Pioneer boat accident: young women were submerged for 45 minutes

Pioneer boat accident: young women were submerged for 45 minutes

VIENNA. After the capsizing of a Bundesheer pioneer boat on the Danube near Hainburg in September, the accident report was presented Wednesday.

Image: APA / HARALD SCHNEIDER

What happens today to the two young women, who almost drowned themselves as troublemakers of the German army "Girls Camp" in September in a pioneer boat crash on the Danube near Hainburg, remains a secret. "At the express request of the parents", there is no information, said Colonel Michael Bauer yesterday after the presentation of the report of the Commission of Inquiry on the army.

For 39 and 45 minutes, respectively, the two women – caught under the overturned boat – were submerged until the task force lifted the pioneer ship already moored to the ground and pulled the victims out of the Danube. The girls were resuscitated. In such cases, doctors fear permanent damage to the brain.

The fact that women were wearing lifejackets was fatal in hindsight. Because these prevented the two women from freeing themselves. Rescuers on the shore had to first pierce the lifejackets in order to retrieve them from both sides of the water.

video: That's what the makers of the accident report presentation said

Capsizing would have been avoided

Who is responsible for the accident? The question of guilt should be clarified by the judiciary, the commission of inquiry having considered only the evolution and the possible causes of the accident. The conclusion: the capsizing was avoided because the skipper had made a mistake.

After the eight meter long motorboat with five soldiers and eight girls on board with the bow already immersed in the water, the driver should slow down, the report says. "Maybe the skipper evaluated the situation differently." His driving style was "unobtrusive until the accident".

Then the accident and the rescue ran:

9:49: The boat capsizes and drifts into the Danube. The soldiers are trying to save themselves and the girls on a second pioneer boat. Five women are under the boat, three are released immediately. Two are missing. Where were you Hunted down the Danube? Start searching for the dead immediately.

9:56: After being alerted, the vessel, equipped with a winch, leaves the maritime authorities of the port of Hainburg to ask for help.

10h00: The soldiers pull the capsized boat, under which are the missing girls, on a sandbar on the left bank of the Danube. Four minutes later, Hainburg firefighters, who are having an exercise there, support the rescue. In addition, the situation is uncertain, as are the missing women, research continues downstream.

10.07 clock: In addition, the completeness of participants is verified by counting. The boat with the winch arrives. But now, the forces seem to have realized that the missing had to be under the capsized boat.

10:15 A fireboat with paramedics moves on the left bank of the shore to the sandbar where the pioneer boat is located. Two minutes later, the boat is up. The real rescue operation begins.

10:28: The first woman is saved from the Danube, six minutes later, the second missing person.

"It was never clear that the women were under the capsized boat.Mistakes were made.We would have preferred that the boat did not capsized," said Colonel Bauer.

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