Multiple passengers on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship docked in Panama City, Panama were injured this week when a gangway collapsed, according to a statement provided to the press.
“We have dispatched our CARE Team to Panama City to offer additional support to these guests,” a company spokesperson said.
Guests aboard the ship are on a 21-day Panama Canal cruise from Seattle, Wash., to Miami, Fla., where they are set to arrive Sunday.
Injured passengers were taken to a local medical facility nearby, the spokesperson told USA Today in an emailed message. According to the outlet, the cruise line did not specify exactly how many guests were injured or how severe their injuries were.
Additionally, Norwegian Cruise did not provide a reason for why the gangway – a temporary, narrow passageway from the ship – collapsed.
“It's not unheard of, but it certainly isn't something that happens with any frequency at all,” said Ross Klein, a cruise industry expert and a professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada, of gangway collapses.
Nearly 19 years ago, a gangway on the Queen Mary 2, the world’s largest cruise ship, collapsed in a tragic accident at the French port of St Nazaire, according to a report in The Guardian. During that collapse, 16 people died and more were injured, said Reuters.
“More than 40 visitors were walking on to the liner across a gangway stretching up to 25 metres above the ground when it collapsed under them,” The Guardian said. Many were relatives and friends of shipyard workers. A report in the Irish Times said that a switch-out of the gangway before the incident may have contributed to that collapse.
In 2008, a court in St. Nazaire fined the firm that assembled the gangway. Some employees faced manslaughter charges, though a French prosecutor appealed them.
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