Monday, April 2, 2012

Stricken Azamara Quest cruise ship safe at port

By msnbc.com news services

Updated April 1, 9:32 a.m. ET:

A luxury cruise ship stranded at sea for 24 hours because of a fire has safely reached a Malaysian port.

The Azamara Quest was adrift off the southern Philippines for 24 hours with 1,000 people aboard after flames engulfed one of its engine rooms Friday night.

It restored propulsion the next night and reached the harbor of Sandakan city in Malaysia's eastern state of Sabah on Borneo island late Sunday.

Police and buses were waiting at the port to take the passengers to a hotel.

A fire broke out in the engine room of the luxury cruise liner as the ship was steaming for Malaysia Friday, disabling its engines and leaving it drifting off the coast of Borneo in Indonesia. Five crew members were injured.

According to a statement from?Azamara Club Cruises?posted on its Facebook page, the blaze started at approximately 8:19 p.m. ship's time (8:19 a.m. EDT) while Quest was en route from Manila, Philippines, to Sandakan, Malaysia.

Crew members suffered smoke inhalation and were being treated in the ship's medical facility, a statement late Friday said. One crew member was in serious condition.

Azamara Club Cruises said the fire was contained to the engine room and was quickly extinguished.

Royal Caribbean International said there were approximately 300 Americans on board out of a total of 617 guests, NBC reported. Azamara Club Cruises is a member of the Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. There are no reported passenger injuries, and Azamara had described the mood onboard as "calm."

Late Friday, the cruise line said engineers aboard the ship had?restored power to one of the ship's engines. "This additional power has permitted the ship to re-establish air conditioning, running water, plumbing, refrigeration and food preparation onboard for the comfort of our guests and crew," a statement said.

Quest was on a 17-night sailing that departed Hong Kong, China, on Monday, March 26, and included port calls to Manila, Philippines; Sandakan (Sabah), Malaysia; Palapo (Sulawesi), Benoa (Bali), Semarang and Komodo, Indonesia and was meant to conclude in Singapore?on Thursday, April 12.

The remainder of the cruise has been cancelled, and Azamara is offering guests on the stricken ship a full refund for the cruise and a certificate for a future cruise worth 100 percent of the cruise fare paid for their Azamara Quest sailing.

The company's president and CEO Larry Pimentel was planning to fly to Sandakan to meet passengers personally.

The Azamara fire was the latest in a series of accidents hitting luxury cruise liners since January, when the Costa Concordia capsized off the coast of Italy, killing 32 people.

NBC News, the Associated Press and Dan Askin of Cruise Critic contributed to this report.

More from Cruise Critic

?

ronan ronan diane sawyer clay matthews matt kemp rumpelstiltskin rumpelstiltskin

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.