River Cruise Ship Viking Sigyn Collides with Tour Boat in Danube — 7 Dead, 22 Missing

Posted on by May 30, 2019

Mermaid on the Danube

A Viking River Cruises ship, the Viking Sigyn, collided with a tourist sightseeing boat in the Danube River named Mermaid off Budapest on Wednesday night. Of the 33 Korean tourists and two Hungarian crew aboard the sightseeing boat, seven have been rescued, seven have been confirmed dead and 21 are still missing.  

The BBC reports that CCTV footage showed the boat that sank – Hableany, or Mermaid – being hit from behind by a larger tour boat – Viking Sigyn – near the Margit (Margaret) Bridge in central Budapest after 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT).

The captain of the Viking Sigyn, a 64-year-old Ukrainian identified only as Yuriy C. has been taken into custody by Hungarian police, suspected of endangering water transport leading to a deadly mass accident according to a police website. 

Videó: drámai felvétel a dunai hajóbalesetről

Viking has had a bad several months. In March, the cruise ship Viking Sky lost power and came perilously close to drifting onto the rocky Norwegian coast.  In April, the river cruiser Viking Idun collided with a laden chemical tanker, Chemical Marketer, in the Netherlands’ Western Scheldt.  

Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.

Comments

River Cruise Ship Viking Sigyn Collides with Tour Boat in Danube — 7 Dead, 22 Missing — 4 Comments

  1. Viking Cruises might do well to review its operating protocols and Watchkeeping practices most particularly with inclement weather conditions. This is the yet another serious situation the company has had.
    If one looks at the layout of these river cruise vessels the Bridge is situated about one third of the vessel aft from the bow. Looking out through the Bridge windows forward is the Sun deck complete with umbrellas, refer to the company river brochure, thus the forward visibility is restricted. In this recent incident the Viking vessel overran the smaller cruise vessel which sank with loss of life. It is quite possible that the Watchkeeper missed seeing the small cruise vessel due to restricted visibility.

    Good Watch