Überlingen/Sipplingen (dpa/lsw) – A week after the sinking of a push boat during a storm, the sunken wreck was recovered from Lake Constance on Friday. Task forces and experts first heaved the boat under water piece by piece towards the shore, and a crane finally pulled it ashore at Sipplinger Hafen, as the police announced early Saturday morning. There the ship was placed on a low-loader shortly before midnight and taken over by the Überlingen fire brigade.
Divers had previously tried to lift the boat out of the 71 meter deep water from the bottom of the lake with the help of air-filled lifting bags. However, this failed several times, the police said. During the salvage work, a so-called oil boom caught leaking fuel at the lake surface to protect the environment from damage.
According to the police, the boat was originally attached to a drilling platform near Überlingen, which is used for test drilling to expand the drinking water supply on Lake Constance. The platform had turned due to strong winds, the boat became detached and capsized. After the accident a week ago, small amounts of fuel escaped, but the oil barrier prevented it from spreading in the lake. According to the information, the drinking water supply was not endangered.
It was initially unclear whether the preparations for expanding the drinking water supply would be delayed by the accident. The test drilling in the lake was almost complete when the boat sank, said a spokeswoman for the Bodensee water supply association.
