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The sinking of the Explorer

Tighter controls on tourist vessels are being called for after an inexperienced captain put the lives of 154 passengers and crew at risk. paul bignell reports, article bookmarked.

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An "inexperienced and overconfident" captain drove his ship too fast towards a "wall of ice", causing it to sink in freezing Antarctic waters, endangering the lives of 154 passengers and crew – including 24 Britons – a damning accident investigation concludes. Experts say that only the good fortune of unusually benign weather conditions meant no one died when the MV Explorer sank.

The report, which is now being sent to those involved in the sinking, will add to international pressure for tighter regulations on the increasing numbers of cruise ships sailing to the Antarctic. Shipping and polar experts warn that a disaster is waiting to happen unless urgent action is taken.

The investigation, details of which are revealed for the first time by The Independent on Sunday, highlights a litany of errors that might have led to the biggest shipping disaster in Antarctica. It describes how the ship was fatally holed by ice and began to flood rapidly as it attempted to sail through an ice field at night. As water poured into the ship, passengers described how they had to wade shoeless through freezing water in the pitch black to get to safety while crewmen fought to stem the rushing water with pillows and wood. The crew's fight to save the ship was undermined after it lost all power: water flooded emergency generators when a watertight seal failed. The ship's main engine room was swamped after other watertight doors were not closed.

The report describes how chaos reigned on board when orders to take to the lifeboats were given. Georgie Hale, a passenger from Coventry, said that pandemonium ensued: "It was absolute chaos at that point. People just went where they wanted to. The lifeboats were deplorable – there was no organisation at all. The thermal blankets were like nylon body bags and the zip was corroded on all of them." Investigators said some lifeboats were so crowded people had to stand. One of the most damning revelations was that three of the four engines on the lifeboats did not work.

"Once we were in the water, the lifeboats drifted up against the side of the ship," said Eli Charne, an American passenger. "The lifeboats were packed nearly to capacity and because they were open, it felt like you were in a big rowboat.

"The crew tried to push away with the oars, and when that failed they attached a metal object to the end of the oars. I later found out that the metal object was a piece of equipment that was meant to identify us on the radar."

The report blames the lack of Antarctic experience of the Swedish captain, Bengt Wiman. The ill-fated trip was his maiden voyage as a skipper in the region. As a result, the report says, he failed properly to identify the dangers confronting his ship. "In all likelihood, he either would have taken action to avoid the hard ice, or manoeuvred the Explorer with greater attention to the vessel's speed," the report concludes. It criticises him for entering the ice field in darkness and for failing to slow the ship as it approached and then hit the "wall of ice".

It praises the crew and expedition staff for evacuating the ship without loss of life, but expresses reservations about how the evacuation took place. Some crew's failure to don survival suits and start lifeboat engines might have endangered the lives of passengers if the sea conditions had been more severe, it warns.

The captain is criticised for evacuating the ship without taking the vital VDR "white box" accident recorder, which could have given investigators clues to why vital watertight compartments were left open while others leaked. British coastguards, who were liaising with the ship, said they repeatedly advised the captain to remove the VDR. Captain Wiman said the VDR was forgotten as the crew concentrated on evacuating passengers.

Disturbingly, the report reveals that three attempts by the Explorer to contact the Argentine Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre for assistance, resulted in the captain being told to "call back". Only after Chilean maritime rescue control was alerted was assistance provided for the stricken vessel. Two ships closest to the Explorer, HMS Endeavour and a Norwegian cruise ship, the Nordnorge, immediately changed direction to help the stricken ship four hours later.

The Explorer, a 40-year-old, Liberian-registered vessel, sank in deep water in November 2007. It had been on an 18-day round trip voyage from Ushuaia, Argentina, to tour areas in the Antarctic. Passengers paid up to £3,900 for the trip. It had already made more than 200 trips to the region under other captains.

The report recommends "administrative action" be taken against Captain Wiman "in view of his lack of knowledge which contributed to the cause of the casualty".

The ship's owner, GAP Shipping, is criticised for failing to secure the accident recorder and for its treatment of passengers. Neither the ship owner nor Captain Wiman was available for comment yesterday.

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Cruise Ship Evacuated, Sinks Off Antarctica

The MS Explorer, a small cruise ship strikes an iceberg and sinks hours later in icy waters off Antarctica. All 154 passengers and crew members, Americans among them, survived.

