MSC ship hits dock in Venice

[Quo Vadis?]

https://metro.co.uk/2019/06/02/least-five-injured-cruise-ship-smashes-dock-venice-9774386/

 

[Lady Arwen]

I also saw this on another forum.  I have a feeling that it won't be long before all cruise ships are banned in Venice.  I hope all of the injured passengers are doing well.  How awful for the passengers on Opera.  I don't know how many passengers were on the tourist boat at the time of the crash.

[bookitdanno]

VENICE, Italy — A towering, out-of-control cruise ship rammed into a dock and a tourist river boat on a busy Venice canal on Sunday morning. Italian media reported that at least five people were injured in the crash.

The collision happened about 8:30 a.m. on the Giudecca Canal, a major thoroughfare that leads to Saint Mark’s Square in the northeastern Italian city.

Videos of the crash show the cruise ship, apparently unable to halt its momentum, blaring its horn as it plows into the much smaller river boat and the dock as dozens of people run away in panic.

Venice is a tremendously popular site for both tourists and cruise ships, especially during the summer tourist season.

The cruise ship’s owner, MSC Cruises, said the ship, the MSC Opera, was about to dock at a passenger terminal in Venice when it had a mechanical problem. Two towboats guiding the cruise ship into Venice tried to stop the massive cruise ship, but they were unable to prevent it from ramming into the river boat.

“The two towboats tried to stop the giant and then a tow cable broke, cut by the collision with the river boat,” Davide Calderan, president of a towboat association in Venice, told the Italian news agency ANSA.

Calderan said the cruise ship’s engine was locked when the captain called for help.

Following the accident, calls for banning cruise ships in Venice, long a source of contention in the over-extended tourist city, were renewed.

The MSC Opera was built in 2004. It can carry over 2,675 passengers in 1,071 cabins. According to its sailing schedule, the cruise ship left Venice on May 26 and traveled to Kotor, Montenegro, and Mykonos, Santorini and Corfu in Greece before returning Sunday to Venice.

 

How awful for the passengers on the river boat!

Their cruise is over, too.

BTW, how does a engine get "Locked"?

Are there no safeguards for this?

[Fixit2010]

Didn't I see something similar in Speed 2?

[Presto2]

Lucky that someone reacted quickly and untied the smaller boat so that is moved when it was 'pushed' by the ship. If it had been tied to the dock I fear that the outcome would have been far worse in terms of fatalities. Thank goodness that no one was seriously hurt.

 

I too wonder how longer it will be before they stop ships sailing past St Mark's Square …….

[Presto2]

36 minutes ago, Fixit2010 said:

Didn't I see something similar in Speed 2?

 

Can 'hear' the theme tune in my head now …………………...

[ghstudio]

Very lucky that there were so few injuries.....I doubt they will close Venice to ships, but they may have more stringent rules about harbor speed, tugboat requirements, etc.   I think sailing past San Marco is really a different issue although this does point out the risk of a ship going out of control and damaging the tourist  center of Venice.

 

On a personal note, hopefully there is little damage to the dock itself...we leave from Venice on the Constellation in less than a month.

Edited June 2, 2019 by ghstudio

[helen haywood]

The dock the ship hit is not the dock the cruise ships dock at.  The Opera was on her way to the cruise ship docks.   The ship ran into a docked ferry along the canal.

[Cruising89143]

10 minutes ago, helen haywood said:

The dock the ship hit is not the dock the cruise ships dock at.  The Opera was on her way to the cruise ship docks.   The ship ran into a docked ferry along the canal.

 

The Opera hit a river vessel. Not a ferry. 

[helen haywood]

Sorry.  Semantics.  My point was she did not damage the dock the cruise ships use.

[gerelmx]

 

Edited June 2, 2019 by gerelmx

[Cruising89143]

After watching the videos it does remind me of the Speed II movie. Wow!

[Cruising89143]

26 minutes ago, ghstudio said:

Very lucky that there were so few injuries.....I doubt they will close Venice to ships, but they may have more stringent rules about harbor speed, tugboat requirements, etc.   I think sailing past San Marco is really a different issue although this does point out the risk of a ship going out of control and damaging the tourist  center of Venice.

 

On a personal note, hopefully there is little damage to the dock itself...we leave from Venice on the Constellation in less than a month.

 

The subject of banning ships has not stopped and this is now flaming the fires once more. I suspect something will be done.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48489158

[mom says]

There is a cruise port in Mestre. Why haven't they just required docking of the big ships over there? 

[Alakegirl]

The location involved is not the one used by Celebrity, but it is used by Azamara.

 

The dock area used by Constellation was not affected by the allision

Edited June 2, 2019 by Alakegirl

[Quo Vadis?]

Just imagine if you had just flown into Venice to sail on that river boat.

 

Ship happens.

 

[villauk]

Good grief 😮.

[excitedofharpenden]

3 hours ago, Alakegirl said:

The location involved is not the one used by Celebrity, but it is used by Azamara.

 

The dock area used by Constellation was not affected by the allision

Azamara ships moor a little further up than where the Opera collided (where I've marked in red) so hopefully there won't be be an issue, but she hit the dock right outside the San Basilio terminal building. Very scary. 

 

Phil 

[PTC DAWG]

Coming in HOT

[SeaHunt]

10 hours ago, Quo Vadis? said:

https://metro.co.uk/2019/06/02/least-five-injured-cruise-ship-smashes-dock-venice-9774386/

 

 

Scary - when you watch this in full screen, it looks like they are assisting people running off the gangway of the river cruise and then about :11 the gangway collapses and some are left hanging onto it.

 

 

[4774Papa]

It seems to me that these huge ships should have a fail safe method of shutting down engines that are accelerating.

 

 

[Quo Vadis?]

I tried to find a press release from MSC but the only announcement was about a Celebrity connection, a former consultant for Celebrity's menus.

 

" MSC Cruises announced that Jacques Van Staden has joined its global team as Vice President, Food & Beverage, reporting to Andrea Gangale, SVP Product Development and Guest Experience. In this role, based at the Company’s global headquarters in Geneva, Van Staden will lead all Food & Beverage activities for MSC Cruises worldwide."

 

[blueboro]

A little over a year ago another MSC ship hit the pier in Roatan, Honduras causing some real damage.  What is going on with MSC?  Seems some of their older ships have some serious technical issues.

[zanderblue]

Stories surfacing in UK press now about very poor support by MSC for passengers affected by this.

One family left stranded at Rome airport after they missed their flight home as a direct result of being detained on board the Opera after the incident. Not good!

[Sascol]

Celebrity related?