Safety scandal
July 11, 2011
Authorities in Russia say the pleasure boat "Bulgaria" that sank in Russia's Volga River was overcrowded. The ageing vessel, built in 1955 in then-Czechoslovakia, had a capacity of 140 passengers, but was carrying over 200.
"The number of old vessels that we have sailing in our waters is beyond what is acceptable," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in response to the accident on Monday. "If in the past things managed to slide by, now the worst has happened."
The ship, which had just set off on a weekend expedition cruise for holiday-makers, reportedly went under within three minutes during a storm on Sunday. It apparently had engine trouble even before setting off.
"Even before it left Kazan [its home port], the boat had a problem with the main left engine, but went out to the cruise nevertheless," transport investigators for the Volga region said on an official website.
Ongoing rescue efforts
Eighty people were rescued in the aftermath of the accident, and just under fifty dead bodies had also been recovered as of early Monday afternoon. Roughly 75 more were still missing, feared dead. The rescue efforts have been complicated by uncertainty over exactly how many people were on board.
"The chances of finding more survivors are very small," Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova said.
Survivors reported that many children were on the boat when it sank.
"Practically no children made it out," one woman told the state-run Rossiya-24 television. "There were very many children on the boat - very many."
The news agency Interfax quoted one male survivor as saying that 30 children had gathered in a playroom near the bow minutes before the boat sank.
"I'm afraid many of them are dead," the man said. ´
Unsuitable conditions
The incident happened three kilometers (two miles) away from the nearest shore, in waters with a depth of 20 meters (65 feet). The boat sank at one of the widest points of the river. There was no time to use the two life boats on board.
"The captain knew that this was no weather for a cruise," Mikhail Turkov, spokesman for the local civil defense agency, told the Russian news agency Interfax.
The boat was returning to Kazan, the capital of the semi-autonomous republic of Tartarstan, after taking passengers downriver on Saturday.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered an investigation into the sinking, along with a review of Russia's transportation infrastructure.
"We have to conduct a total review of all means of transportation involved in moving passengers," Medvedev told a government meeting. He added the accident on Sunday could have been averted if safety procedures had been observed.
The general prosecutor's office said in a statement on Monday that the 1955 ship was last refitted over 30 years ago and had "no license to carry passengers." The cruise ship's operator, Agrorechtur, said the "Bulgaria" was fully-functional and licensed, but fell victim to the bad weather.
Author: Spencer Kimball, Joanna Impey, Mark Hallam (AFP, dpa, Reuters)
Editor: Michael Lawton