The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence has provided new details on the rescue of hundreds of passengers and crew who were forced to abandon a luxury cruise ship in the Southern Atlantic following a major engine room fire.
As gCaptain reported, the fire broke out Wednesday morning at about 2 a.m. onboard the French cruise ship Le Boreal, with 347 passengers and crew, as it sailed near the Falkland Islands.
A statement from the owner of the vessel, Ponant, said the passengers were evacuated as a “precaution” and were later embarked on another Ponant vessel, L’Austral, which happened to be nearby.
But details released by the MoD on Thursday described the incident as a major search and rescue operation carried out in difficult conditions. The ship was also in danger of grounding, at one point coming within three miles of land even.
Click here for the full report by gCaptain.com.
