Tourist boat capsized in Budapest

Ship collision – Police search for missing persons with 15 boats

The Danube Water Police are searching for missing persons from last week boat collision with 15 boats on an over 200km stretch of the river between Budapest and the country’s southern border, the water police chief said on Friday.

Police are also using dogs to search for the bodies and three of the missing bodies have been discovered with their help so far, Richárd Prohaszka told a press conference.

Sonar equipment, search lights and night-vision are also being used, he added.

The search for missing persons started right after the collision and will continue until all the bodies are found, he said. Other water authorities are also involved in the search, he added.

In response to a question, he said the body of one of the Hungarian crew from the Hableány pleasure boat had been found thanks to a citizen’s report on Thursday. In response to another question, he said there was no plan to involve civilians in the search operation.

The national water management authority said on Friday that the water level of the River Danube was still on the rise. Snow melting in the catchment areas of the river is expected to push the water level a few centimetres up in the next few days. A flood alert is in place along 350km of the river in Hungary, the authority said in a statement.

At a time to be determined on the basis of forecasts, Slovak authorities are expected to inhibit the river flow over the period of four hours in the near future, the authority added.

The water level was 466cm at 10am on Friday and it is expected to drop to below 400cm next Wednesday evening only, it said.

For that matter, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó met his South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung-wha on the sidelines of the Globsec security forum in Bratislava on Friday.

In a statement sent to MTI after the talks, Szijjártó called “exemplary” the cooperation between Hungarian and South Korean rescue teams working to salvage a sightseeing boat which sank in central Budapest last week, causing the death of at least 18 South Korean tourists.

At the talks, Szijjártó informed his colleague about the status of the salvage operation. He said that preparations are under way to lift the wreck out of the River Danube, and added that a thorough investigation has been launched to reveal every detail of the disaster.

The South Korean minister thanked all participants in the operations for their efforts.

The Hableány carrying 33 South Koreans and two Hungarian crew collided with a cruise ship and sank last Wednesday. Seven passengers were rescued, nine are still missing. The 64 year-old Ukrainian captain of the Viking Sigyn, a Swiss-registered cruise ship, has been detained.

June 7, 2019

Ship collision – Viking Cruises: Viking Sigyn cruise ship captain was not captain in Dutch accident

The Ukrainian captain of the Viking Sigyn cruise ship that was involved in a crash in Budapest last week was not serving as captain on a boat that was in an accident in the Netherlands in April, Viking Cruises told Reuters late on Thursday.

“We can confirm that even though the Captain of the Viking Sigyn was onboard the Viking Idun on April 1, he was not serving as the ship’s Captain at the time of the incident. Viking Idun was under the command of another Captain,” a Viking spokesperson said.

He declined to comment further, stating that the investigations of both incidents were still ongoing.

The Budapest prosecutor’s office said earlier on Thursday that official information acquired through the Hungarian member of Eurojust had confirmed press reports that the captain was a suspect in the Netherlands for causing a crash on April 1.

The Hableány sightseeing boat, carrying 33 South Koreans and two Hungarian crew, collided with a cruise ship and sank last Wednesday.

Seven passengers were rescued, nine are still missing.

The 64 year-old Ukrainian captain of the Viking Sigyn, a Swiss-registered cruise ship, has been detained.

June 7, 2019

Ship collision – Four more victims found south of Budapest

The 18th dead body linked to last week’s Danube collision in central Budapest was found in the river near Rakoczi Bridge, the police reported on its website on Thursday afternoon.

UPDATE – The 19th body linked to last week’s Danube collision in central Budapest was discovered in the river near the Bálna cultural complex, public broadcaster M1’s news programme reported on Thursday evening. It was identified as one of the two Hungarian crew members, a man, of the Hableany sightseeing boat, the police said on its website late on Thursday.

A bit eralier today a dead body, believed to be that of the 17th victim of last week’s ship collision, has been found in the River Danube near Érd, south of Budapest.

The 16th body was discovered near Szabadság Bridge late on Wednesday, and was identified as one of the 33 South Korean tourists aboard the Hableany sightseeing boat, which collided with a large cruise ship and sank in the River Danube in central Budapest on May 29.

A search for eleven missing persons is under way along the river between the collision site and Hungary’s southern border, the police said.

