19 June 2009

Engine fire hits Royal Princess cruise

An engine fire on Princess Cruises’ ship Royal Princess has left the vessel anchored five miles off Port Said in Egypt.

The blaze last night was extinguished and all 733 passengers and 393 crew are accounted for, the company said.

But passengers were called to emergency stations as a "precautionary measure" while the ship operated on emergency power and lighting.

Royal Princess, on the fifth day of a 12-day Holy Land sailing between Civitavecchia in Italy and Athens, is due to be brought into Port Said today to enable the damage to be assessed.

There is no indication at this stage what caused the fire on the ship, which previously operated as Minerva II for Swan Hellenic and orginally entered service in 2001 as R8.

The full assessment is due to be completed in the Egyptian port by tomorrow (Saturday).

A company statement said: "Our ship's crew, local representatives ashore and the Princess Care Team, who are currently en route to the ship, will be doing their best to make passengers comfortable during this time, and it is also our intention to make tours available for passengers.

"Once the assessment is complete we will have an understanding of how the remainder of the cruise, or any future sailing, will be affected, and also what compensation we will be offering to passengers.

"We understand this is a disappointing development, and we apologise for the disruption to our passengers' cruise.

"We will be keeping our passengers fully informed throughout this process and we deeply appreciate their patience and understanding."

by Phil Davies