ROME: Italian authorities took control of a cargo ship carrying hundreds of migrants after the crew disappeared and set it on a programmed route to crash into a coast, officials said.
The alarm was first raised about the Moldovan-flagged Blue Sky M after a passenger sent a distress call earlier Tuesday when the ship was off Greece. Greek authorities scrambled a navy frigate and helicopter, but the captain said the vessel wasn’t in distress and didn’t require assistance.
The ship then headed on its own toward Italy. As it neared Santa Maria di Leuca, on the southernmost tip of the ‘heel’ of boot-shaped Italy, Italian port authorities dispatched two helicopters as a precaution and boarded the ship with a team of six coast guard officials.
