Luxury cruise ship tilts and rolls, several injured
PORT CANAVERAL, Florida: A new luxury cruise liner making its first sailing rolled heavily after it left the port Tuesday, causing injuries to dozens of its passengers, as they were violently flung across decks and stairways. Two of the injured are serious, according to information provided by U.S. Coast Guard.
The 290-metre ship, Crown Princess, was carrying 3,100 guests and 1,200 crew.
The Coast Guard said it was not clear how the mishap happened. An earlier version given by a Coast Guard spokesperson was that the accident occurred as a result of a problem in the steering system of the ship. This version was later corrected. All passengers and crew have been accounted for, the Coast Guard said.
The two critically wounded, one of them a child, were flown by helicopter to a hospital in Orlando. Fifteen other injured were taken to hospitals.
The ship, which sailed out of Port Canaveral Tuesday, was on its way to New York at the end a 9-day Caribbean cruise. After the mishap, the ship righted itself and was escorted by the Coast Guard back to a wharf.
Weighing 114,000 tonnes, the Crown Princess, is not as large as cruise liners Queen Mary 2 or Freedom of the Seas.
Princess Cruises, a Santa Clarita, California-based unit of Carnival Corp, which owns the ship, said on its website that the ship was "safe and seaworthy" after an unexpected list to its starboard, or right, side. The company said it is investigating the cause of the incident.
According to the passengers, as the ship rolled, seawater flooded several upper decks, and created a tsunami-like situation. Tables, glasses and lounge chairs went flying, they said.
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