A journey of one hour and twenty minutes from the island of Corfu to the port of Igoumenitsa effectively lasted six whole hours when the ferry “Agia Theodora” ran aground short before reaching Greece’s western mainland.
With 550 passengers and 16 crew members on board the ferry ran aground on a sandy bottom about four nautical miles north-west from Igoumenista early Monday evening.
It was pulled free from the shallows in the sea with the assistance of tugboats and arrived safely at its destination in the early morning hours of Tuesday.
Divers had checked the ferry reefs before it could continue its journey, local media epirusgate.gr reported.
The ferry was accompanied by two tugboats, three coast guard vessels and a passenger ferry, in case the passengers had to be evacuated.
TV channels reports attributed the incident to “human error”.
The incident coincided with the end of a long weekend due to the national Ochi Day holiday on October 28.
