I don’t think people understand the disaster for the divers begins, and the danger involved in going into a vessel when it’s on its side like this..plus the trauma of finding dead bodies they really are heroes 💟
Interesting that even at this early stage the expert is spot on about it being the bow doors, but it didn't occur to him that they weren't even shut. Probably nobody thought the crew could be that sloppy.
This edition of BBC News covering the Herald of Free Enterprise Disaster was originally broadcast on Saturday 7th March 1987. The actual disaster happened the day before this broadcast on Friday 6th March 1987 almost 27 years ago
Nearly 35 years ago. I remember it happening very well. All because someone was asleep and didn’t do the job that they were paid for and the other idiots didn’t check the bow doors either. The amount of accounts I’ve seen that said that people saw the bow doors still open on previous occasions and they were closed as the ship went to sea is staggering. It was a disaster waiting to happen.
I remember seeing this on an Israeli news channel and thinking 'My mum could be on that'. My mother lived in Folkestone (next to Dover) at the time and she often went across on the ferries to spend the day in Belgium, France or the Netherlands. Thankfully, I soon found out that she had not been on the ferry. A few days after the tragedy, however, I received a letter from my brother confirming that our family friend 'Chris', who often accompanied my mother on such 'day trips', had been on the ferry and had died that night. Chris was just 27 when he died and I still find it shocking until this day because he was probably the most annoyingly spirited and life-affirming character I've ever met - full of ridiculous stories, bad jokes and an incredible capacity for making normal life feel like an adventure. It was impossible not to be entertained by Chris. It felt (and feels) completely wrong that someone so 'alive' could suffer such a pointless and tragic death. It still feels as if fate made an impenetrably spiteful and stupid decision that night.
It’s the (Belgian?) cable company slide transmitted when the real Nederland 2 is of the air. Probably the end of broadcasting at night, but Dutch television programmes did sometimes only began in the late afternoon.
