Smiling passengers voiced relief and gratitude after safely leaving a
fire-damaged luxury cruise ship that was stranded at sea for 24 hours
and limped without air-conditioning into a Malaysian port Sunday.
The Azamara Quest drifted off the southern Philippines with 1,000 people
aboard after flames engulfed one of its engine rooms Friday, injuring
five crew members. 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.
Two ambulances came out of the port shortly
after the ship docked, followed more than two hours later around
midnight by a fleet of buses taking passengers to hotels. Inside the
buses, several people appeared tired, but many others smiled and one man
waved to reporters waiting outside the port.
Malaysian police and consular officials from countries including the U.S., Britain and Canada were also present.
"I'm
glad I'm safe," ship passenger Dorothy Irvine, a retired school
principal from Toronto, told reporters at a Sandakan hotel. "The Azamara
crew kept us informed all the time and went beyond the call of duty.
The captain was phenomenal."
Margaret Whawell, of Melbourne, Australia, said there had been "no panic, no chaos, everything was under control."
It
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.
Port officials stopped journalists from
approaching the Azamara Quest on Sunday because of what a Malaysian
agent for the ship's operator said was part of the company's
instructions.
"Everything is normal except that it's very hot
there because there is no air conditioning," New Zealand Deputy High
Commissioner Brian Smythe told reporters before the passengers
disembarked. "The New Zealanders I spoke to are fine. They were well
taken care of."
The fire on the Azamara Quest had been
extinguished immediately, but five crew members suffered smoke
inhalation, including one who was seriously injured and needed hospital
care, the ship's operator has said.
A Sandakan hospital staff member said a Guatemalan man was being treated, but could not give other details.
The
11-deck vessel, which features a casino, spa and shopping boutiques,
was carrying 590 passengers and 411 crew members. Over one-third, or
201, of the passengers were American, according to lists of passenger
and crew nationalities provided by the ship captain to the Philippine
coast guard.
The passengers from 25 countries also included 98
from Britain, 89 from Australia, 45 from Canada, 39 from Germany, 32
from Austria, 16 from Belgium, 14 from New Zealand and 14 from
Switzerland.
Azamara Club Cruises, the ship's Miami, Florida-based
operator, said in a statement earlier Sunday that the ship was sailing
at a top speed of only 6 knots (11 kilometers or 6.9 miles per hour) to
reach Sandakan.
Company president Larry Pimentel is expected to meet with the passengers and crew in Sandakan by Monday.
Engineers
on Saturday morning restored electricity in the ship to re-establish
essentials including running water, plumbing, refrigeration and food
preparation, the company said.
The company said the rest of the
cruise would be canceled. It said it would fully refund the passengers
and provide each guest with a future cruise certificate for the amount
paid for the aborted voyage. Azamara Club Cruises is part of Miami-based
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
Passengers have been given several
options for what to do in the next few days, such as fly home through
Singapore, said Smythe, the New Zealand diplomat.
The crew
includes 119 Filipinos, 58 Indians and 50 Indonesians. The vessel left
Hong Kong on Monday for what was supposed to be a 17-day Southeast Asian
cruise. It made a port call in Manila and left for Sandakan on
Thursday. It had been scheduled to make several stops in Indonesia
before arriving in Singapore on April 12.
Instead, the Philippine
coast guard said it drifted Saturday in the Sulu Sea about 130
kilometers (70 nautical miles) south of the Philippines' Tubbataha Reef.
The area lies between the Philippines and the island of Borneo, which
is divided between Malaysia and Indonesia.
A month after 32 people
died when the Costa Concordia ran aground and capsized off the western
coast of Italy in January, a fire on the Costa Allegra left that ship
without power and adrift in waters known to be prowled by pirates in the
Indian Ocean for three days.
Both Costa ships are part of Costa Crociere, SpA, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp., te world's largest cruise operator.
Source: www.jakartapost.com
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