The municipal court of Budapest on Wednesday ruled that families of the victims of a deadly collision on the River Danube in 2019 are entitled to a combined 1.8 billion forints (EUR 4.6m) in compensation from the two shipping companies involved in the accident.
The total is to be paid by Norway’s Viking River Cruises AG and Hungarian company Panoráma Deck Kft., which operated Hableany, the sightseeing boat that capsized in the accident, to 78 family members of the accident’s 27 victims.
In the accident on May 29, 2019, the Viking Sigyn cruise ship collided with the Hableany which had 33 South Korean tourists on board and a crew of two Hungarians. Seven tourists were rescued from the water after the collision and the rest died.
The parties have until 15 days to appeal against the ruling.
Read also:
Most shocking videoof the Hableány catastrophe killing 27
New memorial site for deadly Hungarian boat tragedy – Details HERE
Topal F, the captain of Viking Idun, the sister vessel of the Viking Sigyn which caused a deadly accident on the Danube in 2019, pleaded not guilty in the trial hearing the charge that he neglected to provide aid during the accident.
In the accident on May 29, 2019, the Viking Sigyn cruise ship collided with the Hableány sightseeing boat which had 33 South Korean tourists on board and a crew of two Hungarians. Seven tourists were rescued from the water after the collision and the rest died. One of the bodies has not been recovered.
According to his testimony made earlier and read in court on Monday, the Viking Idun passed the Viking Sigyn twice around the time of the accident, but the crew had detected no trouble. Visibility had been extremely restricted due to bad weather and the maneuvre they were performing, Topal F said. Radio communications from the smaller vessels that had witnessed the accident were all in Hungarian rather than German, the official language of Danube sailing, and the Ukrainian captain said he had not been able not discern what had happened.
Yuriy Chaplinsky, the captain of Viking Sigyn which was directly involved in the accident, was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison in 2023 for negligence by endangering river traffic and causing a lethal accident. He was not sentenced on charges of failing to provide aid to the victims.
As we wrote in 2023, new memorial site for the deadly Hungarian boat tragedy, details HERE
Also, we wrote about charges brought against the captain witnessing the Hableány collision, details HERE.
A memorial site is being established at the premises of the Counter Terrorism Centre (TEK) in remembrance of the Hableány boat tragedy, said János Hajdu, the director general of TEK. On Sunday, they held a commemoration at the Pest-side abutment of Margit Bridge, on the fourth anniversary of the boat’s recovery.
The leaders of TEK laid wreaths at the memorial erected near the scene of the tragedy. This was the third time since 2019 that they remembered those who died, writes Index.
Source: MTI/Lakatos Péter
New memorial site
“There was a strong determination to create such a memorial site there. This was important not only for the leaders who were present, but also for all those involved in the rescue operation,”
emphasised Hajdu.
During the commemoration, the director-general reported that the investigation of the boat had concluded, and the dismantling had begun. They received some parts, which they are going to place in the memorial corner established within the TEK premises as symbols of the boat.
He mentioned that during the procedure, a tree sprouted from the hull of the boat. This was taken and was recently planted within the TEK premises, and will continue to grow there. According to their plans, they will commemorate the tragedy at both locations in the future.
Source: MTI/Kovács AttilaSource: MTI/Kovács Attila
The boating tragedy
The Hableány boat tragedy refers to a tragic incident that occurred on the evening of 29 May, 2019, in Budapest. It was a sightseeing boat carrying 33 South Korean tourists and a crew of two Hungarian members.
While sailing along the Danube River, at Margit Bridge, the Hableány collided with a larger cruise ship called the Viking Sigyn. The collision caused the ship to capsize and sink within a matter of seconds.
Out of the 33 South Korean tourists on board, authorities could only rescue 7. Two Hungarian crew members also lost their lives. One South Korean passenger was also reported missing and presumed to have perished in the accident.
The recovery efforts involved using a floating crane to bring the wreckage of the Hableány to the surface. The Counter Terrorism Centre played a coordinating role in the operation, which lasted for about seven hours.
