Boat crash: 14 people dead. The President took the investigation under his personal control

Yesterday a touring boat “Ivolga” capsized and drowned during excursion tour near Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi in Odesa region. This morning the rescue team found this morning two more bodies. 14 people were killed, 22 rescued and transferred to the hospital, Joinfo.ua reports.

President Petro Poroshenko expressed his deep condolences to the families of the victims and announced that he took the investigation of the tragedy under his personal control.

October 19 was announced mourning day for victims in Odesa region.

Deputy Prime Minister Gennadiy Zubko arrived to Odesa region and participated in a meeting of Emergency Commission in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi created by Odesa regional administration to analyse the causes and consequences of the tragedy.

“We expect that by the end of the day at the regional level will be set up headquarters of civilian safety. It will organize monitoring and control of vessels safety, licenses of captains, and most importantly – rescue trainings to avoid such situations in the future”, – said the minister.

After this incident the prosecution authority initiated a criminal proceeding under part 3 of article 276 of Ukrainian Criminal Code (violation of safety rules of railway, water or air transport operation).  The article provides imprisonment for a term of five to ten years.

“Unfortunately, because of the negligence, the captain didn’t signaled SOS. The information about the tragedy was received only from the radio traffic. All the rescue services were sent out immediately,” – said Zubko.

Today the Commission has decided to lift the boat from the bottom without the permission of the owner and check other bodies to confirm the number of victims and conduct the full investigation. The boat drowned 1.5 km from the shore.