Cruise Ship Route Banned Due to Crash in Port

   May 6, 2018 ,   Accidents

Cruise ships were banned from a certain New Zealand route following a crash in January 2016, when a Royal Caribbean cruise ship smashed into a rock because of miscommunication.

The Picton-bound Azamara Quest struck Wheki Rock located in Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.

Azamara Quest cruise ship

An investigation launched to find out what happened, revealed that there had been confusion between the pilot and the master.

The ban has since been announced in order to avoid taking the same route in the area as Cook Strait ferries.

TAIC (Traffic Accident Investigation Commission) released a statement which revealed the confusion between the master and the pilot.

The first turn of the vessel was taken too late and that caused the crash. The report read that with no agreed plan, the task of the bridge team monitoring the progress of the ship through the turn had been set up to fail.

Thankfully no one was badly injured onboard the cruise ship at the time of accident. The only damage was to the ship's hull and propeller.

For other Azamara Quest accidents and incidents see at the ship's CruiseMinus page.