Captain, owner jailed after 4 sailors electrocuted on cruise ship

A captain and the owner of a ship have been jailed for six months and ordered to pay blood money to the families of four sailors who died on the ship in June.

The Court of Misdemeanours and Violations convicted the captain and owner of negligence, ordering them to be imprisoned for six months, and to pay the legal blood money to the families of the deceased. The court deemed that the four sailors died of electrocution on the cruise ship due to negligence and lack of appropriate safety measures put in place by the ship's captain and owner.

The incident took place last June when a malfunction was reported on a cruise ship that sailed from Al Hamriyah Port in Dubai. After the ship set sail, a maintenance official said he received a signal to return to the port due to a defect on the ship.

When the ship returned to port, one of the sailors was seen trying to save another sailor inside the vessel's water tank.

He said that the assistant captain asked him and three of his colleagues to drain out water from the tank as there was a slope in one of its corners. Four sailors and the assistant captain entered the tank. When one of them started operating the pump after connecting it to the electricity point, the men were electrocuted.

While the assistant captain did attempt to save his colleagues, since there was no system in place to cut off the electricity, three of his colleagues died, while the fourth died minutes later.

According to the case file, the captain and the owner were both summoned, with the captain admitting he was not on board at the time of the incident.

In the forensic lab report, it was found that the captain's negligence, as well as his absence, led to the accident. The report pointed out that the owner was also at fault for not providing appropriate security and safety measures for the sailors, and that the water pump was unfit for use.