In a story that has grim overtones of the “Bulgaria”, which sank in July and claimed 122 lives, a growing list of infringements on the part of the boat’s owners is stacking up.
And the same charge-sheet also calls into question the safety of Russia’s waterways, where minimal fines are levied against craft which run deadly risks as they break the rules.
Collision course
Before she was forced under water by the “Oka-5”, the “Lastochka” did a series of loops, eyewitnesses report. She then sailed up to the “Oka-5” as the barge was passing in the opposite direction, but got too close and was pulled under, killing nine of the 16 on board, including the captain, Gennady Zinger. Only 12 passengers should have been aboard.
Neither boat should have been sailing as movement on the water at that time, early Sunday morning, was prohibited.
“They are now looking at various possible reasons for the tragedy. The course the boat was following or the fact it was overloaded, and there were quite a few more passengers on the boat than there should have been, or the fact that the captain was executing a dangerous maneuver,” an informed source told Komsomolskaya Pravda.
One theory is that Zinger tried to overtake the barge but stalled at the crucial moment, NewsMSK reported.
Safety ignored
The cruise motor boat, presumably Lastochka, seen afloat several hours before the disasterAs more reports come through it seems that safety was regularly ignored.“Well, the accepted maximum capacity for this boat was 12 people, but we sometimes had 20 people on board, although then we wouldn’t leave the port…In general overloading didn’t actually affect anything,” a friend of Zinger’s told KP.
The penalties for breaking the rules were minimal, either a warning or a 500 ruble ($18) fine. Zinger had faced this punishment a few days earlier when he failed a state inspection, Moskovskiye Novosti reported.
The vessel was home-made, KP reported, and the vessel had last been subjected to a mechanical overhaul 30 years ago, had no license to carry passengers and when it left port that night only one of its two engines were working, RIA Novosti reported.
Rescue and recovery
On board the “Lastochka” at the time of the accident was a group of youthful revelers, celebrating a birthday party. The crew of the “Oka-5” rescued six people from the whirlpool generated by the sinking “Lastochka” generated, and one more made it to shore himself
Work is now underway to raise the stricken boat to the surface.