Jon Bowermaster was a passenger aboard the National Geographic research cruise ship, The Endeavor, one of the first vessels to reach the Explorer. He describes the scene to Andrea Seabrook.

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Cruise ship goes down off Antarctica

A Canadian cruise ship struck submerged ice off Antarctica and began sinking, but all 154 passengers and crew, Americans and Britons among them, took to lifeboats and were plucked to safety by a passing cruise ship.

The Chilean navy said the entire MS Explorer finally slipped beneath the waves Friday evening, about 20 hours after the predawn accident near Antarctica's South Shetland Islands.

No injuries were reported although passengers reportedly endured subfreezing temperatures for several hours as they waited in bobbing lifeboats for a Norwegian liner that took them to a Chilean military base in the region.

The Explorer struck submerged ice and began taking on water through its cracked hull early Friday, authorities said. Susan Hayes of G.A.P. Adventures of Toronto, which owned the vessel, initially described the damage as a "fist-sized hole," but the Argentine navy later said it observed "significant" damage to the hull.

The tour operator said the voyage was inspired by Ernest Shackleton, an adventurer who made repeated forays there in the early 1900s. Shackleton died of a heart attack aboard his ship while trying to circumnavigate the icy continent by sea in 1922.

Throughout the day, Chilean aerial photographs showed the ship listing heavily, its white superstructure and red hull starkly visible against the gray, choppy waters and overcast skies. The navy eventually lost sight of the ship and wreckage indicated it had gone under completely, according to a navy press officer who declined be identified in accordance with department policy.

‘The Explorer is not visible any longer’ "Our units in the area aren't seeing anything," he told The Associated Press by telephone. "The Explorer is not visible any longer."

Hayes said 91 passengers had been aboard, including at least 23 Britons, 17 Dutch, 14 Americans and 10 Canadians. The ship also carried nine expedition staff members and a crew of 54.

The group calmly abandoned ship when the captain's order came and pumps helped keep the ship stable for an orderly evacuation, Hayes said.

Arnvid Hansen, captain of the Norwegian liner Nordnorge, said his ship ferried the passengers and crew to a Chilean air force base on King George Island in Antarctic waters near southernmost South America.

"The rescue operation ran very smoothly," the 54-year-old captain told The Associated Press by shipboard telephone from the Nordnorge.

A U.S. woman said in an e-mail to family members that she witnessed the high-seas drama from aboard the Nordnorge.

"We were a rescue ship," said Jennifer Enders of Covina, Calif., who was traveling with her husband Robert. "It is really scary to see a ship sinking out your porthole. The people were in the water in lifeboats for 4 hours and it is cold outside. We were asked to donate clothes to those coming in from the lifeboats."

She said it was depressing to watch the ship listing "and lifeboats scurrying around collecting the passengers from the Explorer. Our ship stayed until a naval ship arrived."

Authorities said later that all the rescued passengers had disembarked at the King George Island base and were hoping the weather would clear enough to airlift to Chile's southernmost city of Punta Arenas on Saturday.

G.A.P Adventures is a tour company that provides excursions with an environmental focus. The Explorer was on a 19-day circuit of Antarctica and the Falkland Islands letting passengers observe penguins, whales and other wildlife while getting briefings from experts on the region.

Traveling to Antarctica is always risky, Hayes said.

"There is ice in the area. Obviously it's a hazard of the area. But it's highly unusual (that the ship would hit the ice). This has never happened to us," he said.

An Argentine rescue and command center received the first distress call at 12:30 a.m. EST Friday from the Explorer amid reports it was taking on water despite efforts to use onboard pumps, said Capt. Juan Pablo Panichini, an Argentine navy spokesman.

A navy statement said that the captain ordered passengers to abandon ship about 90 minutes after the first call and that passengers and crew boarded eight semi-rigid lifeboats and four life rafts, with the captain leaving the ship later.

In lifeboats in subfreezing temperatures A Chilean ornithologist identified as Paola Palavecino was quoted in an Argentine media report as saying she and others aboard went into the lifeboats before dawn and endured subfreezing temperatures for a few hours until they were picked up about 6 a.m. EST.

"The ship took on water quickly," she was quoted by the Argentine news agency Diarios y Noticias as telling a local radio station in a call from the Nordnorge.

