Cruise ship stuck at mid sea aborts St Martin’s trip, back

Cruise ship Kandari-10 being tagged back to Patenga on Friday. UNB

Chattogram, Feb 25 — The cruise ship that was stuck in the middle of the sea returned to Patenga successfully at noon on Friday, according to the port authority.

The tugboat Kandari-10 reached the spot on Friday morning, 17 nautical miles from Patenga, and dragged the MV Bay-1 ship along with its passengers to shore.

Earlier, panic gripped some 800 passengers of a Saint Martin Island-bound luxury cruise ship on Friday midnight after thick smoke filled areas of the vessel, prompting its operator to anchor mid-sea.

"The thick smoke from the engine room soon engulfed areas of the ship, triggering chaos on board. However, the ship's crew extinguished the fire in a short time," stranded passenger Md Arman Hossain told UNB.

Engineer Moin Uddin, an official of Karnafuli ShipBuilders and operating in charge of Bay-1, said, "One of the two engines of the ship became useless. The ship could run with an engine but it didn’t take a risk and returned without going to St. Martin," he added.- UNB