Bulgaria Urges In-Depth Technical Check of Deadly Boat in Macedonia

On September 5, the Macedonian tour boat “Ilinden” sank into the waters of Lake Ohrid, killing 15 Bulgarian tourists on board. Photo by BGNES

Bulgarian lawyers will demand that the technical check of tourist boat Ilinden, which sank in the Ohrid Lake on September 5, 2009, leading to the death of fifteen Bulgarians, is expanded, insiders have said.

The check now is in the hands only of engineers from Skopje, which the Bulgarian lawyers find insufficient and insist that naval experts are also included.

The court in the Macedonian city of Ohrid has rescheduled for January 18, 2011 the first hearing on the trial for the tourist boat Ilinden, which sank in the Ohrid Lake on September 5, 2009.

The postponement of the hearing was announced because Branko Baic failed to appear in the courthouse on Tuesday.

Baic, who is a Croatian technician, was the representative of the German company Lloyd, which issued the necessary certificates ensuring the road worthiness of the Ilinden. The last certificate was issued only four months before the tragedy.

The Croatian and the captain of the vessel, Sotir Filevski, have been charged for committing a serious crime.

Insiders say Baic is unlikely to turn up at the court room for he fears that he will get arrested.

After the accident, Filevski was arrested immediately and was held 30 days in custody. At present, he is under house arrest.

At the time of the tragedy, there were 54 Bulgarian tourists and three crew members on board. The tourists were going on a trip to the Monastery of Saint Naum, situated south of the city of Ohrid. About 200-300 meters from the shore, the boat sinks in minutes.

According to the official documents, the vessel had the capacity for 43 people.

The versions about the cause of the sinking of the ship have to do with overloading, a torn balancing rope, incorrect distribution of the people on board, and mistakes by the captain.

The Bulgarian organizer of the ill-fated trip to Ohrid a year ago, Boryana Georgieva, has already been sentenced for carrying out business activities in violation of the Tourism Act. She was sentenced to pay a fine of BGN 4 500, and was banned from commercial activity for 2 years.

The Ilinden vessel was produced in 1924 in Regensburg, Germany, as a military boat later refashioned into a tourist ship. Its last technical check had been carried out by Lloyd in May 2009.

Bulgaria has awarded medals and citizenship to the Macedonians who took part in the rescuing of the drowning tourists, most of whom came from the town of Pirdop.

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