Aegean Sea.

Still aboard,
Katrina Stark fears

the ship will sink beneath her.

KATRINA STARK: At that
stage, we were on the deck,

trying to figure out
whether it was a good idea

to jump overboard as well.

But we were tilting
further and further,

and it was getting to the
point where we didn't really

have that choice anymore.

NARRATOR: It's 10:50, 40
minutes after the collision.

KATRINA STARK: Sarah!

Are you behind me?

NARRATOR: As the Samina
continues to roll,

Katrina Stark has little choice.

She hauls herself over the rail.

The ship has turned
completely on its side.

Katrina is sitting on the hull.

Should she try to swim for
shore or wait for rescue?

While I was sitting there,
thinking about that, all

of a sudden, the ship
just sank underneath us

and sucked us down and
everything around it.

Like, I don't know how much
time we were under the water.

But I had enough time
to think, OK, well,

this is the part where I die.

This is the part where I drown.

I kind of thought, well,
OK, that's fine, and had

enough time to be OK with that.

Just as we got there,
we saw the ferry sinking,

which was an extreme sight.

And to see this entire
ship sink beneath the waves,

and to be gone and just leave
us in our little lifeboat,

it was amazing.

It was almost beautiful
in a sad sort of way.

And then complete
blackness, darkness--

huge waves.

NARRATOR: The Samina
sinks one and 1/2

miles from the Gates of Paros.

Even without its
engines, wind, waves,

and the ship's own momentum
carried it closer to shore.

The sea here is 125 feet deep.

As the Samina goes down,
huge bubbles of air escape

from the ship, making
the water less dense,

making objects in the
water sink more quickly.

Katrina Stark sinks 10 feet deep
before the buoyancy of her life

jacket pulls her up again.

As suddenly as I
had been sucked under,

suddenly, I popped up top!

Sarah!

NARRATOR: Her priority now
is to find her cousin Sarah.

In the storm, she can't
tell where she is.

Sarah!

Sarah!

Eventually, I just said to
her, OK, make sure that you get

on a boat and get back to land.

And I will see
you back on shore.

NARRATOR: At 11:15
PM, Dr. Polyzoides

receives his first
casualty of the night.

But something doesn't add up.

They brought a
man on a stretcher.

He was semiconscious.

And then we started
working on him.

He had hardly any
blood pressure.

And when we were
resuscitating him,

I realized that
he was dry, which

meant that he didn't-- actually,
he was not from the ship.

Anyway, we got it on.

Eventually, we lost him.

He died in our hands.

And then people came and
said, you know who it was?

And I said, no.

NARRATOR: His patient
isn't from the Samina.

But the disaster still
claims its first victim,

Dimitris Malamas, who had
helped to organize the rescue.

In the crisis, he'd
suffered a heart attack.

He was 40 years old.

So you can understand,
even at this early stage,

although we did not know
the number of people

that we were going to lose,
there was that sense of tragedy

immediately from
the very beginning.

NARRATOR: A local
shopkeeper, George Skandalis,

grabs his video camera
and captures these images

as survivors begin to appear.

HEIDI HART: As soon as we
got close enough to shore,

when I saw this white
cathedral with the blue dome

top, that was when I
finally knew we made it.

We're gonna get to shore.

We're gonna be alive.

[chatter]

CHRISTINE SHANNON:
I felt more alive

than I've ever felt in my
life-- giddy, almost giddy.

And actually, afterwards,
one of the things that I had

to come to terms with
was that people died,

and I felt so alive.

NARRATOR: A local
fishing boat appears,

crowded with people who've
been pulled from the sea.

[music playing]

Boat owner Alexis Bisbas is
part of the rescue flotilla

searching for survivors.

One minute, we were flying
across the top of a wave.

The next minute, we were
burying the bow of the boat

into the previous wave.

We had water coming
across the decks.

I've been sailing all my life.

I've never had a
situation like that.

I never want to be
in that situation

ever again, because
it was terrifying.

NARRATOR: He plucks 25
people from the sea in three

trips out into
the stormy waters.

[sirens]

[chatter]

Many survivors are
in a state of shock.

