Hableány catastrophe – all Viking ships may be banned from Hungarian waters

Supervision is demanded from all the ships of the Viking River Cruises company because of the Hableány catastrophe, according to the information of Magyar Nemzet. Zsolt Sógor, the legal representative of Panoráma Deck Ltd (owner of Hableány), states that the special design of the Viking Sygin’s prow played an important role in the tragedy on 29th May.  

The jurist also adds that they are going to make a move towards the Shipping Authority to start the technical supervision of Sigyn and her sister ship and to ban all ships with the same sort of prows from the Hungarian part of the Danube. 

Many think that the special prow design of Viking Sygin contributed to the catastrophe. 

The prow of the ship generated an 8-10-metre-long wave and kept on pressing it under. This wave pushed Hableány in front of Sygin, according to experts. Some survivors said that after the Sigyn, another ship – the Idun – also waded over them. The reason for not finding the dead body of the last missing passenger may be that the ships tore the body apart. 

Zsolt Sógor also states that, according to the opinion of experts, the captain of Viking Sigyn did not do everything that was expected, and this is the reason he is accused of not assisting the rescue. The responsibility that falls to the Viking Idun’s captain is the same.

Source: hvg.hu