Topic: Russian cruise ship sinks: 100 feared dead

A river boat has sank in central Russia. Almost 200 passengers and crew were believed to be on board - around 30 of them children.



More than 100 people are feared dead.

At least twelve deaths are confirmed, but reports say divers have seen many more bodies inside the vessel, which sunk in the River Volga in Tatarstan, about 450 miles east of Moscow.

Seventy-nine survivors were rescued by another pleasure boat that was passing nearby.

Russia's Vesti 24 television quoted a survivor as saying that the boat “tilted to the right and sank within minutes.”

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered a criminal investigation.

The 55-year-old boat, called Bulgaria, was on a two-day cruise when it got into difficulty in stormy weather.

Was listening to BBC 5 Live regarding this how sad those poor people!! 55 year old boat it has to be asked was it safe and 'sea worthy' i would guess not!!

Tragic! One would expect River Cruising to be exceptionally safe.

However, I believe the maritime safety regulations (assuming that Russia has any?) are often a lot less stringent for River vessels. I believe the theory is that they are NOT sea-going vessels so do not experience severe seas and the river bank is never far away.

I do notice that the ‘Bulgaria’ appears to have two lifeboats, but I guess these would not accommodate all passengers and crew. There may (should have) have been inflatable life -rafts too? All this assumes the lifeboats were in good working order and that the passengers/crew had time to use them. However the report suggests that the boat sank very quickly.

Here's a fuller Story of this Tragedy from the Telegraph (on-line):

By Andrew Osborn, in Moscow
9:40AM BST 11 Jul 2011

Fifteen minutes before the ageing Soviet-era vessel ‘Bulgaria’ capsized two miles from the nearest river bank, up to fifty children were shepherded into a room on the double-decker pleasure craft for a children’s party. Few of them, if any, are thought to have made it out alive, and one of the adult entertainers reportedly told them to stay where they were until the situation became clearer.

“About fifty people were trapped in the ship’s music room and most of them were children,” one of the rescuers told online news portal lifenews.ru.”

Many of the ship’s doors also turned out to be locked blocking people’s escape, and one distraught woman told state TV that she lost her grip on her daughter as they tried to flee the sinking boat.

“Practically no children made it out,” the woman sobbed. “There were very many children on the boat, very many.” Relatives of the passengers gathered close to where the rescue operation was being coordinated to seek information about their missing loved ones on Sunday night. One man who said his wife and daughters were on board the doomed vessel implored rescuers to let him look at the few dead bodies recovered by divers so far. “Please let me look. Maybe my daughter is among the bodies,” he pleaded.

The ramshackle Soviet-era pleasure craft was on its way back to the city of Kazan some 500 miles east of Moscow with almost 200 people on board on Sunday afternoon as its two-day river trip drew to an end. But the trip had been marred by constant rain and strong winds and one of the vessel’s two engines had broken down, while eye witnesses said it had left port on Saturday listing heavily to the right.

The ship’s radio operator told the ITAR-Tass news agency that passengers and crew had begged the captain to halt the cruise due to the ship’s parlous state but that he had refused. “Somebody gave him the order to press on,” said the radio operator. “The captain did not come out and talk to people but decided to set off once again despite everything.”

The ship, built in 1955 in then Czechoslovakia, was also dangerously overloaded. Its maximum capacity was 120 people but it was said to be carrying closer to 200 people, some of whom did not even have tickets.

As weather conditions worsened, survivors said they felt increasingly vulnerable. “He (the captain) should not have left port,” a survivor called Anna told the lifenews.ru online portal. “The weather was bad. It was stormy weather. What kind of cruise could there be for God’s sake!”

As the water got choppier and choppier and the wind rose, survivors said the boat got into trouble, that a giant wave swept dozens of people off the deck, and that it tried to perform a sharp manoeuvre against the river’s strong current. With one of its engines out, it did not have enough power however and flipped over sinking within a matter of minutes.

“It sank in two or three minutes,” said Liliya Khaziyeva, a spokeswoman for the Rescue Service. “We found dead people wearing safety jackets, people who were simply unable to leave the ship.” Some survivors said they had managed to clamber aboard a couple of life rafts, while a few others managed to swim to the bank. Wrapped in blankets to ward off the cold, some of the survivors said other boats had passed the drowning people but had not stopped to help.

“Two boats went by without stopping, even though we waved and waved,” Nikolai Chernov, a survivor, told state TV. Another woman claimed that tourists aboard one of the craft had filmed survivors in the water on their mobile phones as they sped past. Luckily another ship, the ‘Arabella,’ did eventually stop and plucked around eighty survivors out of the water.

Other reports said that the stricken ship had only two instead of the four lifeboats it was supposed to carry, and that a recent facelift had failed to address serious safety issues. Investigators said they had opened a criminal investigation into the tragedy that would look carefully at whether the ship’s captain and owners were guilty of criminal negligence and incompetence.

As divers laboured to bring up the dozens of dead bodies trapped in the submerged ship on Monday placing the fully clothed lifeless corpses on the deck of a nearby boat, a spokeswoman for the Emergency Situations Ministry said hopes of finding any more survivors was dwindling by the hour.

“According to the divers, the chances of finding anyone alive are minimal,” she said.

Absolutely horrific event. Does remind one of the cruise boat that sank on the Thames all those years ago, though two miles from the nearest river bank is a different equation as stated above in Malcolms report. The children dying like that well, I just don't have the words.

It is dreadful.

there appear to be no safety drills etc on River cruises.

When I commented on this on a forum a year or 2 ago I was ridiculed...

QUOTE:

It is dreadful.

there appear to be no safety drills etc on River cruises.

When I commented on this on a forum a year or 2 ago I was ridiculed...

Those who ridiculed you Meg, were clearly ignorant. Rivers can be very dangerous in high winds with strong currents etc....

This tragedy, as the kaptain says above, horrific. Having read Malcolms post, it would seem it was avoidable, coupled with passing ships not helping, it beggars belief.

Lizzie.

QUOTE:

I am shocked this can happen in this day and age.

You don't know Russia LOL


My guess is a top-heavy boat!
with perhaps too many people on top deck
or other locations up high from the centre of gravity.


Doesn't take much. Add in factors like:
* Bad weather drives everyone to one side within 15 secs. or so
- getting away from a rain squall?
* In perfect timing a decent gust of wind comes along at a bad angle
and oooover she goes. It's not that hard to do.


Any number of scenarios end up the same way.
What's yours?

Really sad for all the families effected. It is now public so Russia will certainly investigate and we can only hope they will find the reasons and take action.
All we can do is await the results of the investigation, proper course of action.

Further details now emerging at CNN URL
Russia divers find ship chamber where children were trapped - CNN.com


Seems...
The ship did not have a license to transport passengers, was overloaded,
and was last repaired more than 30 years ago!

Prosecutors also established that the left engine of the ship was damaged


Russian state TV reported the vessel had an operational limit of about 150 passengers.
State TV also reported, citing law enforcement officials,
that there were life vests on board for only 156 people.

Emergency Situations Minister Shoigu said there were 208 people aboard the ship,
of whom 25 passengers were not officially registered and didn't have tickets.
RIA Novosti reported Tuesday that 205 people were on board.

___________________________________
Sounds like a recipe for disaster, dunnit?