June 6, 2019

Ship collision – Cruise ship captain deleted mobile phone data, says prosecutor’s office

An investigation has revealed that the captain of a cruise ship which crashed into a sightseeing boat in Budapest last week deleted data from his mobile phone after the crash, the Budapest prosecutor’s office said on Thursday.

Additionally, official information acquired through the Hungarian member of Eurojust has confirmed press reports that the captain had been a suspect in the Netherlands for causing a crash on April 1, the prosecutor’s office said.

The Budapest 6th and 7th district prosecutor’s office will add this supplementary information to an appeal submitted against a court decision that opened up the possibility for the captain to be released on bail.

The Budapest chief prosecutor will set up a group of investigators, including five prosecutors and deputy prosecutors, to analyse and assess the case, the statement added.

The Hableány sightseeing boat, carrying 33 South Koreans and two Hungarian crew, collided with a cruise ship and sank last Wednesday. Seven passengers were rescued. Thirteen are still missing. With the last two — as yet unidentified — bodies, the number of the dead rises to 15. The Ukrainian captain of the Viking Sigyn, a Swiss-registered cruise ship, has been detained.

June 6, 2019

Ship collision – Salvage delayed by high Danube water level

The operation to salvage the wreck of the Hableány, a sightseeing boat that sank in the River Danube in central Budapest last week, is being delayed by high water levels, public broadcaster M1 reported on Wednesday.

A large crane ship will arrive on the river later on Wednesday, but will stay in northern Budapest to wait for the water to ebb, according to M1. Experts said that

divers are preparing to stabilise the wreck, but it would not be lifted to the surface before Friday.

Meanwhile, earlier on Wednesday, the Budapest police reported that the body of a victim of the accident has been identified.

The body of a South Korean man was found at the ferry of Adony in Fejér County, around 60km downstream from the accident, the police said.

Another victim was discovered on Wednesday morning, the counter-terrorism force TEK told MTI. The body was found by a Hungarian diver next to one of the ship’s openings during an operation to assess the condition of the wreck and to examine possible anchorage points for raising it.

The Hableány, carrying 33 South Koreans and two Hungarian crew, collided with a cruise ship and sank last Wednesday.

Seven passengers were rescued, thirteen have been confirmed dead and 15 are still missing. The Ukrainian captain of the Viking Sigyn, a Swiss-registered cruise ship, has been detained.

June 5, 2019

Another Danube ship collision victim identified in Budapest!

The body of one of the victims of last week’s Danube ship collision has been identified, Budapest police said on the website police.hu in the early hours of Wednesday.

The body of a South Korean man was found at the ferry of Adony in Fejér County, around 60km downstream from the accident, it said.

The authorities are looking for further victims along the entire length of the river south of Budapest, police.hu added.

Another victim was discovered on Wednesday morning,

the counter-terrorism force TEK told MTI. The body was found by a Hungarian diver next to one of the ship’s openings during an operation to assess the condition of the wreck and to examine possible anchorage points for raising it.

The international team of experts is carrying out preparatory work with a view to raising the wreck as soon as possible, they said.

The Hableány sightseeing boat, carrying 33 South Koreans and two Hungarian crew, collided with a cruise ship and sank last Wednesday. Seven passengers were rescued, thirteen have been confirmed dead and 15 are still missing. The Ukrainian captain of the Viking Sigyn, a Swiss-registered cruise ship, has been detained.

Read all news about ship collision HERE.

Ship collision – Hundreds singing Korean folk song in Budapest – VIDEO

June 5, 2019

Ship collision – Body pulled from wreck, another body was lifted from the Danube

Recovery teams have pulled the body of one of the victims of last week’s Danube ship collision from the sunken sightseeing boat, counter-terrorism force TEK, which is in charge of the recovery efforts, said on Tuesday.

The body was discovered in the window of the wreck on Tuesday morning and pulled to the surface in the afternoon, TEK said in a statement.

“The recovery teams are still working amid high-risk conditions and are doing everything they can to ensure that the operation is successful,”

the statement said, adding that raising the wreck of the Hableany was still their top priority.

Budapest police said on the website police.hu on Tuesday afternoon that the body of a South Korean passenger had been found.

The body was lifted from the Danube at the village of Kulcs in Fejér County, around 60km downstream from the accident.

The authorities are looking for further victims along the entire length of the river south of Budapest, police.hu added.

The bodies of two other victims were recovered on Monday.

