The Federal Service for Supervision of Transport (Rostransnadzor) has finished the investigation of the Bulgaria shipwreck which happened on July 10. It confirmed a version that water flowing through open cabin windows in a heavy storm was a direct cause of the Bulgaria's shipwreck. Still negligence and incompetence of ship owners and the crew are among causes.
A general cause of the shipwreck was multiple violations, including neglect of the rules stipulated in normative documents ensuring safe navigation when planning and preparing the ship for a voyage, during which no safe navigation was ensured; another factor which provoked the shipwreck was a low professional qualification of the crew and lack of discipline on board, Rostransnadzor said.
Rostransnadzor confirmed that water flowing through open cabin windows in a heavy storm was a direct cause of the Bulgaria's shipwreck. "A direct cause of the shipwreck was a considerable loss of balance under conditions of a storm as a result of which river water went inside the ship through open side windows and accumulated in ship compartments below its main deck; then the ship tilted to the right and sank as water continued to flood the ship through its starboard and the main deck," Rostransnadzor said in a statement today.
The ship Bulgaria sank 13.58 Moscow time near the village of Syukeevo Kansk-Ustinovskii region of Tatarstan. On the double-decked ship Bulgaria there were 201 people, 122 people were found dead, 79 were rescued.
Author: Irina Fomina