A commander at Chile's air base on King George island confirmed late Friday that the Nordnorge had arrived in a bay near the base, but said waves and strong winds had prevented the passengers from immediately disembarking.

He said Chilean air force planes, weather permitting, would fly the survivors on Saturday to Punta Arenas at the southernmost tip of Chile.

An Argentine navy statement said the Explorer was about 475 nautical miles southeast of Ushuaia, the southernmost Argentine city and a jumping-off point for cruise ships and supply vessels for Antarctica. Seas were calm and winds light at the time of the accident, officials said.

Last Feb. 1, the Nordnorge evacuated 294 passengers, including 119 Americans, from a sister Norwegian cruise ship, the MS Nordkapp, which ran aground off a remote Antarctic island. The Nordkapp later pulled off the rocks under its own power and authorities said those passengers were never in danger.

Survivors of Antarctica shipwreck heading home

The last group of survivors from the Antarctic cruise ship that struck an iceberg and sunk into the icy sea have been flown back to the...

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PUNTA ARENAS, Chile — The last group of survivors from the Antarctic cruise ship that struck an iceberg and sunk into the icy sea have been flown back to the South American mainland Sunday.

A Chilean military transport plane ferried the final 77 of the 154 passengers and crew to Punta Arenas, Chile’s southernmost city and a jumping-off point for Antarctica travel on Sunday. All had been rescued from the sinking MS Explorer on Friday.

“Everything is fine, very fine,” said Argentine crew member Andrea Salas as she climbed from the plane. Sunday’s airlift was composed of 11 passengers and 65 crew members, most of whom declined to comment on advice from lawyers.

A Chilean air force plane flew the ship’s first 77 survivors back from the King George Island air base, 660 miles south of this remote tip of South America, on Saturday.

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The MS Explorer, operated by the Canadian tour company G.A.P. Adventures, smashed into submerged sea ice in Antarctic waters before dawn on Friday. The ship took on water and sank about 15 hours later.

All on board made it into lifeboats and were rescued by a passing Norwegian cruise ship.

On Sunday, many still toted the life vests they wore while shivering for hours in the bobbing rafts while awaiting rescue. Some carried plastic bags with a few belongings, heading for medical checkups and visits with consular officials from a host of countries on hand to help them get home.

The Explorer’s captain, Bengt Wiman, walked past shouting journalists and gave a thumbs-up sign to crowds who welcomed the plane.

The ship’s 91 passengers came from more than a dozen nations, including 24 Britons, 17 Dutch, 14 Americans, 12 Canadians and 10 Australians. Nine expedition staff members and a crew of 54 were also aboard the ship, operators said.

The Explorer had been on a 19-day tour of Antarctica and the Falkland Islands, bringing passengers to observe penguins, whales and other wildlife.

Survivors on Saturday told reporters they were overjoyed to have been swiftly rescued.

While bobbing in a life raft on the frigid sea, Danish citizen, Jan Heikel, 42, and his girlfriend Mette Larsen, 29, said they decided to speed up wedding plans.

“There were some very frightening moments but the crew was very professional and the captain very good and had everything under control,” Heikel said.

The Explorer sank in 3,300 feet of water in an area about 40 nautical miles from Chile’s Presidente Eduardo Frei air force base.

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Questions swirl around the sinking of the MS Explorer

Experts say key pieces of the story are missing regarding the Nov. 23 incident off Antarctica.

• By Colin Woodard Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

December 3, 2007

People familiar with the Antarctic tourism industry weren't surprised that a cruise ship sank there.

What stunned them was that the ship in question was the MS Explorer, a veteran of the polar cruise ship trade, purpose-built to operate in extreme polar environments, and manned by an experienced crew. That it sank during what appears to have been the most routine of circumstances – cruising through young pack ice in mild weather – has experts scratching their heads.

"I'm totally shocked and surprised," says Leif Skog, who was captain of the Explorer for six years in the mid-1980s and early 1990s. "She was just outstanding in her design, perfect for ice navigation. It's very unlikely that pack ice caused this."

Jim Barnes, executive director of the Washington-based Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, which monitors tourism and other activities, concurs. "To think [the Explorer] could sink in less than 20 hours from a relatively modest incident is very surprising," he says. "It makes you wonder if something else happened, because it really doesn't add up."

