At least eight people have suffered injuries after a construction crane fell on Royal Caribbean’s ‘Oasis of the Seas’ while the cruise liner was undergoing repairs at the dry dock in Grand Bahamas.
Videos of the incident shared online by a local news outlet showed a massive crane leaning up against the side of the cruise ship at the shipyard in Freeport City.
Luckily no passengers were onboard the ocean liner at the time of the incident, as ‘Oasis of the Seas’ was confined to port to undergo maintenance to the vessel’s propulsion units, known as azipods. Typically the gigantic 225,000-ton ship sails up to 6,000 tourists between Port Canaveral, Florida and the Caribbean islands.
While a major tragedy was averted, at least eight people working on the vessel suffered non-life-threatening injuries, Royal Caribbean said in a statement. “We are aware of damage to the dock structure and to construction cranes. We are assessing damage to the ship. Drydock is a maintenance procedure, and there are no guests aboard the ship,” the operator said.
The injured were rushed to the hospital, Royal Bahamas Police confirmed, noting that most of the wounded have already been released. So far it is not yet clear what caused the crane to collapse. An investigation has been launched.
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