Spirit of Vancouver Island ferry damaged after ‘hard landing’

   April 19, 2020 ,   Accidents

The cruiseferry Spirit of Vancouver Island had what BC FERRIES said a ‘hard landing’ on Saturday, April 18, when it hit the pier while docking at homeport Tsawwassen (Delta City, BC Canada). The vessel departed from homeport Swartz Bay (BC Canada) at 3 PM and reached Tsawwassen at ~4:30 PM.

According to BC Ferries communication manager Tessa Humphries,

“Upon arrival at Tsawwassen [the vessel] had a docking incident where the ship experienced a hard landing.

Fortunately, there were no injuries to passengers or crew, but there was some damage to the ship.”

According to passengers onboard, the ship's ramp was destroyed. Some of the travellers were stuck for ~4 hours.

There was reduced service on the ship, thanks to precautions taken because of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, but crew were walking up and down handing out supplies.

The current passengers were able to disembark at ~9 PM, after welders repaired some of the damage so the wheeled cargo (trucks and cars) could drive off.

Spirit of Vancouver Island ferry

BC Ferries had to cancel two Spirit of Vancouver Island crossings due to the accident but added 2 more with the fleetmate Spirit of British Columbia (on the route Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay) to ensure essential travel could continue.

Note: Actually, this type of marine accidents is called “allision” (striking a fixed object) as opposed to “collision” (striking another vessel).

For other Spirit of Vancouver Island accidents and incidents see at the ship's CruiseMinus page.