Indeed, the initial explanation of the ship's sinking on Nov. 23 – that it struck submerged ice, sprung a "fist-sized" leak, and was doomed by uncontrollable flooding – doesn't hold water for ship-design experts. Essential pieces of the story are missing, they say. Those include what the vessel really struck, why flood control efforts failed, and the timing and nature of a second collision with a large iceberg.

Doubt cast on ice-damage explanation

Sander Calisal, professor emeritus of naval architecture at the University of British Columbia, notes that Explorer's 1A-class ice-reinforced hull ought to have withstood accidental contact with submerged ice. "If there were some kind of underwater ice then, yes, there will be some impact, but I would assume it would be relatively minor." An iceberg large enough to cause serious damage would be readily visible to radar, sonar, and the eyes of the bridge crew.

Mr. Skog, Seattle-based vice president for marine operations at Lindblad Expeditions, Explorer's original owner, says collisions with submerged ice are very rare events. In a polar career spanning three decades, he can recall only a handful of times when ships he served on experienced ice damage. All amounted to dents, save one incident when a cargo ship he was commanding suffered a small, easily contained leak in the Arctic.

Further, such damage almost always occurs in the bow area, which is double-hulled as an added precaution on ice-going vessels. But the Explorer's leak had to be in the middle of the ship, he notes, because as she sank, she remained on a level, bow-to-stern trim.

The apparently small size of the puncture suggests the ship may have struck something harder than ice, according to Claude Daley, an expert in ice-reinforced ship design at Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland. "A fist-sized hole doesn't sound like ice damage to me," he says. "You need something very hard to cause a small hole in steel. Stone, for instance."

One possibility, says Skog, is a large stone embedded in floating glacial ice. "There can be huge rocks frozen into the ice, and they can be hard to see," he says. "When I was down there in the '70s, in poorly charted waters, you would see things that looked like little islands, but were actually floating."

Whatever caused the damage, Mr. Calisal says it shouldn't have sunk the ship by itself. "Passenger ships are designed with many watertight compartments to contain flooding," he says. "There had to have been a chain of failures to prompt the captain to abandon ship."

Explorer's owner, GAP Adventures of Toronto, is unable to provide further information on the incident, now that their insurance company, Steamship Mutual, is investigating, according Susan Hayes, the GAP Adventure's vice president for marketing. "We don't know exactly what happened," she said. "At this point, I'm not actively in the loop."

Reviewing the facts

Initial reports from the company – and accounts given by passengers and crew – suggest something unexpected happened aboard the ship while the crew worked to contain the damage.

The incident started about midnight local time (GMT-3), when the Explorer struck something, suffering damage amidships on the starboard side of the lowest passenger level. Passengers there recalled hearing two loud bangs and the sound of rushing water, as their cabins began to flood. They alerted the crew, and a distress call was sent out at 12:20 a.m.

While passengers congregated in the muster station on an upper deck, the crew located what Ms. Hayes said was "a crack and a fist-sized hole." The Toronto Globe & Mail reported Nov. 24 that the crew sealed the affected compartment with watertight doors and, for about an hour, appeared to have stabilized the situation with bilge pumps.

Several witnesses have since recounted that while they were waiting in the muster station, the Explorer drifted into a large iceberg. The iceberg – which one passenger described as being as big as the ship – reportedly struck the damaged starboard side.

Water levels reportedly began rising again sometime after 1:30 a.m., although it is not clear if this was a result of the second collision. Power failed, and, at about 3 a.m., Captain Bengt Wiman gave the order to abandon ship. Two other cruise ships arrived on the scene at about 7 a.m. to begin plucking passengers and crew from lifeboats and rafts. All 154 aboard were rescued. Explorer, which had rolled on her starboard side, reportedly sank that evening.

"The worst thing is that the ship probably sank with the secret of what really happened," says Skog, who hopes investigators manage to find the answer. "On our ships we need to know the facts; speculations aren't really fruitful for us."

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Tangled in Steel With No Way Out: How the Crew Stuck in Baltimore Is Faring

Twenty-two seafarers from India find themselves not only trapped in the ship that struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, but also in an unexpected spotlight.