The Hableány, carrying 33 South Koreans and two Hungarian crew, collided with a cruise ship and sank last Wednesday. Seven passengers were rescued, eleven have been confirmed dead and 17 are still missing. The Ukrainian captain of the Viking Sigyn, a Swiss-registered cruise ship, has been detained.

Ship collision – Hundreds singing Korean folk song in Budapest – VIDEO

June 4, 2019

Ship collision – Hundreds singing Korean folk song in Budapest – VIDEO

flash mob, singing, ship collision, Budapest

More than a hundred people gathered together around 7.00 pm on Margareth Bridge, Budapest, to commemorate the victims of the ship collision on the Danube by singing the unofficial Korean national anthem, the Arirang.

Daily News Hungary reported before that The Hungarian riverboat used for tourism capsized in Budapest, Hungary on Wednesday evening (10 PM) with 34 people on board, including passengers and crew, and a rescue effort was underway by Hungarian rescue crews.

The boat called Hableány (in English: ‘Mermaid’) capsized after being hit by another tourist vessel. The boat was moored near the Hungarian parliament building and reportedly was hit by another tourist vessel, then turned over on the Danube, which has been flooding with strong currents following a rainstorm and heavy rain in the Hungarian capital.

In the accident, all the passengers, mainly South Korean tourists, went into the cold water.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE AND PHOTOS

Seven South Korean victims of Wednesday evening’s Danube ship collision have been identified on the basis of fingerprints and palm prints, the National Police Headquarters spokesman has told public news channel M1. Kristóf Gál said on Saturday that they had presented photographs to the relatives of the victims during the identification process and South Korean authorities were on hand to help.

Szeretlek Magyarország reported that the crowd gathered together on the south part of the bridge, singing Arirang which is a Korean folk song that is often considered to be the country’s unofficial national anthem. This special flash mob was organised by the Csikszerda Chore and the Kórusok Éjszakája organisation in the capital. Every participant received the lyrics and the tone of the folk song.

https://www.facebook.com/IMagyarorszag/videos/308252826789848/

The collision of Hableány and Viking that took place on Wednesday evening in Budapest was a rare accident considering its severity. There were but few instances that such collisions happened in Budapest or in Hungary – the last one was almost 70 years ago – DETAILS HERE

Find more articles in the related posts below!

Featured image: Facebook

June 4, 2019

Ship collision – Rescue operation fast, professional, says Hungarian interior minister

The rescue efforts after last week’s ship collision on the Danube were swift and professional, Interior Minister Sándor Pintér told parliament’s national security committee on Tuesday.

Within half an hour after a river cruiser and a sight-seeing boat collided near the Parliament building in Budapest and the smaller boat sank, the rescue operation was taken over by high-ranking officers of the police and the disaster management authority, he told the committee hearing.

Speaking to the press after the hearing, Pintér said

the Hungarian authorities were cooperating well with the South Korean government, embassy and divers.

Pintér said the South Korean experts “have accepted the Hungarians’ arguments” on the dangers of entering the wreck, which is located near Margaret Bridge, under high waters with extremely swift currents. Visibility is still close to zero, he said, adding that entering the wreck may prove extremely dangerous.

The rescue operation is set to resume and the experts will aim recover as many of the victims’ bodies as possible, Pintér said, “but we do not want further casualties”. Ultimately, the aim is to remove the shipwreck from the water, he said. – Crane to salvage wreck from Danube soon to arrive

On May 29, the sightseeing boat carrying 33 South Korean nationals and two Hungarian crew members sank near the Parliament building. The Hungarian police said on its website on Tuesday that the boat had been carrying 22 women, 12 men and one child. Seven passengers were rescued, nine bodies have been recovered, and 19 are still missing.

Ship collision – Seoul foreign ministry confirms victim’s nationality

June 4, 2019

Ship collision – Seoul foreign ministry confirms victim’s nationality

The body recovered near the southern Hungarian village of Harta after last week’s Danube ship collision in Budapest is that of a South Korean national, a male aged around 60, the South Korean foreign ministry confirmed on Tuesday.

On May 29, a sightseeing boat carrying 33 South Korean nationals and two Hungarian crew members collided with a cruise ship and sank in the Danube near the Parliament building.

Hungary’s national police said on its website on Monday evening that the body of a male victim recovered near Harta, some 100km downstream from Budapest, had been identified.

The Hungarian police said on its website on Tuesday that

the boat carried 22 women, 12 men and one child. Seven were rescued, nine bodies are now recovered, and 19 are still missing.

