Captain of Budapest fatal ship crash was also involved in Dutch boat crash
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The captain of a cruise ship, identifies only as a 64-year-old Ukrainian national named as Yuriy C, who was involved in a fatal crash in Budapest last week was behind a similar collision in the Netherlands in April.
The Viking Sigyn crashed into a tourist boat, the Mermaid, on the Danube, on 29 May causing the death of 28 persons mostly South Korean tourists.
Both vessels involved in the incidents were operated by Viking Cruises.
The barge of Bridge Building Special Ltd on the River Danube near Margaret Bridge, the scene of a boat accident, in Budapest, Hungary, 07 June 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/Marton Monus HUNGARY OUT
The captain was later arrested but is denying any wrongdoing.
Prosecutors said he was the captain of a cruise ship involved in a non-fatal crash in April in the Netherlands.
Members of a South Korean rescue team work during the recovery operations at Margaret Bridge in Budapest. Photo: EPA-EFE/Zoltan Mathe
Viking Cruises is insisting that while Yuriy C was on board the ship involved in the Dutch collision, the Viking Idun, he was not serving as captain at the time.
It said the Idun was under the control of another captain.
Yuriy C has also been accused of deleting data from his phone following the fatal crash in the Hungarian capital. Prosecutors said it was unclear whether the deleted data was related to the incident.
South Korean and Hungarian workers work on the salvage a sunken pleasure boat on the Danube River in Budapest . Photo: EPA-EFE/YONHAP
According to prosecutors, Yuriy C was the captain of cruise ship that collided with a cargo vessel near the Dutch town of Terneuzen while sailing between the Belgian towns of Antwerp to Ghent on 1 April.
No one was killed in the Netherlands crash, but reports said that some passengers had suffered minor injuries.
