A boat accident could have been avoided "DiePresse.com

After the capsizing of a German army pioneer boat on the Danube near Hainburg in September, the Defense Ministry on Wednesday presented its accident report. As a result, the disaster on 1 September near Hainburg could have been avoided.

The accident occurred in the context of an alleged camp of girls in the army. The eight-and-a-half-meter, two-and-a-half-ton Pioneer boat was equipped with 13 people – eight participants at the demonstration and five soldiers. 14 people would have had room. The boat was not overloaded.

The accident occurred because the skipper went through the wave of a boat in front of him. As a result of this maneuver – considered by itself alone – the bow of the boat was moved by swinging first and then down. The boatman was constantly pushing. This left the bow of the boat lowered. He literally got stuck in the water. A strong bow wave was created. Since the boat had already been tilted by crossing the stem (so to speak, by the curve it was driving), the water of the front wave could easily penetrate down the boat. In seven seconds, the boat was almost filled with hundreds of gallons of water. The tilt became steeper because of the weight of the water until the boat rolled over. So capsized.

Two victims were resuscitated

Two women, aged 22 and 18, were unable to free themselves. So do not go away. Or free yourself otherwise. You must know: all wore the equipment of the federal army, which was also a weight for "splint".

According to the commission's protocol, the two women were out of the water only 39 or 45 minutes after the boat capsized. At first, they were probably still in a bubble under the boat. After that, they were under the water.

The keel above the floating boat was a mile and a half longer, stranded on a sandbank near the shore. Even when the boat was already near the shore, it was still not clear that the two young women were trapped under the boat. As their lifejackets were inflated automatically due to contact with the water, they had not been able to dive under the edge of the boat (down the Danube), then Reach the surface. Due to the high buoyancy of the life jackets, the women were pushed against the bottom of the boat in the wrong direction.

Parents do not want to make their state of health public

After their recovery, both women had to be resuscitated. The Ministry of Defense did not want to announce how they are going now. Women's family members had specifically asked not to share this information, he added.

As expert Hermann Steffan explains, the skipper should have just regained his momentum. Then the bow would have resurfaced, the water had drained to the rear or had been removed by the bilge pumps. However, as the speed was not reduced, the front wave upset, according to Steffan on the boat, hundreds of liters per second. "If the skipper had reduced his speed to zero, nothing would have happened," said the evaluator.

An explanation of the boatman's behavior (he has 400 hours on army boats) could be: The push can drive the boat and thus direct or maneuver. The thrust also stabilizes the boat. At zero thrust (the relatively modern boat does not drive with a propeller, but with propulsion thrusters), the boat would probably be rather unchecked on the Danube. That such consideration has actually been made can only explain the operator himself. He did not talk to the media. Colonel Herbert Walzer said: "The captain was probably overtaken by this situation."

Is a boat driver charged?

If the event will also have penal consequences, it is not in the field of the army, said the Ministry of Defense. The prosecutor in Korneuburg has to decide on new measures in this regard. He was sent the 60-page investigation report (the report itself was not published by the military). The boatman, a professional soldier at the rank of sergeant, is threatened with a lawsuit for negligent badault. The man is still in use. So he was not suspended.

The Defense Ministry has repeatedly expressed its condolences to the victims on Wednesday – also on behalf of Foreign Minister Mario Kunasek. He could guess "what pain and sorrow the victims have suffered," Walzer said.