On September 5, 2009, the tourist ship "Ilinden" sank in Lake Ohrid, killing 15 Bulgarian citizens. The cause was a failure of the ship's steering system, built in 1920.
On July 5, 2011, the Ohrid Basic Court found the two defendants guilty. The ship's captain, Filevski, and the Croatian citizen Baic, who issued a certificate of suitability for the vessel, were sentenced to one year in prison each. The court found that Sotir Filevski did not adhere to the shipping regulations and frivolously considered that there was no danger by boarding the ship with more than 50 Bulgarian tourists. Baic was also convicted for failing to comply with the shipping law.
Two weeks after the tragic incident, the ship "Ilinden" was raised to the surface. The teams of the Croatian company "Dubina" pumped the water out of it for two hours. The families of the 15 Bulgarians who died when the ship "Ilinden" sank in Lake Ohrid received 4,500 euros each from insurance.