Two Killed in Cruise Ship Berthing Accident on Independence of the Sea

[cruiserdudebobby8]

soo sad!

[UNV-IT!!!]

I don't know how anyone could know that they were pulled right under the ships. Indy sits about 29 feet down into the water. Sounds to me like a bit of speculation.

 

Well let's look at logic. The engines were running. The boat capsized and the 2 men were no where to be found. The safe bet is they were pulled under.

[UNV-IT!!!]

I believe it may have been Celebrity Silhouette that was docked across from Independence. My sister and her husband are currently on Celebrity Silhouette, and she'd e-mailed me that there had been two men missing from a capsized boat that had been attending to mooring lines. She had actually seen someone on Independence of the Seas throw a life ring into the water. Silhouette did not depart St. Kitts until 9PM as their crew participated in the search for the missing men.

 

Correct.

[Folk Singer]

Thought I'd update this story. My parents along with their friends are onboard as we speak. I was able to speak with my mother who was on her balcony with her friend when the accident occurred and witnessed the whole event.

 

She said there was another ship docked across from them. When the men were removing the lines on Indy. Both ships seem to start their bow thrusters at the same time. Basically causing a massive wave pool between the two ships. The men's small boat was immediately capsized and the men were pulled right under the ships.

 

Indy didn't leave till 10pm while divers searched for the bodies.

 

 

How awful

[ATC cruiser]

Here's what happened, I saw it. Indy was pulled in bow first. The rear of the ship extended beyond the main pier. The ship was tied up to separate concrete piers (someone else called them dolphins). These dolphins were not connected by aluminum planks, the only way you get to them is by boat. Once the dockworker unhooked the lines he climbed down the ladder into the small boat. The boat stayed at the end of the pier between Indy and Silhouette, I doubt very much if it could even have been seen from the bridge on Indy. Then Indy turned on its rear azipods, which were turned ninety degrees, directly toward the small boat. The small boat got stuck in the swirling, turbulent waters and was spun around. This caused the first man, who was standing on the bow of the small boat, to be thrown into the water. This man had on a life jacket, but it appeared to come off when he was thrown in the water. The jacket also appeared to be the type that you had to manually inflate. The same type they give you when on a snorkeling excursion, so I'm not sure how much good it would have done, if it would have stayed on. You have to remember this was in St Kitts, not the best safety equipment for employees. The small boat was then flipped over and the driver of the small boat was thrown into the water. It did not appear that this man had a life jacket on at all. Neither man ever resurfaced in the swirling waters. I can just imagine how bad the turbulence is under the water in the wake of those azipods. The capsized boat was pushed into the rear of the Silhouette, she was still tied up, her azipods were off. Life rings were thrown into the water by persons on Indy and our engines were shut down. After a few minutes Indy continued to move away from the pier so a rescue boat could be launched from Indy and other rescue vessels could search for the men. The bodies of the two men were found an hour or two later, I'm not sure where. I'm sorry to be blunt, but If you want to speculate on what happened, go work for CNN, maybe you can help them find ML370. St Kitts is such a impoverish nation and these two men probably had families that depended on them and now they are gone.

 

 

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[Trekker954]

sounds like RCI will be responsible, but a little weaker case for the workers who did not have their proper safety equipment on, although not sure that would have helped either. Those thrusters are very strong.

 

But hey, where was the spotter. I would hope the Independence had some type of spotter on either end with radios reporting an all clear.

 

It's a terrible accident and I feel so badly for the port workers and their families and also the bridge crew on the Independence who are most probably feeling pain as well.

[marci22]

It's a terrible accident and I feel so badly for the port workers and their families and also the bridge crew on the Independence who are most probably feeling pain as well.

 

I imagine that any crew involved in the departure are extremely distressed.

[dasi11]

how sad for everyone

[Ocean Boy]

Well let's look at logic. The engines were running. The boat capsized and the 2 men were no where to be found. The safe bet is they were pulled under.

 

Pulled under the surface and pulled "right under the the two ships" are completely different things.

 

And if you read the post from ATC cruiser this didn't even involve bow thrusters, the Celebrity ship was still tied up, and its engines were not running. That is all contrary to what you have stated. But thanks for the lesson in logic.