The Hableány boat tragedy is one of the deadliest boating accidents in Hungary’s recent history. It has had a significant impact on the country. Furthermore, it led to investigations into the circumstances surrounding the accident and highlighted the importance of improving safety measures and regulations in the boating industry.
Source: MTI/Lakatos PéterSource: MTI/Lakatos Péter
Budapest district prosecutors have pressed charges against the captain of a cruise ship close to a deadly boat accident on the River Danube which killed 28 people three years ago, the Budapest chief prosecutor said on Thursday.
In the accident on May 29, 2019, the Viking Sigyn cruise ship collided with the Hableány sightseeing boat which had 33 South Korean tourists on board and a crew of two Hungarians. Seven tourists were rescued from the water after the collision and the rest died. One of the bodies has not been recovered. The trial of the Ukrainian captain of the Viking Sigyn is still ongoing.
The prosecutors of Budapest’s 6ht and 7th districts have brought charges against the captain of another cruise ship, the Viking Idun which had been following the Viking Sigyn, on failure to provide assistance on 27 counts, the Budapest chief prosecutor told MTI in a statement.
The 59-year-old man, also a Ukrainian national, saw the collision in front and contacted the captain of Sigyn, who confirmed the collision. The defendant, however, failed to ask any questions concerning the whereabouts of the Hableány tourist boat, the possible number of passengers falling into the water and emergency measures planned by his fellow captain. Minutes later his ship overtook the Viking Sigyn and sailed on without providing any assistance despite witnessing the launching of a rescue boat from the other cruise ship, according to the statement.
The district prosecutors have proposed that the court hand the captain a prison term on probation.
The captain is currently under criminal supervision in Hungary and is required to report to the police every month.
Hungary’s first ever diver training tank was inaugurated in Baja, in the south, on Friday, on the occasion of the third anniversary of a deadly boat collision on the River Danube which took the lives of many South Korean tourists in 2019.
On May 29, 2019, the Viking Sigyn cruise ship collided with the Hableany sightseeing boat which had 33 South Korean tourists on board and a crew of two Hungarians. Seven tourists were rescued from the water after the collision and the rest died. One of the bodies has not been recovered.
Róbert Zsigó, Baja’s Fidesz MP, said at the inauguration that
the disaster bound two nations together.
He said the youngest victim of the collision was 6 years old and the oldest 71.
South Korea’s ambassador in Budapest, Park Chul-min, awards one of the Hungarian divers. Photo: MTI/Dániel Kiss
Park Chul-min, South Korea’s ambassador to Hungary, said May 29, 2019 had been “a moment of shock” which to this day could not be forgotten. At the same time, he expressed his thanks and gratitude to the divers who had done everything they could to save the victims at the scene of the disaster.
The diver training tank inaugurated in Baja, a city at the southern Hungarian section of the River Danube, was built at the initiative of the Havaria Disaster Management Public Benefit Association.
A memorial event was held at Margaret Bridge in Budapest on Sunday to mark the third anniversary of a boat accident on the Danube which killed 28 people.
Park Chul-min, the ambassador of Korea, and Péter Sztáray, Hungary’s state secretary for security policy, laid wreaths at the spot to commemorate the Korean and Hungarian victims.
“The tragedy from three years ago is carved into the memory of millions of Koreans and Hungarians. The two nations shared and still share the pain in mourning,” Sztáray said. “The shock caused by the tragedy has brought the citizens of the two nations closer together,” he added.
Park Chul-min expressed thanks to the foreign ministry and Budapest’s 5th district’s local council for the possibility to pay tribute to the victims of the tragedy at the memorial built at the bridge.
On May 29, 2019, the Viking Sigyn cruise ship collided with the Hableany sightseeing boat which had 33 South Korean tourists on board and a crew of two Hungarians. Seven tourists were rescued from the water after the collision and the rest died. One of the bodies has not been recovered. The trial of the captain of the Viking Sigyn is still ongoing.
