Rock falls on boats – “So many injured, some with open fractures”

First some stones fell into the Furnas reservoir in Capitólio, Brazil, and seconds later a rock face weighing more than 1000 tons. Several videos show the moment when the gigantic boulder loosens and falls onto two cruising excursion boats. Eight people were killed in the accident – they were all in the same boat named “Jesus”. At least 15 people were injured and hospitalized – including three difficult injured.

Flavia de Sa from Belo Horizonte was in a boat nearby with her sister around 12.30 p.m.when the boulder crashed into the water. «We were so lucky », says the physiotherapist on the radio station CBN. 30 seconds before the crash, her boat had passed the scene of the accident. «We were still right in front of the rock», she says. then shaHalles so quickly. The eyewitness regrets: «None of the passengers wore a life jacket. Because it is just not compulsory, nobody puts them on. Only the children in the other boats were wearing life jackets.»

After the tragedy happened, the people from the other boats were very helpful. Many approached the disaster scene, the Flavia de Sa. «like a wararea” describes how to pull casualties out of the water. «It was very sad. So many injured, some with open fractures»says the woman.

«I looked at the rock, and some small stones were falling», says the eyewitness Andréia Mendonça from Patos de Minas to the portal “O Globo”. You even asked the skipper about it. This meant, it been «just a few pebbles ». When Mendonça looked back at the rock, he was already falling. “It was a terrible scene”.

Rovilson Teixeira has been working with speedboats on Lake Furnas for six years. On Sunday he visited his nephew, who was piloting one of the boats when the boulder came off. «The stone fell on its side by Romildos Speedboat that because of the wave that was forming, capsized. When the block fell, it knocked over a lot of people», Rovilson tells the portal “O Tempo”. The 32-year-old Romildo Teixeira kam mwith two cuts on the head to the hospital.

Videos of passengers on other boats trying to warn the victims of the accident go viral. «This block comes loose! Guys, get out there! »screams a woman. «There fall vmany stones … for god willen, run, go! »is one other Voice heard. Also the recording of Flávio Freitas in March 2012 will be currently lively commented. The doctor had written on a photo that showed a long vertical crack in the rock wall above the water.

When asked whether the boats even had a permit to drive on the reservoir, the commander of the Minas Gerais fire brigade, Edgard Estevo, wanted to, do not enter: «The Brazilian Navy has to answer this question. They are the ones who decide on the approval of the ships», he says. The information is currently not available to him.

The Brazilian Navy, which participated in the rescue operation, announced an investigation to determine the cause of the accident. the Governor of Minas Gerais commented on a possible cause of the tragedy via Twitter: “We are experiencing the pain of tragedy in our state today, triggered by the heavy rains that detached a rock face on Lake Furnas in Capitólio,” wrote Romeu Zema. In the state it had recently rained heavily, as in the northeastern neighboring Bahia.

In the meantime, divers have been sent to the lake, located around 400 kilometers north of the metropolis of São Paulo, whose canyons are a popular excursion destination in the region. The extensive Furnas reservoir in the Rio Grande is also known as the “Sea of ​​Minas”.