Edited April 5, 2014 by Ocean Boy

[LBumb]

currently on indy. was on the deck four railing port side. we were pulled front first and were backing out. celebrity ship did not have thruster on. two men on small boat undoing back lines from small boat. one man standing on roof of boat to undue lines and would get back on boat. rear port thruster capsized the boat. the two men were not found for hours. celebrity ship on other side of indy. four life rings were thrown into water. men never appeared. i have pictures. This is a very tragic event. will follow up with more upon return.

[Agr8RN]

Just returned from IOTS - I did not witness the actual event - but my friend who I was traveling with saw the entire event from her balcony. I saw the event from the time Oscar was called.

Lots of speculation about what happened from ppl who weren't there and didn't see it.

Outcome is - 2 people died. It was very sad and my friend and a lot of people who witnessed 2 men die are very upset. No one ever wants to see something like that and to be helpless to do anything but wait for other ppl to help - which no one did immediately. Not even anyone on the pier.

 

Someone on IOTS didn't do their job IMO and didn't even see that they caused this event. It was passengers such as my friend making calls to alert them of the event.

 

I would think someone would need to be watching to know that the last rope was removed and they had the all clear to go. So, how they didn't see it is beyond me. (Again - not a mariner - just a regular person)

 

After we were already pulling out of port - it took a while for engines to be shut down and for us to stop and launch rescue - so to the person who made comments about the ship being right there - it wasn't still in the berthing area. (Maybe 1/4 mile or so out I'm guessing). Remember it is a cruise ship and takes a while to stop.) IMO if someone on the bridge would have been watching and they would have turned off the azipods, it might have made a difference, but who can say. I think the men were sucked under and didn't have much chance. (Just my guess, I'm not a mariner). It doesn't take much for someone to be sucked under and drown, especially if they were thrown and had a head injury or were knocked out.

 

So the report from my friend is:

The boat was removing the mooring lines from the pylons (someone else called them dolphins) there were 2 that had to be accessed by boat.

They did the 1st one and went to the 2nd one and the guy had to jump from the boat, climb a ladder on the pylon, remove the line & jump back on his boat.

As he stepped back onto his boat - he was standing near the windshield when IOTS fired up the azipods and created an unstable environment for the boat to be in (swirling, turbulent waters). The guy standing on the bow of the boat was thrown from the boat, the boat was catapulted into the Silhouette, where it flipped up and overturned.

3 Guests (NOT staff) on IOTS immediately deployed life rings. Unfortunately neither man resurfaced to be able to grab one.

IOTS deployed a rescue vessel within about 10 - 15 min of accident once boat stopped.

They were first in scene. Eventually a st kitts rescue boat with divers and police / coast guard boat joined in the search.

They kept searching for 2+ hours before bodies were recovered.

It took celebrity silhouette over 30 minutes after IOTS launched rescue to launch and join the effort.

Many guests Onboard told them to search near the pier area - one girl even had a good picture - and they continued searching with the current.

Eventually the poor men were found near the pier I believe.

It was quite a sad situation.

Had they been wearing proper life vests - maybe a different outcome, but who knows. Nobody wears life vests I'm noticing. When they launched the rescue from our ship - of the 3 men on the boat - I believe only 1 wore a life vest.

When the harbor masters departed our ship to the pilot boats in most ports - none of them wore a life vest either. How dangerous when jumping from boat to boat. So for anyone to blame the men for not having proper life vests would be moot.

I'm sure lots of videos will surface - there was a parade of motorcycles going back to the silhouette when this happened so I'm sure cameras were out.

I sure hope they do see some videos so they can figure out what happened and prevent it from happening again.

 

Prayers for their families in light of this tragic event.

[Familygoboston]

So very sad...we always watch and wave to the workers during sail away because we are often in an aft balcony. Here is the set up in St Kitt's in November 2013. I have no idea if this gentleman was involved in the accident. I will not speculate about the accident, just share the photos of the dock area and set up and my sadness for the men and their families:(

 

 

Indy as it pulls away:

 

 

 

The boat and the "dolphin"; one worker on the ladder and one on the boat

 

 

 

Dock worker on the "dolphin" with lines from Jewel on the right, Indy on the left; He was signaling that the lines were removed.

Edited April 6, 2014 by Familygoboston

[asten77]

I happened to be taking a video of the undocking from my balcony, and I have a pretty high quality HD video of the accident. As soon as the boat capsized, I freaked out and stopped the video to go call someone, but essentially the other stories are correct.