As we wrote on Sunday, Seven South Korean victims of Danube ship collision have been identified on the basis of fingerprints and palm prints, details HERE.

Another body, recovered also on Monday in a joint effort of Hungarian and Korean divers near Margaret Bridge, that of a woman, has also been identified, the police said.

Ship collision – Crane to salvage wreck from Danube soon to arrive

June 4, 2019

Ship collision – Divers recover body from boat wreck!

Hungarian and South Korean divers have recovered the body of one of the victims of last week’s Danube ship collision from the sunken sightseeing boat, counter-terrorism force TEK, which is in charge of the recovery efforts, said on Monday.

The body was discovered by Hungarian divers on Monday morning. They marked the body before carrying on with their inspection of the condition of the Hableany’s wreckage.

The body was then pulled to the surface by Korean divers.

TEK said rescue teams were working round the clock on “achieving a safe solution to this extraordinary situation”.

The Hableány, carrying 33 South Koreans and two Hungarian crew, collided with a cruise ship and sank last Wednesday. Seven passengers were rescued, eight have been confirmed dead and 20 are still missing. Seven South Korean victims of the Danube crash identified, read more HERE.

The Ukrainian captain of Viking Sigyn, a Swiss cruise ship, has been detained. The wrecks of the sightseeing boat were located near a pillar of Margaret Bridge.

Another body, which has yet to be identified, was found near the village of Harta, some 100km downstream from Budapest, the national police headquarters said.

Hungarian and South Korean divers have recovered the body of one of the victims — Photo: MTI

As we wrote today, rescue teams working to salvage wrecked Hableány, will have to wait a few more days before a suitably large crane arrives at the site of the disaster near Margaret Bridge in central Budapest, read more HERE.

UPDATE

The national police said on its website on Monday evening that the body of a male victim recovered near the village of Harta, some 100km downstream from Budapest, has been identified. Authorities, however, have not confirmed the victim’s nationality.

Authorities are still identifying the body recovered from the wreck of the sightseeing boat.

Ship collision video – this is how happened:

June 3, 2019

Ship collision – Crane to salvage wreck from Danube soon to arrive

Rescue teams working to salvage wrecked Hableány, which sank in the River Danube after colliding with a large cruise ship last Wednesday, will have to wait a few more days before a suitably large crane arrives at the site of the disaster near Margaret Bridge in central Budapest, the head of Hungary’s counter-terrorism force TEK, which is in charge of the operation, told a press conference on Monday.

János Hajdu said the crane, which could lift 200 tonnes, could not at present be shipped to the site under the bridges due to high water levels.

He said

the wrecked sightseeing boat, lying at a depth of nine metres, was over 27 metres long and weighed 50 tonnes.

Hajdu said that divers first attempted to approach the wreck on May 30, but added that the swift current of the flooding river and “practically zero centimetre sighting distance” in the 12-15 Celsius water made their work nearly impossible. He added that divers are forbidden to enter the wreck for their own safety.

The salvage operation, assisted by a 54-strong South Korean team and Austrian experts, will focus on lifting the wreck out of the water in one piece, he said.

Shunkeun Song, defence attache at the South Korean embassy in Budapest, thanked the Hungarian government for its assistance and Hungarians for expressing their sympathy over the accident. The diplomat said that families of the victims were eager to receive information and asked Hungarian authorities for permission to South Korean divers to enter the wreck. He voiced agreement with Hajdu, at the same time, that protecting the lives of divers was paramount.

At least seven people died in last Wednesday’s accident, while seven others, rescued from the water, were taken to hospital with light injuries. Twenty-one others are still missing. The Hableány was carrying a group of 33 South Korean tourists and a two-strong Hungarian crew when it collided with the cruise ship and sank.

Ship collision in Budapest. rescue team, photo: MTI

The Ukrainian captain of Viking Sigyn, a Swiss cruise ship, has been detained – Captain of cruise ship in detention

Ship collision – Seven South Korean victims of the Danube crash identified

June 3, 2019

Ship collision – Seven South Korean victims of the Danube crash identified

Seven South Korean victims of Wednesday evening’s Danube ship collision have been identified on the basis of fingerprints and palm prints, the National Police Headquarters spokesman has told public news channel M1.

Kristóf Gál said on Saturday that they had presented photographs to the relatives of the victims during the identification process and South Korean authorities were on hand to help.

Meanwhile, the spokesman said police helicopters had not been deployed in the rescue operation due to poor weather.

