Cruise liner accident in Canary Islands kills five

Canary Islands: Holidaymakers watched in horror on Monday as five crewmen were killed in an accident on a luxury Thomson cruise liner.

During a stopover for a festival in the Canary Islands, eight crew were checking a lifeboat when its ropes snapped and it suddenly plunged 65ft from the upper deck into the sea.

The lifeboat is said to have overturned as it hit the water, trapping most of them underneath.

Three were taken to hospital, but five crewmen - three Indonesians, a Filipino and a Ghanaian - drowned as shipmates desperately fought to rescue them.

Thomson Cruises said it was investigating the accident aboard the Thomson Majesty, which only made its first sailing for the firm last summer.

The luxury ship, which carries 1,462 passengers and has 17 spa rooms, two swimming pools and five restaurants, had arrived at Santa Cruz on the island of La Palma three hours earlier for a six-hour stop en route to Madeira.

At just before midday, with many passengers on shore enjoying carnival celebrations, the crew began to lower the lifeboat as part of a drill that was made compulsory for cruise liners at every stop following the Costa Concordia tragedy.

But witnesses said that during the safety exercise, one of the lifeboat hoist cables snapped, briefly causing the boat to hang vertically with the eight crew on board.

Seconds later, the other cable snapped under the strain, sending the boat plummeting six decks towards the water.

The survivors, two aged 30 and one aged 32, managed to jump away before it hit the water. Two, both Greeks, are said to be seriously injured and are being treated at a local hospital. The third, a Filipino, has been discharged.

The others were trapped as they entered the water. Four of them were dead by the time their bodies were recovered, while the other crewman died a short time later.

The small, white, two-hulled lifeboat could be seen capsized beside the ship. The Foreign Office said it was ‘urgently investigating’ the incident.

A former passenger raised doubts about the safety drill.

Retired entrepreneur Terry Dobbins, 75, from Bournemouth, was on the ship last week and watched the ‘shambolic’ safety exercise.

He added: “The lifeboat was coming half way down, then lurching to a halt. They were bouncing in mid air. The winches were seizing up. It was really worrying.

“I’m not sure if I would go back. Our lives are in their hands.”

The 40,876-tonne Majesty, which has a crew of 600, sails around the Greek islands in the summer before taking passengers on winter sun cruises to the Canaries, Madeira, Morocco and Tenerife. The 20-year-old ship is managed on Thomson’s behalf by a company called Louis Cruises.

It is the second tragedy to strike the ship since it entered service in 1992. In March 2010, two passengers were killed when the liner, then called the Louis Majesty, was struck by a giant wave in the Mediterranean.

Last night Thomson said: “There was an incident involving the ship’s crew during a safety drill. Our thoughts are with the families of those involved.

“We are working closely with the ship owners and managers, Louis Cruises, to determine exactly what has happened.

“We are also working closely with all relevant authorities and will be co-operating fully with their investigations.”