 

The Independence turned on its rear engines as soon as the last lines were dropped. The gents on the small boat were trapped, tried to go across the really strong prop wash and the boat spun around, went nose first into the Celebrity Silhouette docked right next to us, turned, and capsized. I saw both men in the water, one had a life jacket but it was clearly loose, and he was sucked right through it, the driver had no life jacket and went in the water. I never saw either of them pop up at all and knew they had drowned nearly immediately. The current involved overwhelmed a 2 engine 20 foot boat - they had no prayer.

 

IMHO, this is 90% the fault of the RCI crew. They didn't have situational awareness of the other boat, and they took another 20 seconds to shut off the engines. Quicker action most likely would have given them half a chance. After 5 or 10 minutes, they pulled out of the dock area which was utterly shocking to everyone standing there crying and in shock. We thought they were just leaving, but we stopped a little ways out and sat there for 3+ hours.

 

Once I get home, I'll upload the video. Like i said, it just shows the boat turning over and the line worker fall in, however, not them being sucked underwater thankfully.

 

I didn't sleep all that well the rest of the cruise. It was awful to watch and these poor guys died senselessly.

[MDSue]

I happened to be taking a video of the undocking from my balcony, and I have a pretty high quality HD video of the accident. As soon as the boat capsized, I freaked out and stopped the video to go call someone, but essentially the other stories are correct.

 

The Independence turned on its rear engines as soon as the last lines were dropped. The gents on the small boat were trapped, tried to go across the really strong prop wash and the boat spun around, went nose first into the Celebrity Silhouette docked right next to us, turned, and capsized. I saw both men in the water, one had a life jacket but it was clearly loose, and he was sucked right through it, the driver had no life jacket and went in the water. I never saw either of them pop up at all and knew they had drowned nearly immediately. The current involved overwhelmed a 2 engine 20 foot boat - they had no prayer.

 

IMHO, this is 90% the fault of the RCI crew. They didn't have situational awareness of the other boat, and they took another 20 seconds to shut off the engines. Quicker action most likely would have given them half a chance. After 5 or 10 minutes, they pulled out of the dock area which was utterly shocking to everyone standing there crying and in shock. We thought they were just leaving, but we stopped a little ways out and sat there for 3+ hours.

 

Once I get home, I'll upload the video. Like i said, it just shows the boat turning over and the line worker fall in, however, not them being sucked underwater thankfully.

 

I didn't sleep all that well the rest of the cruise. It was awful to watch and these poor guys died senselessly.

 

I can't imagine how awful that must have been for you and the others watching the accident. I always sit on our balcony and watch the workers release the lines before departure and wave to them. What a terrible loss for them and their families. Hopefully, the video footage and images that you and other passengers took will be handed over to the proper authorities for investigation (whomever that may be). It definitely sounds like a tragic mistake was made.

[rubrrick]

I'm saddened at the loss of two lives, in a terrible accident. I'm sure that the crew is very sad of this occurrence.

 

I was not there, but a friend was, who witnessed the tragedy. Unfortunately, there will probably be repercussions because somewhere between the stern spotter and the bridge, there was some miss communicaton.

 

It will take awhile to get everything sorted, and, I believe the ultimate responsibility will rest with the captain. Captain Remo is a wonderful person, but this accident may well rest on his shoulders, and we will just have to wait and see the final outcome.

 

Thanks to all that witnessed this first hand, and came forward with their eyewitness account. My friend confirmed what others here have said.

 

My prayers go out to the families of the two lost dock workers.

 

Rick

[whitshel]

I was on the IOS as well as I reported that night. I don't recall it taking 15 mins to deploy the the rescue boat. I was on our balcony on deck 10 port right before the accident watching them untie us. I left to get my dd's to play trivia so I missed the actual accident but I did hear the "Oscar Oscar Oscar" call and they called it starboard side and the ship was still close to the dock thats why it was called to the starboard side. Just wanted to clarify that so people didnt think they pulled out and then lowered the rescue boat. After the rescue boat was lowered we did pull straight back and sat perpendicular to the dock and the silhouette while they searched.

 

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[cruzincurt]

I was sitting on my balcony on the Silhouette. The Independence was to leave at 5:00 pm, us at 6:00 PM. There would be no reason for the Silhouette to have the thrusters on.