All are cold, wet,
and exhausted.

[music playing]

Just a thousand feet
away, dozens of people

are still in the water,
trying to stay alive.

[music playing]

Katrina Stark and a fellow
survivor of the Samina

clinging desperately
to a piece of wreckage.

KATRINA STARK: My first surprise
about being in the water

was that it was warm.

I was really expecting
the water to be cold.

There were big waves, and
you just had to cling on

tight to the piece of wreckage.

[waves crashing]

Not too far away
from us was an older

Greek woman who couldn't swim.

And she was panicking
and was screaming

and yelling, trying to get
someone to come and save her.

Come save her!

KATRINA STARK: And the guy
that I was with was saying,

she's gonna want
to come over to us.

And if she grabs hold of us,
she's gonna drag us down.

MAN: Keep her away!

She'll kill us both!

Forget her!

KATRINA STARK: She
had kind of wild eyes

like she was clearly panicking.

And a big wave came
and washed over her,

and she didn't come back
up out of the water.

She had drowned.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: There are
still some signs of hope.

Some people have
been pushed south.

Miraculously avoiding being
smashed on to the rocks,

they wound up on a sandy beach
on the Bay of Santa Irene.

A life raft beaches
in the same spot.

[music playing]

[sirens]

They're safe now.

But the terror these
children have gone through

is hard to comprehend.

More than 400 survivors have
now made it to the dockside.

After their terrifying
ordeal in the water,

many are rushed to
the Medical Center,

where Dr. Polyzoides has now
assembled a team of 15 medics--

some doctors and nurses based
on the island, others, tourists

who've come in to assist.

Between 11:30 and
12:00, the first round

was brought in on a stretcher.

And although I worked for 35
years as an accident surgeon,

it was a horrible experience.

And that was the beginning of
the horrific feeling which I

had, that this is serious now.

NARRATOR: At midnight,
after an hour in the water,

Katrina Stark is
brought to shore.

KATRINA STARK: We were the
last people that they were

able to bring up onto the boat.

And they headed
back for the harbor.

And on the way, they
stopped a couple of times

to pick people up.

But they would go to
pick them up and realize

that they were dead,
and so they'd just

leave them where they were.

NARRATOR: Katrina doesn't
know if her cousin made it.

Sarah?

Katrina.

KATRINA STARK
(VOICEOVER): I was just--

never been so happy to see
anybody in my whole life.

How did you get here?

And I just grabbed hold of her.

And wouldn't leave
her side for a second.

I'm so happy to see you.

You, too.

Are you OK?

Are you keeping warm?

Yeah.

HEIDI HART: It was terrifying.

I mean, it's been five
years since the accident,

and I still have nightmares.

I still think about it.

It will still make me cry.

MEDIC: You guys have had quite
a shock being in the water.

CHRISTINE SHANNON:
It was traumatic,

and it was very scary.

But it was also a singularly
defining moment in my life

where I was able to use all of
the resources I had to survive.

NARRATOR: As victims
continue to arrive,

Dr. Polyzoides is overwhelmed.

Do I go to this room
and try and save someone?

Do I wait and see whether
it's worth saving?

And it was like a catastrophe.

It was as if it was coming,
the end of the world,

to this island.

NARRATOR: By 2:30 AM, the
number of dead reaches 60.

There's no room for so many
bodies in the medical center.

The Church of St.
Nicholas on the waterfront

becomes a temporary morgue.

The search for
people, alive or dead,

continues right
through the night.

Daylight reveals the power
of last night's storm--

a lifeboat smashed to pieces on
the rocks, the inflated rafts

that blew away empty.

A message board at the harbor
front lists who's alive

and who's still missing.

I was so shaken by this that
I didn't sleep for two nights.

And on the third night,
when I went to sleep,

I dreamt that my
son was drowning.

NARRATOR: Very quickly,
the grief turns to anger.

Where were the crew when
the ship hit the rocks?

Where were they when the
passengers needed help?

Rumors spread like wildfire
and are picked up by the media.

Later, witnesses will testify
that the first officer

was watching the soccer game
instead of steering the ship.

