Steve's Marine Disaster Pages THE JOOLA DISASTER SEPT. 2002. 1,863 people died in September 2002 on a senegalese ferry, "LE JOOLA" of the west coast of Africa - more than three times the number of passengers legally permitted on the vessel. The ferry was sailing between the southern Senegal city of Ziguinchor and the capital, Dakar, in the north. Many of the poorer passengers had no tickets and were packed on board with no record of exact numbers. Thirty Europeans, including some French nationals, were among those who died. There were only 64 survivors. A report published 2 months later concluded that the accident had been caused by overloading and negligence on the part of the boat's operators, the Senegalese navy and rescue services. According to a diver who took part in the rescue efforts, the Joola was 35 km off the Gambian coast when it capsized but it was about 11 hours away from the coast - it was only permitted to be a maximum of 6 hours away from the coast, and was licenced to carry no more than 535 passengers. It is thought to be the second worst passenger vessel loss of all time (the worst being the DONA PAZ in the Philippines in 1987 with over 4,000 lost), and worse than the TITANIC in 1912 (with 1,563 lost). The JOOLA before the accident (left) and the usual mad scramble to get on board (above). ..................... To return to Steve's Thumbnail Disasters Page CLICK HERE This is a purely non-commerical website, designed for general interest. By entering these pages, visitors are accepting that THE TEXT CONTENT OF THIS PAGE IS THE PROPERTY OF THE WEBMASTER and should not be copied and re-used in any way without prior permission. Many of the photos used are thought to be in the public domain, however if we have accidentally and unintentionally breached a copyright attaching to any of the photographs on this page , and we shall remove the photograph immediately.