Revelry at sea turns to tragedy

MANAMA, Bahrain — The construction executives from 16 countries were out on an evening cruise, celebrating their progress in building the 50-story, sail-shaped twin towers of Bahrain's World Trade Center.

Less than half a mile off the coast, some passengers crowded the dance floor on the upper deck of the 85-foot boat while others lingered at dinner on the deck below.

Suddenly, the boat, the Al-Dana, began a sharp turn and swayed. The passengers lost their balance and fell overboard as the craft turned over in the inky waters.

"I fell to the floor, and then I slid into the sea," said Indian survivor Jaikumar George.

Once it tipped, George said it became clear that the pleasure boat wasn't equipped for an emergency. There were no lifejackets or other flotation devices, or lifeboats.

"People were screaming and yelling, they were trying to climb back onto the ship," George said.

Of the 126 people aboard, 57 drowned, 67 were rescued and two remained missing after the boat capsized Thursday night in fair weather. Twenty-one Indians and 15 Britons were among the dead.

Bahraini authorities have declined to discuss the cause of the disaster, saying they would wait for results of an investigation ordered by Prime Minister Sheik Khalifah bin Salman Al Khalifah.

The Al-Dana was a modified version of the traditional dhow sailboat common throughout the Gulf. An official with the vessel's owner, Al Kobaisi Travel and Tours, said it was an old dhow recently refitted for dinner cruises. The Al-Dana is 85 feet long and 23 feet wide, according to the Bahraini coast guard.

The official said the vessel could carry a maximum of 150 people. Dinner is normally served while the vessel is docked, he said. Later, the ship routinely sails for two hours close to the shore. The official said the vessel had a small kitchen, and food served to passengers was cooked on shore.

Col. Tariq Al-Hassan, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said Friday that 140 people were aboard the Al-Dana when dinner was served while it was docked at the harbor, but 14 of them disembarked before the vessel sailed.

Al-Hassan said the ship's captain, a non-Bahraini, survived and was being questioned along with his assistant.

South Africa-based construction firm Murray & Roberts Group said "more than 50 senior employees from various companies working on the World Trade Center Project have been lost."

The dead included the project's chairman, David Evans, 56, a Briton; and project director Will Nolan, 50, also British, the company's Web site said.

The shell of the office tower complex dominates Manama's waterfront. According to the Web site, the project was fast nearing completion to become "the world's first to suspend electricity-generating wind turbines between two commercial tower structures."

Murray & Roberts Chief Executive Brian Bruce said the company was launching an investigation into the choice of the Al-Dana as the venue for a celebration.

The dead from other nations included five South Africans, five Filipinos, four Pakistanis, four from Singapore and one each from Germany, Ireland and South Korea. The only American aboard the vessel, a civilian woman working for the U.S. Navy base in Bahrain, survived.

George, the Indian survivor, suggested the Al-Dana was not designed to carry so many passengers.

"The stability of the boat wasn't good," he said from his bed in Salmaniya Hospital in Manama. He had deep cuts and bruises.

"There was something wrong with that boat. It was oscillating so strongly when other boats were stable."

George, an engineer with the Swiss firm Hilti, said the vessel began rocking with increasing force. Passengers on the upper deck fell over and slid along the deck, which shifted the boat's weight to one side. His colleagues spilled into the sea and the boat flipped, drowning many diners on the lower deck, he added.

He and other survivors clung to the capsized vessel until rescuers arrived, while those trapped inside drowned.

Associated Press reporter Omar Sinan contributed to this report.