First reports here:
http://www.wftv.com/news/9537406/detail.html

A sign of the times we live in: every local TV news station is carrying live "breaking news" about the incident. The ship is not even back to port yet, and every station already has a passenger "live" on their cell phones, talking about the incident.

One woman claims the ship listed 60 degrees! Another woman of course compared it to the TITANIC and said that bodies were laying everywhere!

Official reports are saying about 30 people suffered injuries.

Rich

[ 07-18-2006: Message edited by: Linerrich ]

[ 07-18-2006: Message edited by: Carlos Fernandez ]

Just an update...

This was probably the scariest moment I have ever experienced. The water came up to the Promenade Deck and actually almost hit the lifeboats. We have heard that the rear and port side of the ship were fairly well in the air.

The stairwells turned into waterfalls.

The gift shops and casino turned into glass and chip graveyards.

The dining room right now is full of injured people and passenger docters and nurses are doing whatever they can to help.

The 5th deck seemes to catch the worst as there is blood all over the place. I saw a man with a broken foot hobble to the dining room bloody and crying and kids screaming.

The internet cafe is crowded with people booking flights home from Florida as they do not want to stay on.

I came on here promarily to see if anybody had loved ones on the ship and hadn't heard from them or were scared. I will check back and see if I can see if they are alright.

MIAMI, July 18 (Reuters) - A new cruise ship listed heavily after leaving Port Canaveral in central Florida on Tuesday, injuring some of its passengers, the ship's operator, Princess
Cruises, said.
The Coast Guard said it was not yet clear how far the ship, which has a capacity of 4,800 passengers and crew, had listed.
Princess Cruises, a California-based unit of Carnival Corp., issued a statement saying: "Crown Princess experienced an unexpected list to the port side as she began sailing north toward her final port of New York.
"The ship is safe, and seaworthy and we are currently investigating the cause of the list. We understand that some passengers were injured as the ship sharply turned and we are in the process of determining the number of injuries and their
extent."
A company spokeswoman said Princess Cruises was not disclosing the number of people injured when the incident occurred at about 3:40 p.m. EDT (1940 GMT). CNN reported 30 people were injured.
U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Donnie Brzuska said the ship listed because of a problem in the steering mechanism.
The Port Canaveral captain had issued an order to the ship to stay offshore until inspectors can determine if the vessel is safe to enter the port, Brzuska said.
"We don't want it to have another steering casualty in the port," he said.
Crown Princess, which is 947 feet (288 metres) long and weighs nearly 114,000 tons, was launched just last month.

A cruise ship listed sharply off Port Canaveral, Florida, injuring at least 37 passengers, one critically, according to the Cape Canaveral Fire Department.

Two victims were airlifted to local hospitals, according to paramedics that the Coast Guard transported to the ship as it returned to port. Ten ambulances, three helicopters, four buses and mass-casualty trailers were awaiting its return from the Atlantic Ocean.

Paramedics at the port said they were prepared to care for up to 100 passengers.

The critically injured passenger was a child. The child and one parent will be taken by helicopter to either Orlando or Melbourne, said Brevard County emergency management spokesman Bob Lay.

At least six passengers were seriously injured, the Cape Canaveral Fire Department said.

Rosalyn Postel, spokeswoman for port, said some passengers suffered broken bones, but she did not know the extent of other injuries. Princess Cruise Lines, which operates the Crown Princess, said in a statement that there were "numerous reports" of cuts, bruises and fractures.

The New York-bound ship developed a problem with its rudder, causing it to take a "heavy roll," listing hard to one side about two hours after its departure from Port Canaveral, the Coast Guard said.

Passenger Carol O'Connell told a Miami, Florida, television station that she saw flooding, overturned tables and broken glass everywhere, according to The Associated Press.

"There were people running for life jackets, and then afterward a lot of people hugging and crying, people looking for children," O'Connell told WTVJ-TV by phone. "The captain sounded so terrified, which led to my feeling of more panic."

