Cruise co-pilot says, one engine was slow:Mahesh Patel stayed trapped till last moment, didn’t leave anyone

Thirteen people died when a cruise sank in Jabalpur’s Bargi Dam on April 30, including eight women, four children, and one man. All bodies were recovered after nearly 60 hours of rescue operations. Twenty-two people survived. One of them, co-pilot Mahesh Patel, who was in charge of the cruise that day, has been dismissed on the Chief Minister’s orders. Speaking to Bhaskar, Mahesh said he remained inside the sinking cruise till the end and did not abandon anyone. He called the incident unforgettable, adding that though it wasn’t his fault, he still apologises to everyone. How did the accident happen? Mahesh said, one round of the cruise takes approximately 45 minutes. In this, we cover a distance of 7 kilometers. This involves 3.5 kilometers going and 3.5 kilometers coming back. The cruise departed at 5:16 PM on April 30th. We were returning, it must have been around 6:45 PM. We were approximately 50 meters from the shore. Suddenly, strong winds started blowing. Its speed must have been around 100 kilometers per hour. I thought of parking the cruise near the LT bridge. I told the staff that the wind was strong and to distribute life support jackets to everyone. The staff distributed jackets to everyone. In no time, the cruise started filling with water. One engine of the cruise was slow. It stopped working. Then the cruise started sinking in the water, tilting to one side. I was inside, because the pilot cabin is on the upper side. When the cruise sank in the water, the waves threw me out. My leg was stuck in the railing. The pressure of the water freed my leg from the railing. I came out of the cruise. When I reached the shore, people made me sit down. After that, I was taken to the hospital. How many tourists had tickets on the cruise? On this, he said, there were 30 people on board the cruise, including 6 children. Tickets were not issued for small children. A call came from above saying that there were tickets for 29 people, while one was free, so we should depart. After the accident, I came to know that there were four-five extra people on the cruise who did not have tickets. The work of issuing and checking tickets is done from below. When was the cruise last maintained? Mahesh said the cruise was maintained 3 years ago. Since then, the cruise was like new. If there was any minor fault, the Hyderabad company would tell us how it could be fixed. How many years have you been operating the cruise? Have you received training? He says I have been operating the cruise for the last 10 years. I took 28 days of training in 2012. Besides operating the cruise, we were also trained on how to rescue people in emergencies. Meteorological Department had issued a 3-day yellow alert, yet why was the cruise operated? Were you aware of this? On this, he says, I did not receive any instructions from above to stop cruise operations or that a yellow alert was issued. If we had been given clear instructions about this, we would never have launched the cruise into the water.