One person has died and four others have been injured in an accident on the world’s biggest cruise liner.
A 42-year-old Filipino crew member died when a lifeboat, with five crew, became detached from the fifth deck during a safety exercise and fell 10 metres (33 feet) into the water.
The Royal Caribbean Cruise company, which operates the Harmony of the Seas, confirmed the death of the crew member on its Twitter account: “We’re keeping our colleagues and their families in our thoughts and prayers.”
The accident, which happened during a stopover in Marseille, has left two crew members in hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Harmony of the Seas is the largest cruise liner in the world at 362 metres long. It can hold more than 8,000 passengers and crew.
This type of accident saddens most of us who have or have used this type of escape system, because the potential failures are well known along with the failure modes.
Given this vessel was launched in May 2014, it is unlikely to be structural/deterioration or maintenance of the system, it is more likely to be the type of system fitted (latent trap), incomplete commissioning (ineffective auditing), deliberate “manual override” (Human Factors) or instruction and training (Management Failure).
A complete unnecessary loss of life.