generalspeaking

Saturday, June 01, 2019

A New Meaning for 'Hit-and-Run'

"I saw that big cruise ship coming closer to us but I had never imagined it would ram our boat."
"The people plunged into the river in the darkness and shouted 'Help me!' while floundering in the waters."
"But I couldn't do anything for them."
Ms. Jeong, 31, South Korean tourist, Budapest, Hungary

"Our boat was turned over in an instant and began sinking."
"All those on the deck fell into [the] water and I think those staying in the cabin on the first floor couldn't probably get out of the ship swiftly."
Ms. Yoon, 32, South Korean tourist, Budapest, Hungary

Hungarian authorities search for remains from a tourist boat that capsized on the Danube

Boats, divers, spotlights, and radar scanning are involved in the massive search operation Getty Images

"I used to actually train [navy] ships on how to do man overboard and how crews are supposed to respond, so that training kind of kicked in, and I stayed topside."
"[My tour ship was two bridges downstream from the collision, so we were] keeping an eye out for possible individuals in the water."
"The first chap was inside a life-ring. He had it over his torso and he was looking up at me."
"The captain actually got the police boat to respond very quickly, and I'd like to think that they did recover him alive."
"We saw backpacks going through the water, empty safety rings, upper deck chairs, lots of garbage and then oil. All of this stuff was being swept down from the crash site."
Ken Hoffer, retired navy captain, Halifax, Nova Scotia

The majority of the tourists on the boat are reportedly from Asia

Those pulled from the water were taken to hospital with hypothermia and shock symptoms EPA

It took all of seven seconds after a collision between two tour boats, when the larger of the two knocked the smaller one sideways and the struck vessel sank. There were 35 people on board, 33 of them were South Korean tourists, and among them seven people were rescued. The ship's Hungarian captain and one crew member are among the missing, for a total of 21 missing, seven dead.

The sightseeing boat had completed its hour-long night tour of Budapest on Wednesday, and was preparing to stop at a disembarkment point when the larger cruise ship hit it under a bridge near the location of the parliament building, sitting close to the river bank. Survivors said twenty people had been on deck, taking photographs, while the others were in the cabin.

Ms. Jeong described her horror at witnessing what happened next when she and others on deck were thrown by the impact into the freezing Danube water after the collision. A lifeboat drifted toward her and she grasped hold, then threw a rope to another tourist, Ms. Yoon. Both holding on to the lifeboat, the women saw the heads of other people bobbing helplessly up and down in the fast currents of the river.

The Hableany boat - seen in this archive photo - has a capacity of 45 people for sightseeing trips Reuters

A crew member of another sight-seeing boat sailing nearby extended a hand to another survivor, Mr. Ahn, 60. But Mr. Ahn lost his grip, to be carried away by the rushing water until he grabbed a drifting plastic object that kept him afloat and saved his life. Rescuers, according to Ms. Yoon, were able to pick up those who were in the lifeboats or clinging to them, or who managed to hold the hands of people extending from other nearby boats.

She watched, she said, as the cruise ship that had rammed the boat she was on, kept sailing on, taking no measures at rescue after causing the collision. Hungarian police have detained the Ukrainian captain of the cruise ship, a 64-year-old man who is suspected of endangering water transport, which led to the deadly mass accident.

According to Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, underwater visibility in the Danube at the site where the tour boat sank is "practically zero", leading to complicated efforts to salvage the wreck. South Korean foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha stated at a joint news conference that a South Korean rescue team is slated to join the search for the 21 still-missing South Koreans.