The captain, 53-year-old
Vassilis Giannakis

will receive intense scrutiny.

Altogether, 80
people have died--

75 passengers,
five crew members.

It is Greece's worst shipping
disaster in more than 30 years,

a national tragedy.

In the bitter
aftermath, the spotlight

falls on the company
that owned the Samina

and its vice-president,
Pandelis Sfinias.

He is charged with
criminal negligence

and faces multimillion-dollar
compensation claims.

Two months after
the sinking, police

surround a body lying on
the sidewalk outside company

headquarters in Athens.

Sfinias has jumped out of
his sixth-floor window.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Maritime experts
at the National Technical

University of Athens
begin an inquiry.

Detailed testimony is
gathered from 46 crew

members and 192 passengers.

The Greek authorities
want the university

to give them a thorough
explanation of what happened.

Professor David
Molyneux of the National

Research Center of
Canada studied the

Greek investigators' findings.

Three hours into the
journey, the crew

switches on the
ship's autopilot.

DAVID MOLYNEUX: The autopilot
is an electronic link

between the compass
and the rudder,

correcting the rudder a little
bit one way or the other

to bring you back
where you want to be.

NARRATOR: Even on autopilot, a
crew member should constantly

monitor the ship's position.

DAVID MOLYNEUX:
It's bad practice

to leave an autopilot
unattended, particularly

in bad weather, because
the wind, the waves,

and the current are
all acting to drift

the ship in one direction.

And that kind of
steady drift is not

compensated for by the
electronics in the autopilot.

NARRATOR: As the
weather grows worse,

the crew deploys the ship's
stabilizer system to make

the ride more comfortable.

The stabilizer uses
two fins to counteract

the roll of the ship.

But something
extraordinary happens.

Only the starboard, or
right-hand stabilizer fin

extends.

DAVID MOLYNEUX: Very unusual.

Normally, we'd expect
both stabilizers

to be working at any one time.

With just one stabilizer, the
ship is no longer symmetrical.

So the flow around the
ship is unbalanced.

And as a result, the ship
will tend to drift one way

rather than go in
a straight line.

NARRATOR: With only the
starboard stabilizer,

the Samina is pulled slowly
but surely to the right.

It's a deadly malfunction.

Captains aim to stay
at least half a mile

from the Gates of Paros.

But when the Samina arrives,
it's on a collision course.

A crew member makes
a last-minute attempt

to steer the ferry to the left.

But the ship can't
turn quickly enough.

Whoa!

Whoa!

[glass breaks]

[metal clanging]

WOMAN: Life jackets.

MAN: Hey.

I'm out here, too.

NARRATOR: At 12
minutes past 10:00 PM,

the ship strikes the east
face of the taller pinnacle.

The collision opens a gash three
feet wide and 19 feet long,

as long as a telephone pole.

Oh!

[commotion]

But this hole is well
above the water line.

No water should enter the ship.

Moments later, a second impact.

It bends the stabilizer
fin backwards.

The fin stabs like a dagger
through the ship's side.

This 10-foot gash is
below the water line.

Even worse, it's
at the engine room.

The main generators
are knocked out.

Electric power for the
entire ship is cut off.

[commotion]

[screaming]

The investigating
team orders divers

to make a detailed
survey of the shipwreck.

Inside, they discover the
final piece of the puzzle.

Even with two large holes, the
ship could have been saved.

One final error sealed
the fate of the Samina.

NARRATOR: The passenger ferry
Express Samina strikes rocks

near the Greek island of Paros.

With two gaping holes
in her starboard side,

it capsizes and sinks
in 125 feet of water.

Divers survey the shipwreck
and make a startling discovery.

Like all large seagoing
ships, the Samina

is divided into separate
compartments sealed by

watertight doors like this one.

Safety laws insist they remain
locked while the ship's at sea.

On the Samina's last
journey, some of the doors

were left open.

If you imagine, in your
house, every time you went

through a door from the kitchen,
you had to close it, lock

it, move on to the living
room, open that door,

close it, lock it, and
carry on, it really does

slow down your everyday life.