Ambassador Park Csul Min and state secretary Péter Sztáray. Photo: MTI
A memorial to victims of the deadly boat collision on the River Danube which took the lives of many South Korean tourists was inaugurated on Monday at Margaret Bridge, marking the second anniversary of the disaster.
The Viking Sigyn cruise ship collided with the Hableany sightseeing boat which had 33 South Korean tourists on board and a crew of two Hungarians. Seven tourists were rescued from the water after the collision and the rest died. One of the bodies has not been recovered.
At the event, Korea’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Choi Jongmoon expressed thanks to the Hungarian government, the authorities and the Hungarian people for their efforts to find the victims, and for the many prayers for the victims.
In the recent period, the pandemic prevented victims’ family members from visiting the sight, which has caused them added sorrow, he said.
Choi expressed hope that a court procedure launched in connection with the collision would bring them comfort, and that after the pandemic they would be able to travel to Budapest for the third anniversary.
Choi said it was important to find the body of the tourist who was not recovered so that the remains may be returned to the family.
Foreign Ministry state secretary Levente Magyar said
the tragedy had not caused any disruptions in relations between the two countries but had rather deepened them further to the point of friendship.
He said the disaster had shocked all Hungarians, and he praised the “heroic efforts” of those involved in the rescue operations and the search for bodies.
He said the river disaster had been unprecedented in Hungary. The fact that the majority of victims were Korean guests made it especially painful, he added. He expressed his sympathy on behalf of the Hungarian government to the victims’ families and friends.
Engraved on the memorial, a seven-by-two metre granite block, are the names of the victims.
It was two years ago, on May 29, 2019, that a cruise ship named Hableány sank in seconds near the Parliament after colliding with the hotel ship Viking Sigyn. Thirteen days after the tragedy that claimed 27 lives, the wreckage of the Hableány was removed from the Danube. Now, on Népsziget, you can see the condition of the rusty hull, as evidence.
Organising the rescue mission and finding the wreckage were the biggest challenge after the Hableány cruise ship disaster, said Lt. Gen. János Hajdu, director-general of the Counter-Terrorism Centre (TEK), on Saturday. Together with the TEK staff, Hajdu released a wreath in memory of the victims at the Pest end of the Margaret Bridge on the second anniversary of the tragedy.
At six o’clock, in the morning of June 11, 2019, the salvaging of the wreck of the Hableány at a depth of nine metres began, and the massive damage to the side of the ship caused by the collision soon became apparent. The divers brought several bodies to the surface and pumped the water out of the hull from level to level. After seven hours of hard work, they were able to transfer the Hableány to a barge with a floating crane, which transported the cruise ship to the Csepel Free Port.
From there, it later moved to Újpest and will remain under protection until the end of the criminal proceedings. You can see the wreckage from above in this drone video on Index, but a Hungarian YouTuber also made a much more detailed video, which you can see here:
The Hableány was already examined by police detectives and shipping professionals two weeks after the tragedy, in Csepel, but the wreckage is still a piece of evidence and a crime scene, and it remains so until expert opinions are analysed.
The Hableány is secured with cameras connected to the police headquarters.
The wreckage cannot be moved until the end of the police warrant. It was guarded by patrols during the investigation process, which is now only remembered by a torn police tape. It is currently guarded with cameras, costing HUF 400 thousand per month.
If the captain of the Viking Sigyn is found guilty, he will have to pay the full amount as a criminal expense after the final verdict.
With the tolling of a bell and a wreath lowered into the water, Hungary marked the second anniversary on Saturday of a Budapest boat accident which killed 27 people, mostly South Korean tourists, in the worst river accident on the Danube in decades.
The 135-metre (443 ft) Swiss river cruiser Viking Sigyn hit a 27-metre (88 ft) tourist boat called Mermaid, causing it to capsize and sink under a bridge during heavy rain on the evening of May 29, 2019.
“It is still very strange to be here,”
said Zsolt Sógor, a legal representative of the company that owned the Mermaid. “I am here because there are many for whom this day opens deep wounds.”