Police helicopters equipped with night vision did not receive take-off permission either from Liszt Ferenc International Airport or from the Bácsbokod airport, he said.

Interviewed by M1 was a policeman, Richárd Virág, who was the first to arrive at the scene of the disaster. He said on Wednesday at 9.10pm a message on the police boat’s radio said that people had been spotted in the river between Margit Bridge and Parliament.

He said they arrived within five minutes, where a man in the water near Chain Bridge shouted for help.

In a state of shock and suffering from hypothermia, he was lifted into the boat together with a woman who was lifeless. They attempted to resuscitate the woman and called for an ambulance. He added that the oily state of their clothes and the large waves impeded the rescue.

Gál told MTI that the first water police units arrived at the scene at 9.15pm, while the first units on land arrived at 9.19pm.

Police are continuing their search of the entire Danube riverbed south of Budapest.

At the weekend, the main task is to build a containment structure allowing divers to work on the wreck, M1 reported.

For that matter, the Budapest municipal court has ordered the Ukrainian captain of the cruise ship which collided with a sightseeing boat in central Budapest earlier this week to be remanded in custody for the duration of one month, the Budapest prosecutor’s office said on Saturday.

The court ruled, however, that payment of bail set at 15 million forints (EUR 46,000) would allow the suspect to wear a tracking device and remain under police supervision in Budapest.

The 64-year-old captain of the Viking Sigyn cruise ship was questioned under suspicion of causing the disaster and detained late on Thursday.

A Budapest municipal court said in a statement on Saturday afternoon that the prosecutor had submitted an appeal against the bail request. If bail is approved and the suspect posts it, then he will have to wear a tracking device and must not leave Budapest, the statement added.

The suspected crime carries a prison sentence of 2-8 years. “An investigation is still under way,” the statement said.

The captain’s lawyer said on Friday that the suspect had submitted a complaint against the charge and denied any violation of the regulations or of committing a crime.

June 2, 2019

Ship collision: Workers of the Swiss tourist boat company complained about low wages – NEW VIDEO

The crew and captains of the luxury tourist boats complained about too much overtime, constant fluctuation and low wages endangering even the security of the Danube trips – Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF; English: Swiss Radio and Television) reported in April.

Only 7 survivors

According to index.hu, the Swiss news outlet talked even about the Viking Cruises in its report. This is the company whose ship collided with a riverboat (Hableány) on Wednesday in Budapest. The riverboat capsized and sank in just seconds with 34 people on board, including South Korean passengers and Hungarian crew. There are only seven survivors, authorities found so far 7 bodies and are still searching for 21 people. As we reported before, the Ukrainian captain of the Swiss cruise ship was detained after he was questioned as a suspect, police have said. His attorney said that the captain did not break any rules.

Photos about the accident are HERE while you can watch what happened below:

In the report of the Swiss Radio and Television, a Romanian man said that it was the worst 22 day of his life while he was serving on board of such a tourist boat like the one collided. He added that he felt himself as if he had been a slave. They had to work 15/24 for seven days, which was even more than the 48-72 hours per week overtime included in their contract. Therefore, he quit after 3 weeks and got 809 EUR for 22 days which equals

4 EUR/hour salary.

According to the Swiss news outlet, the tourist boat business is one of the most flourishing segments of tourism in Europe with an average annual increase of 10 pc. There are already more than 300 ships circulating on the large rivers of Europe offering luxury conditions for their passengers who pay 1000-2000 Swiss francs for a one-week trip.

Accidents are caused by human error

How these companies treat their employees is another question. They employ altogether 2,500 sailors and 12 thousand people working in the restaurants and bars of the vessels. Since work is hard and hours are long, there are ships on which

half of the crew quit in 2-3 months.

According to captains of such boats, high fluctuation and the lack of appropriate workforce has an impact even on the security. For example, a floatel hit one of the pillars of a bridge in Duisburg because of human failure two years before. In that accident, more than 20 people were injured.

According to the association of the Swiss cruise companies, they stick themselves to the rules and pay more money or give extra day offs for their employees working overtime. Daniel Buchmüller, president of the Viking Cruises, a company based in Basel, Switzerland, did not want to answer index.hu’s questions regarding what the former Romanian employee of the company told about his work and why he quit swiftly. Mr Buchmüller highlighted that

they keep the international regulations

and they do not ask their employees to work more than 48 hours of overtime per week. He added that the net monthly salary of their dishwashers who get the lowest wage from the company is 1,800 EUR. At the same time, he acknowledged that most accidents are caused by human error.

