Manama, Bahrain: Passengers expressed worries over the precarious balance of a traditional dhow-turned-pleasure boat, which swayed dangerously even before it set off on its cruise, ending with the vessel flipping over during a sharp turn, drowning 57 people, a British survivor said Saturday.
The dhow, an ancient form of sailboat used in the Gulf, had a permit only for use as a floating restaurant, not to go on passenger cruises, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. Also, the boat's captain, who has been detained for questioning, was not licensed to pilot the craft, he said.
"According to Coast Guard records and the Tourism Board, the boat was registered as a floating boat, but not as a cruiser permitted to sail," minister spokesman Col Tariq al-Hassan said.
The owner had applied for a sailing permit but it had not yet been granted, he said.
The dead from Thursday night's accident included 21 Indians and 15 Britons, including a number of top executives involved in the construction of Bahrain's World Trade Center, a nearly completed complex of two 50-story skyscrapers in the shape of sails that are to be the tiny Gulf island nation's tallest buildings.
Sixty-nine people were rescued at the time of the accident -- though two of them, an Indian man and a British woman, were not confirmed safe until Saturday because they had been picked up by private boats.
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