"Bulgaria", the motor ship. The collapse of the ship "Bulgaria" in the Kuibyshev reservoir

In 2011, July 26, "Bulgaria" was raised from the depths of the Kuibyshev Reservoir near the village of Syukeevo of the Republic of Tatarstan. The ship, which keeps a grim and sad memory of the terrible tragedy that occurred on July 10.

This crash is the largest transport disaster on the river in the history of modern Russia.

A bit from the history of the ship before the tragedy

The motor ship was built in 1955 in Czechoslovakia. Since then, it has never been overhauled. The original name of the ship is "Ukraine".
It can be noted that the sailors have one superstition: you can not change the name of the ship, under any circumstances. However, in 2001 the ship was given a new name - "Bulgaria".

It coincided that the Kuibyshev reservoir was organized in 1955, when the Zhigulevskaya HPP was built , overlapping the Volga. At that time, hundreds of villages with remnants of residential buildings remained under water.

The crash site of "Bulgaria" was the same ill-fated place where once this ship was already in trouble.

This is another horrifying fact - "Bulgaria" once already drowned in exactly the same place and under similar circumstances. This was told by one of the navigators who were at that time one of the press publications. This happened in 2007. During a severe storm, the lower cabin was flooded (water penetrated into the rooms also from open portholes). At that time, the crew found a way out of the situation and prevented the ship from sinking to the bottom.

Day of tragedy - the collapse of the ship "Bulgaria"

July 9 - the first day of an ordinary cruise of the "Bulgarians" along the Volga ... No one even suspected that this trip would turn into a terrible tragedy for the whole of Russia.
After a successful arrival in Bolgar, on the second day (July 10, 2011), closer to dinner, around 15.15 the ship headed for the return journey. In total there were 201 passengers on it.

A message was received from the radio operators about the deterioration of the weather. Gusts of wind were supposed to be up to 18 m / s, and this is a completely tolerable normal phenomenon. However, after a while the wind began to intensify and gradually turned into a storm. The ship began to heel.

As a result of the increase in the ship's inclination, the volume of incoming water in the ship's sections through the open portholes reached 125 tons per minute. In the next few seconds, starboard roll sharply increased to 20 degrees. Approximately at half past two the irreparable happened - the ship "Bulgaria" sank.

About technical malfunctions of the vessel

At that time in the engine room of the ship, as usual, the drivers worked to troubleshoot one of the engines that had broken down at the very beginning of the tour. This is almost an ordinary, fearless and reparable situation for seamen.

And yet it was saying that "Bulgaria" is a motor ship, which for a long time needed major repairs. And at the same time tickets for nearby cruises were bought out long ago, and nobody was going to cancel them.

Saving the victims, helping them

Unfortunately, two ships sailing past a sinking ship - the dry cargo ship Arbat and the pusher Dunaisky 66 - did not render the necessary assistance to Bulgaria and its passengers.

The first responded to the trouble was the cruise passenger ship "Arabella". In addition, the crew provided the rescued and first aid.

The captain of "Bulgaria"

The captain of the tourist vessel was Alexander Ostrovsky. According to eyewitnesses, he tried to get the ship off the bank, but the ship did not reach it very much.

Perhaps the captain at that time realized that the ship was suffering an imminent catastrophe. Although the speed was the maximum, until the shallow depth of the ship did not reach only 40 meters. According to the calculations of the representatives of the Ministry of Emergencies, in the event of the ship being stranded, the results and consequences of the tragedy would not be so terrible and tragic.

Captain Alexander Ostrovsky, along with many passengers, died. On the same boat was the sister of the captain, who also died.

Senior electrician of the ship Vasily Bayrashev said that the captain until the last hoped to save the ship and passengers and tried to do something.

Consequences of the disaster

It happened from the shore in three kilometers. The ship "Bulgaria" suffered a terrible catastrophe. The dead are 122 people. A total of 79 passengers were rescued, 14 of them were immediately hospitalized. The rescued were delivered to the city of Kazan aboard another cruise ship - "Arabella".

Immediately after the shipwreck, operations continued for several days to raise the "Bulgaria" from the bottom of the reservoir and to search for the bodies of the dead with the involvement of a huge number of vehicles and rescuers.

Investigation of the crash

In early 2013, the investigation into the criminal case on the incident with "Bulgaria" was completed.

The general director of the company - the subtenant of the motor ship Inyakina Svetlana received subsequently a relaxed punishment: 11 years were replaced with 9 and a half years of imprisonment in a general regime colony.

