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Ukrainian Captain Gets 5 1/2 Year Sentence For Deadly Budapest Boat Accident


The Mermaid, which sank in the Danube in 2019, is lifted from the river as part of a salvage operation. (file photo)
The Mermaid, which sank in the Danube in 2019, is lifted from the river as part of a salvage operation. (file photo)

A Ukrainian captain of a cruise liner was sentenced to five and a half years in prison in Hungary for his role in a 2019 accident in which his boat hit and sank a smaller boat on the River Danube, killing 25 South Korean tourists and two crew. In the worst disaster on the Danube in more than half a century, the smaller boat called the Mermaid, which had 35 people on board, sank after being hit under a bridge in Budapest during heavy rain. The Mermaid's captain and a crew member also died and one Korean is still unaccounted for. To read the original story by Reuters, click here.

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