AT SEA/CYPRUS: 700 PEOPLE ARE RESCUED AS CRUISE SHIP "ROMANTICA" CATCHES FIRE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Record ID: 225979

  • Title: AT SEA/CYPRUS: 700 PEOPLE ARE RESCUED AS CRUISE SHIP "ROMANTICA" CATCHES FIRE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN
  • Date: 4th October 1997
  • Summary: (OCTOBER 4, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) AT SEA 1. VARIOUS AERIAL VIEWS OF CRUISE SHIP ROMANTICA BURNING 0.50 2. AERIALS GREEK MARINE POLICE BOAT AND FIRE BOAT NEAR BY/ CLOSER VIEW OF FIRE BOAT BY ROMANTICA (2 SHOTS) 1.16 3. AERIALS RESCUE LINER PRINCESSA VICTORIA SAILING AWAY (2 SHOTS) 1.32 LIMASSOL, CYPRUS 4. SLV PASSENGERS LEAVING RESCUE LINER PRINCESSA VICTORIA 1.49 5. SCU UNIDENTIFIED CREW MEMBER SAYING ONCE THE FIRE BROKE OUT WE TRIED TO PUT IT OUT, WHEN WE REALISED WE COULDN'T THE CAPTAIN ORDERED US TO ABANDON SHIP (GREEK) 2.06 6. SV PASSENGER SAYING I WAS ASLEEP AND SUDDENLY I WOKE UP AND SAW THAT THERE WAS SMOKE EVERYWHERE. I RAN OUTSIDE TO GET OFF THE SHIP (GREEK) 2.31 7. LAS PASSENGERS LOOKING DOWN FROM LINER TO QUAYSIDE. 2.41 Initials S3-2,P3 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 19th October 1997 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LIMASSOL, CYPRUS
  • City:
  • Country: EUROPE Cyprus AT SEA
  • Reuters ID: LVAF03OWTA3TQY78OBSOQH9UOJYT
  • Story Text: INTRO: About 700 people have been rescued with help from the British Royal Air Force after their cruise ship caught fire in the Mediterranean. Tourists and crew arrived safely in Cyprus after the emergency in the early hours of the morning.

    Some 700 passengers and crew rescued from a Cypriot cruise ship ablaze in the Mediterranean on Saturday (October 4) arrived at the port of Limassol after evacuating the listing liner in the early hours of the morning.

    Some had taken to the lifeboats and others were winched to safety by British Air Force helicopters.

    Cyprus Ports Authority said the ship was burning "from end to end.... the crew of the Romantica deserve credit because they managed to evacuate the vessel without one single injury." The 9,500-tonne Romantica listed to 30 degrees after the fire broke out in the engine room 60 nautical miles south of Cyprus early on Saturday. According to some reports, the fire started in a control panel in the engine room.

    Passengers and crew from the Romantica arrived at Limassol at 1330 local (1030 gmt) on board the Princessa Victoria, the cruise liner which picked them up after the Romantica sent out a mayday call for help at 5.50 a.m. (0250gmt) Two Wessex helicopters from the British base of Akrotiri, on the southern tip of Cyprus, helped transfer passengers and crew to the Princessa Victoria.

    The passengers from the Romantica included 225 Russians, 120 Britons, 34 Hungarians, 22 Swedes, 21 Dutch, 18 Germans, and smaller numbers from Poland and Norway. Six Cypriots were on board.

    Some tourists and crew members, the majority of them Filipinos, looked badly shaken.

    The Romantica, operated by New Paradise Cruises based in Limassol, was heading back from a day trip to Egypt with 487 passengers and 186 crew when the fire broke out.

    One man leaving the rescue ship Princessa Victoria at Limossol said most of the passengers were asleep when the fire started.

    An inquiry has been opened into the cause of the fire.

    The Romantica sailed day cruises to Egypt and Israel. Built in 1939, the liner was fully reconstructed in 1988 and refurbished earlier this year. Paradise Cruises have been operating the vessel since May.


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