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Rhine boat crash claims two lives

An investigation is under way into the collision of two boats on the Rhine River in Basel that left two men dead.

Published: 3 September 2012 08:43 CEST

One man died in hospital on Saturday from serious injuries suffered when a Belgian barge collided with a German motor boat carrying a survey crew the previous day, the cantonal prosecutor’s office said on Sunday.

The German boat was capsized, throwing four members of the survey crew into the water, including the seriously injured man, who died despite extensive medical care, the office said.

He was initially resuscitated on a jetty by paramedics after being pulled from the water before being transported to Basel’s university hospital.

The skipper of the survey boat is missing and presumed dead, the online website of Blick newspaper reported.

Two other survey crew victims fished out of the river were later able to leave hospital, Basel authorities said.

No-one aboard the barge was injured, the prosecutor’s office said.

The survey crew was from the HafenCity University of Hamburg.

The crew had been commissioned, in cooperation with the Swiss Rhine port authorities, to test depth measurement technology for the river’s shipping lanes.

The crew’s sunken motorboat was salvaged by a fire boat

The exact circumstances of the collision remain unclear.

Basel police issued a request for witnesses who may have seen the incident to contact the force or to phone the city’s crime centre on 061 267 71 11.

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German woman sues airport security for missing flight to Mallorca

Airport security controls. Photo: DPA

The 32-year-old businesswoman from Bochum, near Dortmund in western Germany, was travelling to Palma de Mallorca from Cologne-Bonn airport on May 19th last year, the Bonn newspaper General Anzeiger reports.

The woman reportedly arrived at the airport to check-in two hours before her flight departure time. After having to wait more than an hour at the security control area, despite raising concerns with staff that she was running out of time, the woman raced to the gate to catch her flight but she was too late – boarding was already completed.

At the Bonn district court, the woman is suing the Federal Republic of Germany – as the employer of the Bundespolizei, the Federal Police – for more than €738 in damages.

After missing her flight she was forced to take a plane from Düsseldorf to her destination the next morning, which had cost €540, according to the General Anzeiger.

The passenger is accusing the Federal Police, which is responsible for airport security controls, of a 'breach of duty': she says not enough control facilities were open when she was due to fly, and too few staff were working.

She believes a lack of organization led to her missing the flight.

However, the defendant disagrees. Police argue that there were enough controls open on that day, and that the number of staff depends on the amount of passengers passing through the airport. The police received this information from the airport operator.

The court must now clarify whether the queue was actually caused by a lack of staff or by other causes which the police are not responsible for.

A settlement offer of more than €150 was rejected by the plaintiff, the newspaper reports.

The case will be reviewed and a decision will be made by judges in Bonn.

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