Visemar Trasporti, a company controlled by the Visentini family and owner of the ro-pax NORMAN ATLANTIC, formally asked the local coast guard in Bari the green light for proceeding with the scrapping of the wreck.
The 2009-built ro-pax caught fire in the Strait of Otranto in the Adriatic Sea, en route from Patras to Ancona on December 28, 2014.
The NORMAN ATLANTIC accident became one of the deadlier maritime disasters in recent Greek history. The bodies of nine victims were recovered from the sea. Nineteen other individuals remain missing to this day, and are presumed dead.
The fire broke out on the car deck just before 6:00 AM local time, just half an hour after leaving the port of Igoumenitsa, which was an intermediate stop on the ferry’s regular route.