Bulgaria (ship)

People's memorial in Kazan riverport

At the time of the incident, Bulgaria's total complement of passengers and crew is estimated to have been at 201, though she was only rated to carry 120.[9] On 11 July 2011, a government official from the Ministry of Emergency Situations said that the likelihood of finding additional survivors was slim, leaving a presumed total of up to 129 dead.[13][14] On 12 July 2011, the divers recovered bodies of Bulgaria's captain Alexander Ostrovsky and his spouse. As of 25 July 2011, the officially confirmed death toll was 122, with all bodies found so far identified.[7] Among the dead were believed to be at least 50 children.[5]

Seventy-nine people (56 passengers and 23 crew members) were reported to have survived.[3] Of those, 76 were rescued by the cruise ship Arabella, a few others were saved by other boats, and one swam to the shore.

Dead and injured by country[15]

Nationality	Dead	Injured
Russian	120	13
Belarusian	2[16]	1
Total	122	14

According to survivors' accounts, two ships (the oil tanker Volgoneft-104[17] [other sources claim it could have been the Volgoneft-38] and the freighter Arbat) passed by after the Bulgaria had sunk. The passing ships did not stop to help and the ICRF launched an official investigation into these claims.

In accordance with Russian criminal code article 270,[18] the captain of a ship that refuses to help in disaster could be sentenced to up to two years of deprivation of freedom. However, these ships, being heavy freight barges with minimal crews, were not technically capable of stopping while passing, nor of turning back in an acceptable time. The barge owners refused to comment.[19] The technical reasons may not be sufficient to justify the refusal, as article 270 of the Russian criminal code allows the only reason to refuse help as when it could endanger a ship or its crew or passengers.[20][21] Assistance from the towboat Dunaisky 66, which was towing two barges, was refused by Arabella's captain who believed that the towboat would not have provided useful help and would only have hindered the rescue.[22] Both Volgoneft-104[23] and Volgoneft-38[24] are equipped with life boats and, while coordinates are not precisely tracked, were in the region of the accident.[19] Investigators did not charge captains of any oil tankers in relation to the Bulgaria disaster as of 15 July 2011; the only captains charged with failure to save are the captains of Arbat (Yuri Tuchin) and Dunaisky 66 (Alexander Egorov). These two ships seem also equipped with life boats.[25]

On 28 February 2012, Alexander Egorov was found guilty by court. However, the court imposed only a relatively minor penalty of 190,000 RUB (less than 4,900 EUR). Egorov pleaded not guilty, claiming that entering the disaster area while towing barges would have hindered the rescue operation. He was considering filing an appeal.

Salvage operation of Bulgaria on 17 July 2011

On 22 July with the help of two salvage cranes Bulgaria was partially lifted to the water surface. On 23 July she was moved to the nearby Gulf of Kirelsky, where her hold was sealed. On 25 July the bodies of the last two missing passengers were found in their cabins. On 26 July Bulgaria was moved to a floating dock for further disaster investigation.

On 11 July, an anonymous source close to the committee investigating the sinking said that the likely cause was portholes that were opened because of the lack of air conditioning on the vessel, which allowed water to enter Bulgaria when the captain attempted to turn the ship during stormy weather.[10][14]

Evidence suggested that a number of safety violations could have caused or compounded the disaster. According to one survivor, emergency exit doors on the boat had been sealed or locked shut. Investigators also suggested that the boat set sail with a list to the right, possibly due to full sewage or fuel tanks on that side, and with one of its engines not properly functioning.[10] According to investigators, sailing with a malfunctioning engine is a serious violation of passenger boat regulations. Some survivors told Russian news agencies that they begged the captain to turn around because of the list, but were ignored. There were conflicting reports about whether the boat and the cruise operator were properly licensed for passenger cruises.[10] Survivors from the crew claimed that Bulgaria had lost electric power minutes before she sank, which effectively disabled ship controls, and prevented the crew from making a distress call over radio. For some unknown reason the emergency power did not come on. It was not until Arabella picked up the first survivors that authorities found out the name of the vessel and the true scale of the disaster.

While the ship was not licensed to carry the number of passengers that were on board, she probably was not technically overloaded as in the past she had been tested with as many as 2,000 passengers.[26]

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev holds a moment of silence, 11 July 2011.

President Dmitry Medvedev on 11 July ordered "a complete check on all means of passenger transport" in Russia in response to the sinking of Bulgaria, and also declared 12 July a national day of mourning for those killed in the incident.[5]