Tragedy during safety exercise on Thomson Majesty cruise ship in La Palma

[Janet]

An obligatory safety exercise ended in tragedy this lunchtime on the Thomson Majesty cruise liner docked in La Palma. The exercise involved a lifeboat, but this fell into the sea leaving the eight on board trapped underneath. Five crew members died and another three were critically injured. The injured have been transferred to the general hospital, and they and the five dead are said to be foreigners, though their nationality has not been specified. I'll update if and when there is more information available. JA

[Perikles]

Los muertos son tres marineros de nacionalidad indonesia, un filipino y un ganés.

[Janet]

The tragedy was caused by the breaking of the foreward rope securing the lifeboat, causing the rear hook to fracture, and the craft to fall vertically into the sea and leaving it upside down with the crew members trapped underneath the uppermost cover, said Santa Cruz de Tenerife ports chief Leandro Melgar in a press conference. The three surviving crew members were in the rear of the lifeboat and were thus able to free themselves, though not without injuries: two of them are in the Hospital General de La Palma, though the third has been released and has returned to the cruise liner. Resuscitation efforts on the three poor souls who died continued for some time, in one case for 45 minutes. A tragic accident in a routine exercise. JA

[Delderek]

Five killed during safety drill on Thomson cruise ship


An investigation is taking place after five people were killed and three injured during a safety drill on a Thomson cruise ship docked in the Canary Islands.

The incident happened earlier today on the Thomson Majesty while it was docked in Santa Cruz on La Palma.

Thomson confirmed that all of those killed and injured were crew.

One of those injured has now been discharged from hospital and the other two are expected to be released from hospital imminently.

"Our thoughts are with the families of those involved," Thomson said in a statement.

"We are working closely with the ship owners and managers, Louis Cruises, to determine exactly what has happened and provide assistance to those affected by the incident. We are also working closely with all relevant authorities and will be co-operating fully with their investigations."

According to Spanish reports, the tragedy happened when a lifeboat fell from the vessel during an emergency drill.

Around 2,000 passengers are believed to have been on board the ship at the time, but it is not yet known if the cruise has been cancelled.

The Thomson Majesty is a 20-year-old ship owned by Cyprus-based Louis Cruises and leased to Thomson.

Spanish media said those killed were three Indonesians, a Filipino and a Ghanaian, while two Greek nationals were seriously injured and another Filipino slightly hurt.

It is not known what caused the boat to fall.


Sunday, February 10, 2013

   

[Nova]

Tragic indeed.  Hope you don't mind Del, I'm merging this with the existing thread 

[Delderek]

Tragic indeed.  Hope you don't mind Del, I'm merging this with the existing thread 

Oh dear, how the hell did I miss the thread.

[NAH]

ITV news can't even get this correct. They said 'Tenerife' on the TV news and even their website says Tenerife even though further down their page refers to La Palma. Damned annoying when they get something so basic wrong, how can one trust anything they publish?

[Perikles]

ITV news can't even get this correct. They said 'Tenerife' on the TV news

So did the BBC on-line news.

[Janet]

BBC got it from me (yes really!) ... and they corrected it very quickly. It's because Santa Cruz is also the name of La Palma's port/capital.

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

DM has pics here.