World’s biggest cruise ship, Harmony of the Seas, suffers fatal accident in Marseilles.

Accident mortel sur l’Harmony of the Seas : que s’est-il passé ? What happened?

Un canot de sauvetage du Harmony of the Seas s'est décroché lors d'un exercice.
Un canot de sauvetage du Harmony of the Seas s’est décroché lors d’un exercice. ©

AFP BORIS HORVAT. Life boat detached during safety drill.
(L: 362mtrs, W:66mtrs, H:72mtrs. Decks: 20, Pax: 6400, Crew: 2400.)

Un canot s’est décroché lors d’un exercice à bord de l’Harmony of the Seas, plus gros navire de croisière au monde, amarré à Marseille. L’accident a fait un mort et quatre blessés. A life-boat broke away during a crew safety drill on board the world’s biggest cruiser, moored in Marseille. One died and four were injured. 

Comment est survenu l’accident? How did the accident come about?

L’embarcation a fait “une chute de 10 mètres” avec cinq personnes à son bord, “toutes des membres de l’équipage“, a encore ajouté Julien Ruas. Le canot, accroché au niveau du cinquième pont, a chuté “côté mer”, dans l’eau, et non sur le quai. “Cet accident a eu lieu dans le cadre d’un exercice qui se fait hebdomadairement et qui consiste à sortir un canot de sauvetage pour le mettre à la mer“, a détaillé le procureur de la République de Marseille, Xavier Tarabeux.

The lifeboat fell 10 metres, with five crew on board. It unhooked from the fifth deck and fell heavily into the water on the sea side (starboard) of the ship, not on the quay wall (Port). “This accident happened during a weekly crew safety drill which involves launching the lifeboat onto the sea.

Des investigations sont en cours pour déterminer comment “le câble ou l’accroche” ont pu se rompre et conduire le bateau à “tomber brutalement à l’eau”, a détaillé le procureur. Le bateau de croisière battant pavillon des Bahamas et appartenant à l’armateur américain Royal Caribbean, en escale à Marseille, se trouvait à quai dans le bassin Léon Gourret au moment de l’accident.

Investigations will try to determine how the cable let go and unravelled driving the lifeboat heavily onto the water. The Bahama registered cruise ship owned by the American Royal Caribbean was moored quayside in the Léon Gourret basin at the time of the accident.

 

Qui sont les victimes ? Who are the victims?

La personne décédée est un Philippin de 42 ans. Trois des blessés sont également philippins, et le quatrième est indien. Les deux blessés les plus graves ont été évacués vers l’Hôpital Nord. Royal Caribbean a fait part de sa “tristesse” après cet accident mortel. “Toutes nos pensées et nos prières accompagnent les familles des victimes et les autres membres de nos équipages”, a indiqué la compagnie dans un communiqué.

A 42 year old Philippino died. Three others injured were also Phillipinos, and the fourth is Indian. The two most seriously injured were evacuated to Hospital Nord. Royal Caribbean conveyed their condolences to the victims families and the other crew members at this sad accident.  

C’est quoi l’Harmony of the Seas ? What is the Harmony of the Seas?

Le Harmony est le plus grand paquebot de croisière au monde. Il est haut comme un immeuble de 20 étages. Il peut accueillir environ 6 400 passagers et 2 400 membres d’équipage, était arrivé à Marseille tôt mardi matin en provenance de Palma de Majorque, selon le site spécialisé marinetraffic.com. It arrived in Marseilles early that morning from Palma de Majorca.

Ce mastodonte flottant mesure 362 mètres de long, 66 m de large et 72 m de haut, soit l’équivalent d’un immeuble de 20 étages.

En mai, des dizaines de milliers de personnes avaient assisté au départ du navire à Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique), où il avait été construit dans les chantiers navals locaux de STX France. Dans la foulée, STX France avait signé avec Royal Caribbean une lettre d’intention de commande de trois nouveaux paquebots, une commande d’environ 2,5 milliards d’euros.

In May, thousands of people witnessed the launching of the ship from the STX shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, West coast France. The contract between STX France and Royal Caribberian is for three cruise-ships to the value of €2.5Bn. 

About bill

Worked in the technical / engineering area as a Science Laboratory Technician and as an Aeronautics Engineer. The artistic side involves writing under the nom de plume of Billy Olsenn, his recently written play 'A Case of Wine' was staged by the players group Straight Make-Up at the 2012 Birr one act drama festival. It's next staging was in the one act circuit is in Cavan, at Maudebawn on Sat 10 Nov 2012. Then it was performed in the Bray, Co.Wicklow at the very popular one act festival in January 2013. Next play is FEAR. A dark tale about revenge on the cruel death of two pensioners by young thugs. Neighbours hatch a devious and dangerous plan to exact old-style revenge. Bill is a member of the Drama League of Ireland and his plays have been critically vetted and certified as original pieces of work by the DLI. Another literary project is that of commemoration of an aircraft crash on Djouce mountain in Wicklow in 1946. Bill wrote articles for the 50th, 60th and most recently the 70th anniversary, (12 Aug 2016) all were published in the Wicklow Times and ensured the survivors of the crash, all French Girl Guides, were not forgotten. Articles reproduced on this website. But mostly this site gives a more general European and specific French slant on popular and not so popular articles of French news, translated to English by the author. Each article is translated on a paragraph by paragraph basis so easy to read in either language and even possible to improve either language by comparison of the short English and French paragraphs. Amusez vous bien. The author is currently writing an easy to read technical aviation book centered around the Fokker 50. Another interest is that dealt with in another of Bill's websites www.realnamara.net, a Statue of the mother of God, Mary. It was erected in 1972 in Dublin, at the end of the Bull Wall near Clontarf, and my grandfather William Nelson, was the main instigator of that project. I give talks on the history of the statue and my grandfather's adventurous and dangerous life at sea. Technical assistance with each website is by J O'N.
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