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By Eduardo Medina

Reporting from Baltimore

Even from miles away, the destruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore is a jarring visual: Chunks of steel jut above the water like metallic icebergs. Twisted gray beams protrude in crooked positions. From a park near Fort McHenry, visitors can see the giant cargo ship that struck the bridge and remains lodged in the wreckage.

Less visible, however, are the 22 crew members from India who have remained on the ship, named the Dali, since the disaster on Tuesday.

Little is publicly known about them other than that they are seafarers who embarked on a journey aboard the 985-foot-long cargo ship that was on its way to Sri Lanka, carrying 4,700 shipping containers, when it lost power and struck the Key Bridge, causing the structure to collapse.

Since the accident, which killed six construction workers, the crew members have found themselves in an unexpected spotlight. While keeping the ship operable, they are answering a deluge of questions from officials investigating the nighttime catastrophe, as the evidence of what occurred lies around them in mangled ruins stretching across the bow and deck.

While officials investigate what could have caused the tragedy, another question has emerged this week: What could the crew members, who have limited access to the outside world, be going through right now?

“They must feel this weight of responsibility that they couldn’t stop it from happening,” said Joshua Messick, the executive director of the Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center , a religious nonprofit that seeks to protect the rights of mariners.

Even so, officials have praised the crew’s swift mayday message that was transmitted over the radio as the ship lost power on Tuesday. Before the Dali struck the bridge, traveling at a rapid eight knots, the mayday call helped police officers stop traffic from heading onto the bridge, most likely saving many lives, the authorities said. A local harbor pilot with more than 10 years of experience was onboard, as well as an apprentice pilot in training.

As the ship remains stuck in the Port of Baltimore, where it may remain for weeks, the lives of the crew members have entered an uncertain phase. But one thing is certain: They will no longer cruise through the sea around South Africa toward their destination in Sri Lanka anytime soon.

But they are not going to imminently dock at the port either, as they must wait for enough debris to be cleared to free the ship and reopen the channel to one of the busiest ports in the United States. On Saturday, the governor of Maryland said officials planned to remove the first piece of the debris.

So, for now, crew members are most likely working a grueling schedule to maintain the ship that is similar to the one they would be if they were out at sea. The difference, though, is that they are in an immobile state as the eyes of the world fixate on them, experts said.

“The captain of the vessel and the crew have a duty to the ship,” said Stephen Frailey, a partner at Pacific Maritime Group, which helps with marine salvage and wreck removal.

According to Chris James, who works for a consulting firm assisting the ship’s management company, Synergy Marine, the crew members have ample supplies of food and water, as well as plenty of fuel to keep the generators going. Indeed, when Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, went onboard the ship this week, she observed the cook cooking. “It smelled very good,” she said.

But there is still no exact timeline for when the ship might be extracted from the wreckage, Mr. James said. Once the N.T.S.B. and the Coast Guard finish their investigations, he said, “we’ll look at potentially swapping the crew out and getting them home.”

India, the home country of the crew members, is one of the world’s largest hubs for seafarers, according to John A. Konrad, a ship captain and the chief executive of gCaptain, a maritime and offshore industry news website. Though Indian captains and engineers are paid less than their American counterparts, Mr. Konrad said, they make a decent living when they work for three or more months out of the year at sea.

Working on a cargo ship, he said, is a 24-hour ordeal with no weekends off: Every day, decks are checked for maintenance and safety, cooks and cleaners serve the other members, and workers in the engine room keep things on track.

Cargo ship crew members do have some leisurely activities available to them onboard, though, such as video game breaks in cabins, workouts in gyms, table tennis sessions and movie nights. The Dali crew has at least a TV, magazines and books onboard, said Andrew Middleton, who runs Apostleship of the Sea, a program that ministers to sailors coming through the port.

Clistan Joy Sequeira, an Indian seafarer who was not on the Dali but who docked in Baltimore from another cargo ship on Friday, said in an interview that he feared the repercussions that the bridge collapse could have on his industry and his country.

“I’m scared that because this crew is Indian, our international image will suffer,” said Mr. Sequeira, 31. “Maybe we lose jobs.”

Some in Baltimore’s port community have had some contact with the Dali crew, albeit brief, through third parties or WhatsApp. Mr. Messick said he sent the crew two Wi-Fi hot spots on Friday because they did not have internet onboard.