Balázs Mohai/MTI
After a sailor lowered the wreath into the river from a boat, those on board threw flowers into the water to remember the victims at the commemoration event, led by the Hungarian Ecumenical Church.
Balázs Mohai/MTI
Of 33 passengers and two crew members,
only seven Korean passengers survived.
One South Korean tourist who was onboard remains missing.
Balázs Mohai/MTI
The survivors are due to give testimony at the next hearing of the trial, which began more than a year ago, on Sept. 21, Sogor said.
In November 2019, Hungarian prosecutors charged the 64-year-old Ukrainian captain of the Viking Sigyn, identified as C. Yuriy from Odessa, with
misconduct leading to mass casualties and 35 counts of failing to provide help.
His lawyers have said he was devastated but did nothing wrong. The captain could face between two and 11 years in prison if he is found guilty. It came to light the day before yesterday that Mr Yuriy sailed without radar on the evening of the accident.
A memorial to victims of a deadly boat collision on the River Danube in Budapest in May 2019 will “hopefully become an important symbol to both Koreans and Hungarians, a warning to prevent such tragedies from happening in the future”, the South Korean Ambassador to Hungary Park Chul-min said in an interview with daily Magyar Nemzet published on Friday.
The paper said that on May 29, 2019 Hungary had its worst civilian boat accident when the Viking Sigyn cruise ship collided with the Hableany sightseeing boat which had 33 South Korean tourists on board and a crew of two Hungarians. Seven tourists were rescued from the water after the collision and the rest died.
One of the bodies has not been recovered.
Park praised the Hungarian government’s cooperation in revealing the causes of the accident and the idea to raise a memorial in honour of the victims. He said the Hungarian people’s expressions of sympathy helped process the loss. Park expressed thanks to the foreign ministry for setting up a memorial at the foot of Margaret Bridge in cooperation with the Embassy of South Korea and the 5th district local government.
The memorial will be opened on Monday and the foreign ministry of South Korea will send a high-level delegation to Budapest for the occasion.
“This will be an opportunity for continuing the development of personal diplomatic relations between the two countries,” he said.
Several recordings on the Hableány tragedy were shown in the Tuesday session of the Budapest-Regional Court. One of them, the most tragic and shocking video recorded by an American tourist from the bow of the Viking Sigyn cruise ship right before the collision, was seen with sound for the first time.
The tragedy of the Hableány sightseeing boat two years ago in May was not only an unbelievably tragic accident that shook many, but a big lawsuit trying to figure out who is really responsible is still in the process. According to the indictment, the Viking Sigyn left the dock called Akadémia on the 29 of May in 2019, a little before 9 pm. In a couple of minutes, the ship started accelerating and for
the next five minutes, the much smaller Hableány boat was visible both to the naked eye and on all radar equipment of the cruiser.
According to the prosecutor, during these 5 minutes, “the captain did not concentrate on navigating the ship due to personal reasons”. Thus he did not detect the presence of Hableány, did not increase their speed and did not open the radio’s emergency line. 5 minutes after 9 pm, the big cruise ship ran into the small boat and technically ran over it.
The 30-metres-long sightseeing boat sank in about 30 seconds. 28 people lost their lives that night.
According to forensic experts, the captain of the big Viking Sigyn had to know they were about to crash into the small sightseeing boat. However, they say that the accident could not have been avoided even if any of the two vessels decreased their speed. Moreover, they all agree that even if the captain of Hableány suddenly navigated the boat to the right, the collision still would have happened, as in this case, the stern moves first, that still would have crashed into the Viking Sigyn. Thus, the responsibility of the Hableány’s captain will not be investigated, writes telex.hu.
The man’s voice recording the video can be heard clearly. He kept on asking, “Where is the boat?”
Then a man is seen on the footage running towards the bow to see the boat, and a woman starts screaming, probably to the captain, to “Stop the boat!”
The captain of the Viking was asked whether he recognised himself on the video, but as he previously denied making a confession, he did not have to answer the question. According to the lawyer of the Hableány’s captain, however, the Ukrainian captain of the Viking was clearly seen on the footage having no idea about what had just happened.
