Just heard about this on the radio. Many dead. Seems river boat was built in Bulgaria in 1955 - questions as to whether or not it had been inspected recently. Sank on the Volga.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...76A09M20110711

This wasn't the kind of riverboat that a foreign tourist is likely to be on. It was a day excursion boat. None of the major companies operating popular week-long river cruisers would allow such overcrowding.

Very sad Russian transport systems are quite safety challenged

Also Aviation as well as navigation accident risk 13X normal.

Worse in fact than Africa...

So caveat emptor when travelling there although this was

not a tourist cruise ship still wise to be very careful.

cruisecritic.com best reviews on safest ships there.

Very sad... my prayers are with everyone that has been affected by this tragedy.

Margarita

Very sad story. It is a local tour boat and not the "major brands".

Information I received indicated that there were many Bulgaria tourist. When the ship hit something, the majority of passenegers and crew were in the dining room. Ship's bottom deck flooded quickly, tipped over and sank in 3 minutes giving virtually no chance to escape.

I thought River cruise would be a whole lot safer than Ocean Cruise. Obviously this is not quite the case. My TA mentioned that striking sandbar is quite a common occurance on River cruises. Obiously, this one hit something else.