We reported HERE about a man working in the Danube tourist boat industry who said that because of the many vessels running simultaneously on the stream, such a catastrophe like the one that happened on Wednesday was predictable.

June 1, 2019

Ship collision – Captain of cruise ship in detention – UPDATE

The Ukrainian captain of a cruise ship which collided with a sightseeing boat in central Budapest was detained after he was questioned as a suspect, police have said.

The sightseeing boat with 33 South Koreans and two Hungarian crew on board capsized and sank on Wednesday evening. The dead bodies of seven passengers have been found, while 21 people are still missing, police said.

Following an on-site inspection of the cruise ship, investigators working in cooperation with nautical experts seized evidence, police said.

The 64 year-old captain of the Viking Sigyn cruiser was questioned under suspicion of causing the mass disaster and was detained, the statement added.

Budapest’s 6th and 7th district prosecutor later on Friday initiated the captain’s arrest, the Budapest prosecutor’s office said in a statement. The Municipal Court of Budapest is expected to decide on the arrest on Saturday, the prosecutor’s office added.

An attorney representing the captain told MTI on Friday that his client had not broken any rules, adding that he has filed a complaint against the accusations. Balázs M. Tóth said that raising charges was “untimely” and there was not enough evidence to support suspicion. He added that the opinion of experts would be crucial.

The lawyer said in a statement that his client had captained ships for 44 years and had never caused an accident.

He added that the captain had been shocked by the accident, was sorry that he could not avoid the disaster, and had expressed his sympathy to the victims’ families.

Meanwhile Gergely Karácsony, Budapest mayoral candidate of opposition Parbeszed, called for new shipping regulations, citing a boom in shipping on the Danube within the city. He proposed that large ships should be banned from cruising the river for sightseeing.

June 1, 2019

Ship collision – Hungary and South Korea discuss rescue operations

The Hungarian authorities are doing their utmost to successfully recover those missing after the ship collision on the River Danube and to clarify the circumstances of the disaster, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Friday, after meeting Kang Kyung-wha, his South Korean counterpart.

Kang arrived to Hungary on Friday, in the wake of the accident which claimed the lives of at least seven South Korean tourists.

On Wednesday evening, a small sight-seeing boat collided with a river cruiser and sank by the Budapest Parliament building. The boat carried 33 South Korean tourists and two Hungarian crew members. Seven tourists were rescued, and the bodies of seven others found.

At a joint press conference on Friday, Szijjártó said there were “large-scale technical preparations underway” to recover the wreck of the boat as soon as possible.

High waters and bad visibility underwater make the work difficult and dangerous, he said. Divers already tried and failed on Thursday to get close to where it lays six meters deep, he said.

Szijjártó thanked all professionals working in the rescue and recovery missions and the civilians who helped with the rescue immediately after the collision.

The search is expected to take a long time, he said. The river is being searched all the way to the southern border, and the Serbian authorities are also cooperating, he said.

An Austrian team of divers is already onsite, and a South Korean specialist unit is expected to arrive on Friday, he said. Several companies such as the Hungarian Liszt Ferenc International Airport and the Polish airline company have offered their assistance, he added.

He noted that an investigation had been opened to uncover the circumstances of the accident. The captain of the cruise ship has been questioned as a suspect and arrested, he said. He also noted that the captain had filed a complaint against the suspicion.

Szijjártó again expressed his condolences to the people of South Korea, the families of the victims and wished the survivors a speedy recovery.

Kang thanked the Hungarian government and authorities for their work and said that the main focus was on finding those still missing. The area of search has therefore been expanded, she said.

The South Korean authorities are assisting with identifying the bodies already recovered, she said.

Kang noted that she had visited the site of the accident earlier in the day and that she was assured that everything possible was being done to find those missing and to recover the sunken boat. She also expressed her sympathies to the relatives of the South Korean and Hungarian victims.

May 31, 2019

The most serious ship collisions on the Danube from the past 50 years

Index has prepared a compilation of the most serious ship collisions that happened in Hungary on the Danube and of those that involved Hungarian casualties abroad.

Altogether 35 people were on-board on Hableány, the tourist boat that capsised on Wednesday evening.

There are still people missing, although the wreck of the boat has been found near Margaret Bridge on the bottom of the Danube.

