HELP REACHES PASSENGERS ON CRIPPLED CRUISE SHIP
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- The nearly 4,500 passengers and crew of the Carnival Splendor have no air conditioning or hot water. Running low on food, they have to eat canned crab meat and Spam dropped in by helicopters. And it will be a long, slow ride before they're home.
What began as a seven-day cruise to the picturesque Mexican Riviera stopped around sunrise Monday when an engine-room fire cut power to the 952-foot vessel and set it adrift off Mexico's Pacific coast.
The ship began moving again Tuesday night after the first of several Mexican tugboats en route to the stricken liner began pulling it toward San Diego, where it was expected to arrive Thursday night, Carnival Cruise Lines said in a statement.
U.S. Navy helicopters were ferrying 70,000 pounds of supplies, including the crab meat, croissants, Pop Tarts, Spam and other items, to the ship.
The Seahawk helicopters were taking off with dangling palettes of supplies from the USS Ronald Reagan, an aircraft carrier diverted from training maneuvers to help. It arrived at the cruise ship late Tuesday.
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I really, really hope she meant pallets...but not palates, that would be gruesome. Pilates, maybe?
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Hilarious about those pallets. A lesson on doing research before writing. The A/C is not an issue as the air temperature is 62F. Whew! the toilets are now working. Before someone asks why they are delivering food it must be because of concerns with refrigeration and no power to cook hot food still it is surprising to me. A lesson to the cruise lines on looking after 4500 or more persons. Perhaps they will may attention to points we Safety Officers, both retired and active, have been making for years.
ReplyDeleteGood watch.
I'm also guessing that the issue was a refrigeration failure. Had a similar issue once on an ocean-going tug once, one day out of Los Angeles. Grim, grim, grim. On a cruise ship the passengers reasonably expect gourmet meals, which means a large percentage of the stores taken are fresh meats and fresh produce. About twelve hours without power and all you have left is a huge mess. Hopefully this will send a message to the cruise lines (and tug boat companies!) that in addition to haute cuisine you need to have some reasonable amount of non-perishables onboard, for just such an emergency. It only takes about 12 hours without food for an MRE to taste really, really good.
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