Rescue vessels rush to aid drifting cruise ship
French and Spanish rescue aircraft and boats went to the assistance of a cruise ship drifting in the Mediterranean today with more than 700 people on board after a storm knocked out its engines.
The Voyager, en route from Tunisia to Barcelona, Spain, sent out an SOS after a wave struck the ship and knocked its engines out as it sailed near the Spanish island of Menorca, a maritime spokeswoman said.
The vessel has since been able to start up one of its engines, and it was not considered necessary to evacuate the passengers or crew, the spokeswoman said.
She said the Voyager was headed toward the Italian island of Sardinia.
Because of the vessel’s location, French naval authorities were co-ordinating the operation, she said. Two French planes have headed to the scene, and a French maritime patrol aircraft established contact with the craft.
The boat “is in difficulty, not distress, and can still manoeuvre with its own power,” said Lieutenant Eric Wacongne of the French Navy.
This afternoon the ship was 75 miles south of Menorca, one of Spain’s Balearic islands. It was unable to enter Menorca’s port of Mahon because of the storm.
Officials of the Iberojet company, which runs the cruise ship, said the situation was under control.
More than half of the 700 people aboard were passengers, most of them Spaniards.
Two Spanish tugboats were headed to help the vessel while a rescue service helicopter was also sent to the area.