So there is a tendency sometimes
to leave these doors open.

WOMAN: One more.

NARRATOR: Because
they're left open,

water is no longer confined
to the engine room.

And when the power
goes out, the crew

can't close the doors remotely.

29 of the crew return
for a second grilling

by investigators.

This testimony provides
an exact picture

of the ship's last
moments, data which

is built into a computer model.

At 10:15, Three minutes
after the collision,

the ship is listing five
degrees to the right

but filling fast through
the gash in the engine room.

By 10:25, the ship is
listing 14 degrees.

Now the 19-foot gash, which
was above the water line,

is exposed to the sea.

At this point, the Samina
and 80 passengers are doomed.

The ship can't withstand
this much damage.

The Samina is what's
called a roro ferry.

It stands for "roll
on, roll off."

This is a modern roro ship.

Vehicles simply
reverse in the stern

and then drive out
at their destination.

It's a cost-effective design
with a potentially fatal flaw.

The worst shipping
disasters in recent times

have involved vessels
built this way.

The Herald of Free
Enterprise went

down with a loss of 193 lives
at Zeebrugge in Belgium in 1987.

850 were drowned aboard
the roro ferry Estonia

in the Baltic Sea in 1994.

Unlike a cruise ship or a
cargo vessel, which are divided

into many smaller compartments,
the vehicle deck of a roro ship

is one large, open area, highly
vulnerable to rapid flooding.

Imagine comparing flooding
an egg box with flooding just

an empty cardboard shoebox.

The shoebox would tend to
fill up very, very quickly,

whereas an egg box
would tend to fill

up each compartment at a time.

And so the egg box
would stay afloat,

whereas the shoebox wouldn't.

NARRATOR: This open space
is especially vulnerable

because it's so close
to the water line.

DAVID MOLYNEUX: The car
deck on the roro ferry

is low to make driving the
vehicles on and off easy.

As a result, you're relying on
those watertight compartments

to keep the ship afloat
in the event of damage.

NARRATOR: By 10:29, the
Samina is listing 23 degrees.

It's now tilting so much that
it's impossible to launch

more lifeboats.

Only three of the eight
on board get away.

Three minutes later, at 10:32,
it's listing 33 degrees.

At around 10:50, the ship
turns completely on its side.

We know the exact
time that the ship sank

because the clock on the bridge
was stopped at two minutes

past 11:00.

NARRATOR: Divers
surveying the wreck make

their most important discovery.

Of the ship's 11 watertight
doors, nine were left open.

And the most important
aspect of this accident

was leaving the
watertight doors open.

As a result, the ship flooded,
lost all its reserve of

buoyancy, and eventually sank.

NARRATOR: If the
doors had been locked,

despite the navigational
error, which sent the ship

onto the rocks, despite the
hole in the engine room,

this would probably have
been a survivable accident.

[music playing]

Four years after the
disaster, the captain,

Vassilis Giannakis goes
on trial and receives

a 16-year prison sentence.

The sinking of the Samina
led to safety improvements.

Greece cut the maximum working
life of passenger ferries

from 35 to 30 years.

The tragedy also helped
speed the introduction

of voyage recorders, like
an airplane black box.

They're now mandatory in
all passenger ferries.

Some good came out of bad.

For the first time since
those dramatic events,

Katrina Stark has
come back to Paros.

It's an emotional return.

KATRINA STARK (VOICEOVER): It
was a pretty traumatic thing

to go through, but it's quite a
character-building experience.

And I think it plays a large
part in who I am today.

NARRATOR: For their role
in helping to save lives,

Heidi Hart and Christine Shannon
were given an award for heroism

by the city of Seattle.

CHRISTINE SHANNON
(VOICEOVER): I understand

my strength a lot more.

And I can live freely
without the restraints

of being scared
of what's unknown,

because life is an unknown.

NARRATOR: Even for a heroine,
it's tough to look back.

[music playing]

HEIDI HART: Christine
and I, we always

say we were the lucky ones.

We were in the right
place at the right time.

And that is the only
thing I can think

of why we made it and so
many other people didn't.

And it breaks my heart.