Showing posts with label off Indonesia by engine fire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label off Indonesia by engine fire. Show all posts

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Cruise ship stranded off Indonesia by engine fire

(CNN) -- Engineers are battling to restore power to a cruise ship carrying about 1,000 people after it was left adrift off Indonesia by an engine fire, cruise company Azamara Club Cruises said.

All of the nearly 600 passengers on board the Azamara Quest are safe but five crew members suffered smoke inhalation during the fire, the company said in an online statement.

One of the injured crew needs urgent medical care and will be taken to a hospital as soon as the ship reaches shore, it said.

The cruise liner is expected to head straight to Sandakan in Malaysia once propulsion is restored, the company said.

"The damage caused by the fire will require us to cancel the rest of Azamara Quest's voyage once the ship arrives in Sandakan," it said.

As of Saturday morning local time, the ship was located 200 miles off the port city of Balikpapan, on the Indonesian island of Borneo, in calm seas, the company said.

The fire broke out at about 8:20 p.m. local time in one of the ship's engine rooms, where it was contained and quickly extinguished, the company said.

Power was restored to one of the engines late Friday, allowing the ship to restart its air conditioning, running water, plumbing and refrigeration, Azamara Club Cruises said.

The fire broke out after the Azamara Quest had set sail from Manila, in the Philippines, Officer Francis Wong, chief of communications for the Philippines Navy, told CNN.

The ship's captain reported the fire to the Philippine naval authorities, who sent a Cessna aircraft and two patrol gun boats to the cruise ship in response, he said.

As of noon Friday Philippine time the fire was under control, he said.

Wong said he did not know where the ship was headed next.

"When we left the ship was safe and close to Palawan," he said, referring to an island province in the Philippines.

The Azamara Quest was on a 17-night sailing voyage that departed Hong Kong, China, on March 26, and was due to include port calls in the Philippines, Borneo and Indonesia before concluding in Singapore on April 12.

Azamara Club Cruises, which operates two cruise liners, is part of the giant Royal Caribbean Cruises group.


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