Special report: Egyptian ferry sinks in Red Sea

    CAIRO, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian Minister of Transport Mohamed Lutfi Mansour said on Saturday that the captain of an Egyptian ferry which sank in the Red Sea in February was to blame for the disaster.

    The Egyptian official MENA news agency quoted the minister as saying that the captain had not sent a distress signal until the moment the boat sank which claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people.

    "The committee concerned with analyzing the black box defined the causes of the sinking of the ferry as being by error from the captain," Mansour said.

    The MENA report did not give further details.

    The 35-year-old ferry was sailing from the Saudi port of Dubah to Egypt's port of Safaga when it ran into trouble after a fire broke out below decks overnight in the early hours of Feb. 3. Only 387 out of more than 1,400 people on board survived the disaster. Enditem