Bye bye, Captain

Something tells me this captain won't live for long.

SAFAGA, Egypt (Reuters) - Survivors of the Red Sea ferry disaster said on Saturday the Egyptian captain had fled his burning ship by lifeboat and abandoned them to their fate, as hopes faded of finding some 800 missing people.

...Egyptian survivor Shahata Ali said the passengers had told the captain about the fire but he told them not to worry."We were wearing lifejackets but they told us there was nothing wrong, told us to take them off and they took away the lifejackets. Then the boat started to sink and the captain took a boat and left," he added, speaking to Reuters Television.

"The captain was the first to leave and we were surprised to see the boat sinking," added Khaled Hassan, another survivor.

If the government catches him, it will be more than eager to punish him as a suitable scapegoat to appease the angry families:

"Nobody is telling anything, it's unbearable," says Said Ali Said, from southern Egypt whose cousin was on the boat. "Just tell me if he is dead or alive."

"This is a dirty government, may God burn their hearts as they burned mine," one woman told AP. "I want my brother. I have no-one else in this life."

And if the families find him alive, they will likely tear him to pieces.

His only hope for survival is to live the rest of his life in hiding, which more likely than not he cannot do. Fate can have a merciless way of catching up with people.