PEKING -- A quarrel involving two drunken riverboat pilots caused an overcrowded ferry to tilt sharply to one side and sink near the northern city of Harbin last month, killing 174 people, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
The Peking Evening News said the two pilots of the ferry and seven other people were arrested or detained in connection with the Aug. 18 mishap on the Songhua River in Heilongjiang province.
'According to investigations, the direct cause of the sinking was that two pilots ignored the pleas of their superiors and operated the passenger boat while they were very drunk,' the newspaper said.
The newspaper said two unidentified operators began quarrelling with their bosses while ferrying 234 passengers from Sun Island Park in the middle of the river to nearby Harbin. The boat was designed to carry only 148 passengers.
It said 174 people were killed in the accident.
'Because of their carelessness, the boat went out of control and listed to the left,' the paper said. 'As a result, some of the passengers were tossed into the water and in the end the boat itself sank.'
