12 die in shipyard accident
Twelve people died yesterday when a dockside gangway to the world's biggest and most expensive cruise ship, the Queen Mary 2, collapsed at Saint-Nazaire in western France, a shipyard official said. As up to 50 visitors were walking onto the liner...
Twelve people died yesterday when a dockside gangway to the world's biggest and most expensive cruise ship, the Queen Mary 2, collapsed at Saint-Nazaire in western France, a shipyard official said. As up to 50 visitors were walking onto the liner across a gangway, the structure collapsed under them, injuring about 32 people, 12 of them seriously, Philippe Kasse said.
The Queen Mary 2 is undergoing final stages of construction at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard, owned by French heavy engineering firm Alstom. The ship, which is being built for Carnival Corp's Cunard Line at a cost of around $800 million, has been conducting sea trials in recent weeks.
A spokeswoman for the shipyard said the visitors were family members of workers involved in the ship's construction. The liner completed its final sea trials off the Brittany coast last week. Its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is set for January 12.
The ship has an onboard planetarium and art gallery and will carry about 3,000 passengers on its 15-day maiden voyage. The accident is the latest blow for struggling Alstom, which nearly collapsed earlier this year due to a cash shortage before the French government saved it with a controversial bail-out. The company has been forced to sell its core businesses to shore up its finances and the marine unit, which has suffered in recent years from a sharp decline in orders, is one of the assets it has said it could unload.