MSC Armonia Cruise Ship Collided with the Pier in Roatan!
This past Tuesday, April 10th the MSC Armonia Cruise ship collided with the Cruise Ship Pier in Roatan, Honduras. The MSC Armonia, which was making a call to the Port of Roatan came in to dock at a high speed and rammed the dock. Several workers at the dock pulled out their cell phones and took video footage of the incident. The ship had approximately 1600 passengers on board, and fortunately, there were no casualties or injuries. The impact damaged part of the docking facilities at the Port of Roatan. It also cut a gashing hole on the port side of the ship.
Although the ship was safe in port, it is not seaworthy if the gaping hole has not been sealed. Because of this, the ship had to stay an extra day in port, which disrupted the schedule of other cruise ships that were to call on the Port of Roatan on Wednesday April 11th. The good news is that repairs where quickly done, and the cruise ship has already left port and continued its itinerary as scheduled.
The MSC Armonia Collision left the eastern tip of the dock in need of repairs. Although the pier is still safe to dock cruise ships, it will take at least a couple of months to be fully operational and back to its previous stage. Local authorities are still investigating what caused the accident, but so far, it seems like human error.[themify_hr border_width=”1″ width=”1″ color=”light-gray”]
The incident dominated social media in Honduras for a couple of days. Many workers that were at the port waiting for the ship to arrive documented the incident with their smart phones. The news quickly made headlines both in national and international media. Fortunately, the biggest impact was a change of itinerary schedules in two cruise ships.
Roatan has two different cruise ship terminals. One of them is the Port of Roatan in Coxen Hole. The other is Mahogany Bay located near Dixon Cove, close to French Harbour. Both are in the central part of the island of Roatan.
