STRICKEN LUXURY CRUISE SHIP REACH SANDAKAN

DOCKING.....File photograph of the Azamara Quest cruise ship docking at Keelung Port in northern Taiwan.

A STRICKEN luxury cruise ship under Philippines and US naval escort will reach a Malaysian port in Borneo late today, Malaysian maritime officials and the ship’s owner said, after spending more than a day in waters prowled by pirates.

Fire broke out on Friday in an engine room on the Azamara Quest, carrying 600 mostly Westerner passengers and 411 crew, that disabled the engines and left the ship temporarily stranded off the southern Philippines coast.

The fire, the latest in a string of cruise ship accidents, was put out yesterday. Five crew members suffered from smoke inhalation, with one requiring serious medical attention.

The 11-deck ship was now on its way to Sandakan in Sabah after engineers restored its propulsion, sailing at between three and six knots an hour, Miami-based Azamara Club Cruises said in a Facebook posting yesterday.

“The ship is expected to reach Sandakan port by 8pm (1200 GMT),” a Malaysian maritime authority official told Reuters.

A US Navy vessel had joined the escort flotilla comprising of several Philippine Navy ships and a coast guard ship, Filipino officials said.

The vessels will follow the cruise ship until it crosses into Malaysian waters, where a Malaysian patrol ship will be on hand to escort it to Sandakan.

The heightened security comes as the waters off the coast of southern Philippines and northern Sabah are hunting grounds for pirates and the Abu Sayyaf Islamic militant group.

The Abu Sayyaf wants an independent Islamic nation in the south of Roman Catholic Philippines, and has been responsible for high-profile kidnappings of Westerners, including abducting tourists from a nearby Malaysian resort island in 2000.

Cancelled

The rest of the cruise, carrying mainly Americans and Western Europeans, had been cancelled, said Azamara Club Cruises — a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

The Azamara Quest was on a 17-night journey and had departed Hong Kong on Monday with port calls to Manila, Balikpapan (Borneo), Palapo (Sulawesi), Benoa Bali, Semarang and Komodo in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

An official from Borneo Laju, a local agent appointed by Azamara Club Cruises to repair the ship and help the passengers, said the guests would spend the night on the ship at Sandakan and disembark tomorrow.

“Engineers were able to repair one of the engines, so there was air conditioning and running water. It was not so bad,” said the Borneo Laju official, who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The Azamara fire was the latest in a string of cruise ship accidents.

Thirty-two people died when the Costa Concordia ran aground and capsized off the western coast of Italy in January, and a fire on the Costra Allegra left the ship stranded in waters patrolled by pirates in the Indian Ocean for three days in February.

Both ships were run by Costa Crociere, SpA, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp, the world’s largest cruise operator. (Reuters)