An explosion on board the Emerald Princess cruise ship claimed the life of a Filipino crew member while it was was docked at Port Chalmers in Dunedin on New Zealand’s South Island.
The ship, which was scheduled to visit Gisborne, was docked at Port Chalmers when crew members were reportedly using a cannister of nitrogen for deploying a lifeboat on one of the decks near the ship’s stern.
The Filipino crew member, 33 and father of two, was doing maintenance work when the canister exploded. He could not be revived.
In a statement, Carnival Australia communications manager David Jones said initial reports suggested the incident happened during technical work on the hydraulic launching system on a tender vessel.
A passenger on the ship was quoted in an Australian newspaper saying that “There was an explosion, it was pretty loud … all I saw then was the gas bottle spinning on the (wharf).”
Photographs from the scene showed police and emergency services examining a large white cylinder, which lay on the deck and appeared to have significant damage.
The ship had left from Sydney on February 1 for a 12-night round trip to New Zealand, travelling down the east coast of the North and South Islands.
The grand-class cruise ship, which came into service in 2007, can accommodate 3,000 passengers and a crew of 1,200.