Princess Cruise Lines said in a statement that the incident occurred at about 3:40 p.m. ET

"The ship is safe and seaworthy, and we are currently investigating the cause of the list," the statement said. "We are currently assessing the full extent of passenger injuries and have returned the ship to Port Canaveral to transfer the more seriously affected passengers to a medical facility ashore."

The statement also said that while the cause of the problem was unknown, "the watertight integrity of the ship has not been compromised, and it is safe for passengers to remain onboard while the ship is alongside in Port Canaveral."

The Crown Princess was on a nine-day Western Caribbean excursion out of New York, having made stops at Grand Turk, Ocho Rios, on Jamaica, and Grand Cayman Island. Port Canaveral was its last port of call before returning to New York.

PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The Crown Princess, a cruise ship making its fourth voyage, suddenly rolled heavily to its left Tuesday, injuring dozens of people, including two critically, officials said.

The ship had returned to port, where medical personnel were treating the injured. No deaths had been reported and all passengers and crew had been accounted for, authorities said.

The Crown Princess, which can hold 3,000 passengers, was 11.50 miles southeast of Port Canaveral en route to New York when it experienced problems with its steering equipment, causing it to roll abruptly to its port side, Coast Guard Petty Officer James Judge said.

Judge could not immediately say how severely the 113,000-ton ship listed. It first sailed last month.

Among the critically injured was a child, officials said. Another 10 people were seriously hurt and about 30 had lesser injuries, said Fire Rescue Capt. Jim Watson.

"There were people running for life jackets, and then afterward a lot of people hugging and crying, people looking for children," Carol O'Connell told NBC's Miami affiliate, WTVJ-TV, by phone.

"The captain came on and made an announcement that there was a problem with the steering mechanism and the captain sounded so terrified, which led to my feeling of more panic," she said.

O'Connell said she saw flooding, tables overturned and lots of broken glass.

The ship is owned by Princess Cruises, one of 12 brands operated by Miami-based Carnival Corp. The company said it was investigating the cause of the incident. The ship had just left Port Canaveral, on Florida's east coast, after a nine-day Western Caribbean cruise.

Princess seems to give people a lot back when something happens on their ships. The star princess incident they did a very good compensation with that too. Or atleast i think the offeres they gave with this incident and the star princess one sound good. But now if it was RCL or Carnival it would be a 200 dollar ship board credit. LOL

quote:

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Originally posted by Atlcruiser:
I think that Princess knows they have a serious situation on their hands and they want to put this behind them as soon as possible... and not go back and forth like Cunard did with the QM2.

Gordon

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P.S.: Altough I understand that this must have been a severe list and an extremely frightening event I doubt very much that the ship heeled 60 degrees as reported by some passengers - being under shock is one thing - going public with such statements something else.

[ 07-18-2006: Message edited by: Ernst ]

Monday, July 3
From the it had to happen department: Princess Cruises, of Movies Under the Stars fame, recently surveyed passengers on movies they thought were "the greatest" in a number of different categories, promising to show them onboard. "Titanic" won one of the categories. Even though the possibility of seeing "Titanic" during a cruise has been joked about a lot, Princess, true to their word, showed it on the giant outdoor screen aboard Crown Princess last week.

[ 07-19-2006: Message edited by: CGT ]

Of course we do not know exactly how the child was hurt, but nothing seems to be fixed down on ships, so furniture can cause a lot of damage.

Of course 20% degree list can feel like 60% to the layman.

[ 07-19-2006: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

OK, armchair engineers..... What was the cause?

Azopod (one or two) locking into side position with increased power forcing the list?

One of the specials on the QM2 stated the Azo's had enough power to roll the ship over if this happened.

Any other guesses?

Craig

[ 07-19-2006: Message edited by: vivavegas ]

Crown Princess has been built by Fincantieri and has not pods. Systems which have caused this might nevertheless be found on ships of other yards too.

26 degrees sounds more reasonable than 60 degress - mind you that this would be SEVERE - rudder action should not be able to cause such a list - at this angle the water would just not make it to the promenade deck. (asuming that the 'freeboard' is higher than 10m that the beam is 40 m - and rotation about the mid axis of the water surface intersecting area - which is not the case)

[ 07-19-2006: Message edited by: Ernst ]