In this footage, we can clearly hear the Viking’s passengers screaming in English “Oh my God, it is a boat! Oh my God, it is a boat!”
A Ukrainian boat captain charged in connection with a deadly boat collision on the River Danube in 2019 will remain under criminal supervision and be required to report regularly to the authorities by phone, in line with a binding court ruling, the Budapest chief prosecutor’s office said on Monday, confirming reports by the daily Magyar Nemzet.
On May 29, 2019, the Viking Sigyn cruise ship collided with the Hableány sightseeing boat which had 33 South Korean tourists on board and a crew of two Hungarians. Seven tourists were rescued from the water after the collision and the rest died. One of the bodies has not been recovered. The captain of the Viking Idun, which had been following the Viking Sigyn cruise ship before its collision with the Hableany, was interrogated by Hungarian authorities on suspicion of 35 counts of criminal negligence and failure to provide assistance.
A Budapest court ordered placing the Viking Idun’s captain under criminal supervision, requiring him to report to the police every month.
Bettina Bagoly, a spokeswoman of the Budapest chief prosecutor’s office, said Monday’s ruling extended the captain’s criminal supervision until April 30.
In January, the public prosecutors of Budapest’s 6th and 7th districts appealed the first-instance ruling allowing the Viking Idun’s captain to report to police by phone.
Deputy spokesman of the Budapest prosecutor’s office Ferenc Rab confirmed press reports that same month that the suspect is residing in Ukraine.
Criminal supervision does not entail residing in Hungary continually, but the suspect is obliged to report to the police on specific dates, he added.
Budapest Chief Prosecutor Tibor Ibolya said the prosecutor’s office had proposed that the court extend the criminal supervision which was to expire on Jan. 30 for a further four months. Whereas the court rejected the defence’s motion to terminate criminal supervision, it did not impose an obligation to report in person.
Magyar Nemzet said on Monday that the Budapest Municipal Court would issue a justification of the ruling once it is delivered to the defendant.
A memorial dedicated to the victims of the 2019 ship collision claiming many South Korean lives in Budapest is being designed and planned to be inaugurated in autumn, Peter Szijjártó, Hungary’s foreign minister, said on Facebook on Monday, after talks with his South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung-wha over the phone.
The South Korean foreign minister thanked Hungary for the solidarity it showed after the tragedy that claimed the lives of 26 South Korean tourists and two Hungarian crew members when a sightseeing boat and a cruise ship collided near Margaret Bridge on May 29.
The two ministers also discussed the coronavirus pandemic and recognised each other’s efforts in containing the virus.
“Foreign Minister Kyung-wha thanked Hungary for allowing employees of Korean companies to enter the country, and I thanked the Korean companies for their investments in Hungary,” Szijjártó said.
He noted that the largest volume of foreign investments in Hungary was made by South Korean companies last year which lifted bilateral trade by 21 percent in the first quarter of this year to close to one billion dollars.
Szijjártó further noted close bilateral cooperation in international affairs.
Hungary supports South Korea’s membership in the United Nations Security Council and urges talks to be launched between the EU and South Korea on an investment protection agreement.
A commemoration was held on Friday in Budapest near Margaret Bridge on the first anniversary of the tragedy that claimed 28 lives when a sightseeing boat and a cruise ship collided on the River Danube.
On May 29 last year, the Viking Sigyn cruise ship collided with the Hableány sightseeing boat with 33 South Korean tourists and a crew of two Hungarians on board. Seven tourists were rescued from the water after the collision and the rest died. One of the bodies could not be recovered.
At the ceremony, a wreath was placed on the river by the crew of the Millennium ship of Panorama Deck, the company that operated Hableany.
Photo: MTI/Balogh Zoltán
They also lit 28 candles and sounded the ship’s bell 28 times to commemorate the victims.
FOr that matter, the criminal trial of the case of a ship collision with a sightseeing boat on the Danube claiming 28 lives has been postponed to begin on September 8.
