Around 18:43 local time yesterday Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas was involved in an incident after a crane collapsed on the vessel while she was at the Grand Bahama shipyard having repaired made to her azipods.
According to reports, Royal Caribbean’s 225,000-tonne Oasis of the Seas was in the shipyard’s Dry Dock No. 2 when the accident occurred, leaving at least one large crane toppled on top of the vessel and the cruise ship with a noticeable list to starboard which can been seen in photos and video posted online. It was not immediately clear whether it was the Oasis of the Seas was listing inside the dry dock, or if it was the floating dry dock that was listing.
Eight people are reported to have been injured but thankfully none were believed to be life-threatening, the Grand Bahamas Tribune reported
A video released by Bahamas Press shows the lower part of the crane against the ship hull.
Video – © Bahamas Press via YouTube.
Royal Caribbean issued the following statement shortly after the incident:
“Earlier today, we responded to a site incident at the Grand Bahama Shipyard, where Oasis of the Seas is currently in dry dock.
Shipyard management has informed us of eight injuries, none of them considered life-threatening.
We are aware of damage to the dock structure and to the construction cranes. We are assessing damage to the ship. Drydock is a maintenance procedure and there are no guests oboard the ship.”
Grand Bahama Shipyard’s Dry Dock No. 2, at 300 meters in length by 58.5 meters wide, is the largest of three floating dry docks at the yard. The dock is equipped with four large dock cranes. The Grand Bahama Shipyard is located in Freeport, Grand Bahama, Bahamas, only about 100 miles east of Miami, Florida.
An image was later released showing the collapsed crane laying across the Aqua Theater.
Built in 2009 at STX Shipyard Turku, Finland Oasis of the Seas was the lead ship in Royal Caribbeans Oasis class. With a length of 361.6 m and at 225,282 GRT, and capacity of 6780 guests, she was the world’s largest cruise ship when launched, a title which she held until 2010 when her sister Allure of the Seas was launched.
Royal Caribbean will issue a further statement at 5pm local time today.
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