Mr. Middleton said he had been keeping in touch with two crew members, reminding them that “we’re here for them.”

“When I’ve asked how they’re doing, their answers range from ‘good’ to ‘great,’” he said. “So, by their own accounts, they’re OK.”

Mr. Messick said he had also sent a care package to the crew through a salvage company helping with operations. In the package were candy, home-baked muffins from a concerned local and thank-you cards from children.

With so many questions still unanswered about the crew members’ next steps, Mr. Messick said he was eager to provide them with trauma care and emotional support. On Friday, he wrote a letter to the captain, which was delivered by another vessel.

“We’re here to support you,” it read.

Mike Baker contributed reporting.

Eduardo Medina is a Times reporter covering the South. An Alabama native, he is now based in Durham, N.C. More about Eduardo Medina

“9-1-1” boss breaks down the deadly cruise ship disaster finale — and what didn't make the final cut

The ABC first-responder drama's co-creator and showrunner, Tim Minear, also teases what's to come in season 7.

After three hours of pirates, explosions, and lots of water , 9-1-1 fans finally know who survived the epic, three-part season 7 premiere .

"It all happened really fast," co-creator and showrunner Tim Minear tells Entertainment Weekly of completing the cruise ship disaster episodes. "It was very difficult, and you always have that moment where you're just like, 'Am I going to be able to pull this off?'"

It may have felt quick, but getting Bobby ( Peter Krause ) and Athena ( Angela Bassett ) out of that sinking vessel actually took months of filming... and none of it on an actual cruise ship. As the series moves forward on dry land (though on one very wet driveway, with the Bachelor crossover coming next week ), we asked Minear to break down the deadly three-epsiode event, reveal what ideas never made it to air, and tease what's to come in the rest of season 7.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This was a big undertaking...

TIM MINEAR: Shooting Bobby and Athena on a honeymoon cruise was more challenging than many things I've done on this show in the last seven seasons. We never got an actual cruise ship, so we had to shoot in hotels and on different types of vessels, and then [use] special effects and CGI. But just the idea of that surprised me. I thought that would be easy: You'd rent a cruise ship, you'd shoot on it for three days, you'd get a lot of stuff on the decks. But it just didn't turn out that way. It was very difficult to get a cruise ship. No cruise line wanted to be associated with a capsized ship, which I guess I can understand.

Well it all made for a very dramatic three episodes. So many massive sets, so much rising water.

The water's not actually rising, the set is sinking! The set was built on a gimbal inside a water tank. We would slowly lower the set into the tank, and it gives the effect that the water's rising around them. And the casino set.... The lowering of the table with Norman [played by Daniel Roebuck] on it, that was complicated to write, and it was very complicated to shoot. But that's Peter up there. Peter is climbing across those ropes up there — that delighted me.

The other thing that absolutely delighted me was that Angela Bassett was game for anything. She went into that water. When the bomb goes off in episode 2, and she goes flying against that wall, she actually did it! There's a stunt woman in there too, but Angela, she was game for anything.

Was there anything you wanted to do with this disaster that you weren't able to?

There was one scene that I did have to cut, that I was sad to cut. It was when Wes [played by Denzel Johnson] opens the door and that fireball comes out. Originally in the script, they still continued in that direction, and when they looked into that room, it was an upside down restaurant and the water was on fire. And so it's like, "How do we get to the other side of the restaurant and stop the gas that is feeding this fire?" And in the scene, in the script, Lola [played by Romy Rosemont] actually dives under the fire and swims under the water to turn it off. It was very Shelley Winters [in The Poseidon Adventure .]

Time and money just prohibited that from happening, so I made a little bit more of Wes' death. And then did give Lola an opportunity to retrieve the flare gun later in the episode, so she still got to go underwater. But that was a moment that I was sad to lose. And I know Romy was too, but she still got a little bit of action there at the end.

So now that Bobby and Athena are rescued, what can you tease about the rest of the season?

I just finished locking episode 4 and I was like, "Hmm, there's no natural disasters. Things aren't blowing up all over the place." But there is the Bachelor crossover, so we have that to look forward to. And now we get to spend a little time breathing with the 118 and dig into their personal stories a little bit more. Yeah, I don't know how much I should spoil.... Definitely a beloved character will be returning in episode 4, I can put it that way....

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

9-1-1 airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.