 

As soon as I saw a life buoy being dropped from the Independence I got up to the rail and saw the upturned boat. The Independence DID NOT stop but continued to back away from the pier. It would seem to me they could have shut off the thruster immediately, not continue to pull away. I would assume an officer was stationed at the rear of the ship during undocking. A boat was not launched from the Independence until she was well out in the turning basin. In fact, I saw the harbor police boat and a private boat show up long before the yellow boat from the Independence was in the area. Our ship launched a lifeboat as well.

 

In my opinion, the continued use of the thruster slammed the men against the mooring platform. The divers eventually brought them up from the base of that mooring platform. When the bodies were recovered, neither had a life vest of any type on.

 

I assume St. Kitts will be adding bridges to connect to the isolated mooring platforms in the near future. As our captain later commented, even when there is a pilot on board, the captain maintains full control and authority over the ship. He would not comment if a pilot was on board the Independence.

 

It was a sad evening on our ship.

Edited April 7, 2014 by cruzincurt

[LuckiStac13*Majesty*]

I was sitting on my balcony on the Silhouette. The Independence was to leave at 5:00 pm, us at 6:00 PM. There would be no reason for the Silhouette to have the thrusters on.

 

As soon as I saw a life buoy being dropped from the Independence I got up to the rail and saw the upturned boat. The Independence DID NOT stop but continued to back away from the pier. It would seem to me they could have shut off the thruster immediately, not continue to pull away. I would assume an officer was stationed at the rear of the ship during undocking. A boat was not launched from the Independence until she was well out in the turning basin. In fact, I saw the harbor police boat and a private boat show up long before the yellow boat from the Independence was in the area. Our ship launched a lifeboat as well.

 

In my opinion, the continued use of the thruster slammed the men against the mooring platform. The divers eventually brought them up from the base of that mooring platform. When the bodies were recovered, neither had a life vest of any type on.

 

I assume St. Kitts will be adding bridges to connect to the isolated mooring platforms in the near future. As our captain later commented, even when there is a pilot on board, the captain maintains full control and authority over the ship. He would not comment if a pilot was on board the Independence.

 

It was a sad evening on our ship.

 

This is very sad. I would like to hear from the Captain's point of view on why he did not immediately kill the thrusters, and instead continued pulling away.

[grand isle joe]

This is very sad. I would like to hear from the Captain's point of view on why he did not immediately kill the thrusters, and instead continued pulling away.

 

After this sad event I would bet he would be addressed as "Ex-Captain"....He WAS in charge.....

[littlesteelo]

After this sad event I would bet he would be addressed as "Ex-Captain"....He WAS in charge.....

 

If it was an issue of mis-communication there is no reason at all the captain should be fired.

[grand isle joe]

If it was an issue of mis-communication there is no reason at all the captain should be fired.

 

Unfortunately it goes with the job.

[littlesteelo]

Unfortunately it goes with the job.

 

But what good does firing him do? Nothing. The solution would be to identify the reasons it happened then make changes to address that. Firing a man who has co-mastered the ship since 2008 without a hitch seems awfully counter-productive to me.

[Irene7]

So sad. Their families are in my prayers.

[rubrrick]

This is very sad. I would like to hear from the Captain's point of view on why he did not immediately kill the thrusters, and instead continued pulling away.

 

Stacy, your thoughts of hearing the captains point of view will NEVER happen.

 

There are so many eye witnesses to this tragic event, but outside of some statement by a p.r. person at Royal Caribbean, nothing else will be said, IMHO.

 

How corporate deals with the officers on the IOS, will also be hushed. If the captains name dissapears from the current captain thread, we will know how corporate decided to deal with it. Only time will tell.

 

Meanwhile my prayers go out to all involved, and the familys of the two deceased.

 

Rick

[ahecht]

This is very sad. I would like to hear from the Captain's point of view on why he did not immediately kill the thrusters, and instead continued pulling away.

 

Turning off the azipods (as I understand it, it was the azipods that caused the wake, not the thrusters) would mean that the ship would lose all maneuverability. This could have led to Independence crashing into the pier, another ship, or the concrete pilings located on the opposite side of the pier from the ship. Depending on the contours of the ocean floor and the currents and the wind, the ship could've even run aground. I'm sure the captain turned off the propellers as soon as he could safely do so.