According to the charges brought against the cruise ship’s Ukrainian captain he was steering the ship alone as it reached Margaret Bridge. The captain failed to attend to his duties for at least five minutes, according to the charges. During that time, his ship collided with the Hableany sightseeing boat and pushed it under water.
The cruise ship’s captain has been charged with fatal negligence and failing to provide assistance to persons in danger. Those acts are punishable with two to eleven years in prison under Hungarian law.
A preparatory meeting for a trial was held on March 11 which, however, could not be attended by any of the south Korean victims or the relatives of the South Korean survivors because of the coronavirus epidemic, the court said.
Two further preparatory meetings scheduled for April 30 and May 28 could not either be held because of the virus, it said.
The Ukrainian boat captain charged in connection with last May’s collision on the Danube has refused to waive his right to a trial.
The prosecution on Wednesday proposed a nine-year prison sentence and a nine-year ban on piloting boats on condition that the accused admitted guilt and waived his right to a trial. The accused today rejected the deal and refused to testify.
Seven tourists were rescued from the water after the collision and the rest died. One of the bodies was not recovered.
According to the charges, the captain was steering the cruise ship alone as it reached Margaret Bridge.
He failed to attend to his duties for at least five minutes, according to the charges.
During that time, his ship collided with the Hableány sightseeing boat and pushed it under water.
The cruise ship’s captain has been charged with fatal negligence and failing to provide assistance to persons in danger. Those acts are punishable with two to eleven years in prison under Hungarian law.
The Embassy of South Korea put out an ad in Monday’s Népszava, offering a reward.
The same ad, in which the family of the victim offers a reward of one million forints (€2.9 thousand) for a clue that could finally lead them to their missing relative, already appeared in a September issue of Népszava, reported hvg.hu.
“The 40-year-old, female South Korean citizen, was wearing a blue jacket, black pants and white sneakers at the time she went missing (May 29, 2019),” states the newspaper ad.
Viking Sigyn collided with Hableány last May, causing the smaller ship to sink. There were 33 South Korean tourists and two Hungarians on board, seven out of them were rescued from the water, but the others passed away, and they are still searching for the body of the victim in the ad. Read more about the tragic events HERE.
A Budapest court has ordered the Ukrainian captain of a cruise ship which collided with a sightseeing boat in central Budapest last spring to be released from custody and placed back in house arrest, a spokesman for the municipal chief prosecutor’s office said on Monday.
Ferenc Rab said the court’s ruling went against the prosecution’s position, adding, however, that the prosecutor’s office has “exhausted all its procedural options for the time being”.
On May 29, the Viking Sigyn cruise ship collided with the Hableány sightseeing boat with 33 South Korean tourists on board and a crew of two Hungarians.
Seven tourists were rescued from the water after the collision and the rest died. The body of one of the accident’s 28 victims has still not been recovered.
Last November, Budapest’s 6th and 7th district prosecutor pressed charges against the captain of criminal misconduct leading to mass casualties and 35 counts of failing to provide assistance after the collision.
In December the Pest Central District Court ordered the captain to be held in custody, citing the risk that he could flee to Ukraine and would not be extradited. Details HERE.
A Budapest court has ordered the Ukrainian captain of a cruise ship which collided with a sightseeing boat in central Budapest in May to be held in custody, the municipal chief prosecutor told MTI on Monday. So far, the suspect has been under house arrest.
The prosecutor’s office on Nov. 28 pressed charges against the captain of criminal misconduct leading to mass casualties and 35 counts of failing to provide assistance after the collision.
The court ordered the defendant’s arrest due to “a possibility of fleeing among other reasons”.
Seven tourists were rescued from the water after the collision and the rest died. The body of one of the accident’s 28 victims has still not been recovered.
According to the indictment, the cruise ship’s captain was inattentive losing focus on steering the ship for several minutes.
He further failed to keep a safe distance and signal intention to overtake the sightseeing boat. The captain also failed to meet the obligation of providing assistance after the collision, according to the document.