Also, the following defendants in this case deserved punishment: R. Khametov (assistant to the captain of the "Bulgaria") was sentenced to 6.5 years; Irek Timergazeyev, head of the Kazan department of the Volga department of the State Marine Rescue Service, 6 years imprisonment; Former chapters. The state inspector of the same department Vladislav Semenov - 5 years; Yakov Ivashov, senior expert of Rosrechregister (Kama branch), was released from the punishment and released right in the courtroom, having been granted amnesty (he was initially sentenced to 5 and a half years).

However, the prosecutor's office of the Republic of Tatarstan appealed the verdict, considering it too mild. The prosecution asked to change the above verdict of the court of the Moskovskiy district of Kazan and re-appoint four more defendants to the defendants: Inyakina S.- 14 years of age 6 months, Timergazeyev I. and Semenov V. - 8 years; Ivashov Ya. - 7 years of imprisonment.

Captains "Arbat" and "Dunaysky-66" were fined in the amount of 130-190 thousand rubles.

Causes of tragedy

The main causes of the collapse of the "Bulgaria" are the heavy wear of the ship, congestion by its passengers and gross violations in the process of exploitation, as well as a severe storm.

Among other things, subtenants of the ship did not have the necessary permits to use it for tourist cruises.

233 people as much as possible under the construction project was to accommodate the "Bulgaria". The ship is designed for 140 seats for passengers. In that cruise there were 201 people on board with a large number of children. Among the passengers were pregnant women.

Many reasons accompanied this tragic outcome of the journey of "Bulgaria".
One of the reasons was insufficiently correct technical equipment with life-saving appliances. On many bodies drowned, extracted by divers, were waistcoats. However, they never saved anyone. And that means they did not meet the necessary requirements.

Many people were in the internal premises of the "Bulgaria". They did not even have time to run to the deck. Everything happened very quickly. According to eyewitness accounts, the ship took only two to three minutes to water. For such a time there were no chances to get out of the cabins and holds.

Most importantly, the ship was technically faulty and walked with a large roll to the starboard side. Just this board and scooped up a large volume of water when turning, which was the main reason for the ship's departure under water.

The causes of shipwrecks of this kind are always not single, complex. The most likely in this catastrophe are the aforementioned or a combination of various causes: congestion; technical issues; Adverse weather conditions; Inadequate equipping with rescue equipment. All this in general led to a terrible disaster - the deaths of more than a hundred people (of which 28 are children).

Cause of death of a large number of children

On all tourist ships there is a special program of animators for the time of worsening weather conditions during the trip. She had and Bulgaria. The motor ship contained a game music room for such cases. All the children were invited to the party. The oldest child was 12 years old.

At a time when the ship began to heel, the children enjoyed the performance. Frightened children screamed, they called for the help of their parents. Due to the fact that adults rushed to save their children, a crush began. In such an environment, only 79 of the 201 passengers could be saved, 28 children were killed.

With all this, only seven children were found in the game room. The rest were in the corridor and in other spaces of the ship. They did not manage to get out.

Saved, survivors

Relatively happy were those who at the time of the tragedy was upstairs, on the deck - they were simply washed away with water. Those who survived on rafts and other objects on the water surface survived. Many simply held on to something. Many even did not have time to realize what had happened before the end.

The hope of their salvation grew stronger when the Arbat and the Dunaysky-66 appeared on the horizon. Awful - they passed by.

Witnessing Remarks of Remained Passengers

The rescued witness that "Bulgaria" sank in a couple of minutes. Even before the boat was lowered, only two inflatable rafts opened.

One of the survivors said that he was resting on the ship together with his wife. At the moment when the "Bulgaria" began to heel, he grabbed his wife by the hand and ran out onto the deck. There are already crowded many passengers. The man found a lifeline and, tying him to his wife, threw her over the side. For it, he was able to send there and the man with two children, and then himself jumped into the water. They were rescued by local fishermen on boats.

Another man told how he saved a 5-year-old who lost his mother and grandmother, and then saved a woman. However, he was unable to save his wife, pregnant woman.

Such heartbreaking stories from each surviving passenger "Bulgaria" a lot. And almost all of them say that many crew members tried to save themselves first.

Kuibyshev reservoir has witnessed a terrible tragedy, which brought death to people on a pleasant journey. This catastrophe is the result of unpardonable irresponsibility.