A lifeboat fell from a P&O cruise ship while docked in Ponta Delgada, Azores which has injured crew members.
A lifeboat has fallen from the P&O Arcadia cruise ship on Friday, January 5 while docked in Ponta Delgada, a Portuguese island in the Atlantic. According to Cruise Law News 5 crew members were injured and one of them seriously when the lifeboat snapped from its lines. No further details were posted but passengers have posted what happened on Facebook.
The Crew Center site mentions that the P&O Arcadia crew were doing a scheduled drill at the time. The British based cruise ship apparently stayed in port until midnight so that an investigation could take place and assess the damage.
Photos of lifeboat from P&O Arcadia which fell from davits at port of Ponta Delgada, Azores https://t.co/LYYlWITGES five crew members were in the lifeboat with one injured and hospitalized #cruise @pandocruises pic.twitter.com/w0Y31NjrUB
— James (Jim) Walker (@CruiseLaw) January 7, 2018
This type of incident has occurred before several times on different cruise ships. In early 2017 a lifeboat capsized from Grandeur of the Seas operated by Royal Caribbean and thankfully in that case there no injuries. In September 2016 2 crew members sadly died when a lifeboat fell from Norwegian Breakaway. In another tragic event a lifeboat detached from Harmony of the Seas which is one of the worlds largest cruise ships, 1 crew member died.
P&O Arcadia is currently on a 24-night round trip cruise which departed from Southampton, UK on December 16, 2017. The ships call in Ponta Delgada was the final before heading back to its homeport. The ship is 83,800 gross tons and can carry over 2,000 passengers at double occupancy.