The last ship collision of such a magnitude in Hungary happened decades ago. Exactly 65 years ago, on 30 May 1954, a steamboat nicknamed Pajtás tipped over near Balatonfüred. 22 people died, but the Socialist regime did everything to keep the tragedy under wraps.

Ship collisions on the Danube in Hungary

Index refers to the information gathered by MTI (Magyar Távirati Iroda, a Hungarian news agency) since 2007. All the accidents listed below resulted in personal injuries or even death.

15 August 2007: a hydrofoil craft collided with a motorboat near the construction of the M0 bridge in Budapest, and the man driving the latter died.
8 September 2007: two inland passenger boats headed towards each other collided in front of the Belgrád pier in Budapest. Eight people suffered light injuries.
21 September 2007: a motorboat capsised at the entrance of the Francia bay on the Danube near Soroksár. Out of the eight people on-board, seven could be saved, while the eighth passenger was found dead.
15 September 2016: two people fell into the Danube out of a boat near Szigetbécse. One of them died at the scene, while the other went missing.
6 August 2017: a float collided with a motorboat near Százhalombatta and Tököl. A child was saved, but another person sank.

Hungarian casualties abroad

Regarding the most serious accidents that took place on the Danube, Index refers to Folyamihajó:

5 September 1983: the MAHART Sirály I hydrofoil craft was on route to Budapest from Vienna, but it barely left Vienna when it barged into the Soviet Vilnius pusher-barge with a speed reaching 70 km/h. Two passengers of Sirály I died at the scene, and nine other suffered serious injuries.
10 September 1989: one of the most tragic accidents on the Danube in the 20th century took place on this day. In very limited visibility, a Romanian passenger ship collided with a Bulgarian pushed convoy and sank in a few minutes. Over 200 people died.
29 June 1991: an Austrian service motor vessel, March, collided with a Soviet convoy, Frunze near Hainburg, Austria. Three people were on-board on March, none of them surviving the collision.
22 October 1996: the flooding Danube flung the Slovakian Ďumbier pusher and its craft to the gates of the Freaudenau power plant and then squeezed it through the gates. Only one crew member could be saved while 8 others died.
2 October 2005: a kettle caught on fire due to a short circuit on the Romanian Olteniţa while it was on route to Bratislava from Budapest. Since the pump- and extinguisher equipment did not operate properly, the whole deck was on fire. 77 passengers and 44 crew members survived the accident; some of them jumped into the water while others were saved by the firefighters. However, one woman died; she burned in her cabin. Index writes that Olteniţa was supposed to retire that year.
11 September 2016: another Viking ship was involved in the last recorded collision on the Danube. Freya was on route to Budapest from Nürnberg when it collided into a bridge near Erlangen. The ship’s mate and a sailor – both Hungarians – died at the scene, but no others were harmed.

featured image: MTI/Balogh Zoltán

May 31, 2019

Ship collision – Hungarian and South Korean ministers at disaster site

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and his South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung-wha visited the site of Wednesday’s ship collision on the Danube in central Budapest, on Friday.

In the incident, a small sight-seeing ship carrying South Korean tourists collided with a large cruiser and sank. At least seven people died and 21 other have been reported missing.

The two foreign ministers were accompanied by Hungarian government officials, leaders of the disaster management authority, and South Korean diplomats.

For that matter, the Ukrainian captain of a cruise ship which collided with a sightseeing boat was detained after he was questioned as a suspect, police said late on Thursday.

Following an on-site inspection of the cruise ship, investigators working in cooperation with nautical experts seized evidence, police said.

The 64 year-old captain of the Viking Sigyn cruiser was questioned under suspicion of causing the mass disaster and was detained, the statement added.

The captain has not violated any rules, an attorney representing him told MTI later on Friday, adding that he has filed a complaint against the accusations. Balázs M. Tóth said that raising charges was “untimely” and there was not enough evidence to support suspicion. He added that the opinion of experts would be crucial.

The lawyer said in a statement that the captain has served 44 years in that capacity and had never caused an accident.

The captain has been shocked by the accident, he is sorry that he could not avoid the disaster, and has expressed his sympathy to the victims’ families, he added.

Meanwhile Gergely Karácsony, Budapest mayor candidate of opposition Párbeszéd, called for new shipping regulations, citing a boom in shipping on the Danube within the city. He proposed that large ships should be banned from cruising the river for sightseeing.

May 31, 2019