Captain, motorboat owner jailed for sailors’ deaths

DUBAI: The Dubai Misdemeanour Court sentenced a motorboat captain and the owner of the motorboat to 6 months in jail on charges of causing the death of 4 sailors by electrocution through their fault. The court also obligated them to pay the blood money to the deceased.

The court said that the captain of the motorboat did not care about what he must do according to his profession.

The case dates back to June 2022, when it was reported that there was a malfunction inside a motorboat trailer loaded with stones that sailed from Al Hamriyah Port in Dubai.

According to the maintenance official, he said that he received a signal to return to the port ater he sailed due to a defect in the motorboat trailer, so he returned and ater stopping, he saw a sailor trying to rescue another inside the water tank in the trailer.

He added: “One of the sailors reported that the assistant captain asked 3 other sailors to empty the water from inside a water tank in the trailer, because there was a slope in one of its corners, but he refused because he wanted to rest and have lunch, so the assistant captain and the other sailors went to empty the water with a water pump.”

The sailor added that he saw his colleagues and the assistant captain enter the tank, where one of them turned on a pump ater connecting it to power, so they were all electrified because there was no system to cut off the power. He added that he tried to save them, but three of them died before he reached the place and the fourth died minutes later.

According to the case file, the captain and the owner of the boat were summoned, as the first admited that he was not on board at the time of the incident.

The forensic report proved that the captain’s negligence and his absence during the boat’s sailing caused the accident.

The report indicated that the owner of the boat did not provide security and safety measures for the sailors, and that the water pump was unfit for use.