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Related content:

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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly .

River Danube cruise ship crashed after it was 'suddenly no longer able to maneuver,' 17 passengers injured

• A cruise ship crashed into a concrete wall along the River Danube in Austria on Friday.
• A police statement said, "the ship was suddenly no longer able to maneuver."
• 11 people were hospitalized and another 6 suffered less serious injuries.

A Bulgarian cruise ship carrying over 140 passengers crashed into a concrete wall along the River Danube in Austria.

The incident occurred late on March 29 in the northern Austrian town of Aschach an der Donau, local police said Saturday.

Eleven people were injured and taken to hospital as a result of the crash. Six others suffered less serious injuries that did not require hospital treatment.

The ship had set off from Passau, a German city on the Austrian border, but further down the river when leaving the lock chamber, "the ship was suddenly no longer able to maneuver," and its right bow and left aft crashed into the lock walls, the statement read.

The second-in-command of the ship, who had been at the helm during the crash, "pressed the emergency switch, whereupon the electronics started up again." He was then able to steer the ship out of the lock.

The ship was later docked at the quay wall and emergency services were notified.

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The exact cause of the temporary loss of steering is unclear. The ship was able to continue its journey toward Linz, Austria.

An Austrian police statement indicated the collision was linked to a failure of the ship's electronics.

After the ship crashed, " The second captain of the ship, who was operating the helm at the time, immediately pressed the emergency switch, whereupon the electronics started again and he was able to steer the ship out of the lock," the police statement said.

It added: "After checking the ship it turned out that the electronics worked again after the emergency switch was reset, which is why the ship could continue its journey."

Earlier this week, a container ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, collapsing a section of the 1.6-mile-long structure and killing six construction workers.

Citing the container ship's recovered data recorder, officials said the power went out on the Dali for just one minute and three seconds as it approached the bridge, Sky News reported, but that was enough for the collision to become unavoidable.

In 2023, in the worst disaster on the Danube in more than half a century, a cruise boat hit and sank a smaller boat , killing 25 South Korean tourists and two crew. The captain was sentenced to five years in prison in Hungary for his role in the accident.

The River Danube is Europe's second-largest river in Europe. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest south into the Black Sea. Cruise ships on the river attract huge numbers of tourists every year.

Watch: One of Europe's deadliest shipwrecks leaves hundreds missing

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Three people dead after fishing boat capsizes off South Australian coast

Two others taken to Port Lincoln hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after being winched to safety

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Three people are dead and two are in hospital after their fishing boat capsized off the coast of South Australia .

Emergency crews began a frantic water and air search on Monday evening after the boat and its five occupants did not return to Port Lincoln.

A police rescue helicopter located the upturned boat near Spilsby Island in the Spencer Gulf about 2am on Tuesday, and winched two members of the party – a 44-year-old man and a 13-year-old boy – to safety from a reef.

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Placid seas raised hopes that the other three occupants of the boat were still alive, but they were dashed after rescuers recovered two bodies later in the morning.

The fifth and final member of the crew was found dead shortly after 2pm.

The rescued pair were taken to Port Lincoln hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

They were treated for conditions related to hypothermia as a result of exposure to the cold, police Supt Paul Bahr told reporters on Tuesday.

“The boat itself has also been located and is on its way back to Port Lincoln,” Bahr said.

“That will be off-loaded later today and will be subject to further forensic examination and any examination the coroner may require.”

The fishing party comprised family members and close friends, and aside from the one rescued teen were all adults.

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The two rescued anglers told police their boat was swamped by a wave about 4pm on Monday, overturning the vessel and throwing all aboard into the water.

A large-scale rescue operation was launched after family members of the crew alerted police about their non-return just after 8.30pm on Monday night.

As well as the police helicopter, police water operations, local Sea Rescue vessels, a Challenger jet plane and P&O cruise ship the Pacific Explorer took part in the search.

Police will now prepare reports for the coroner.

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'I just felt so helpless': Carnival Sunrise cruise ship faces flooding

A Carnival Cruise Line ship faced flooding on its way back to Miami over the weekend.

Carnival Sunrise was returning from a five-day Caribbean cruise at the time. Passenger Rachel Cox woke up to pounding on her cabin door around 2 a.m. on Saturday.

As she and her family got out of bed, they stepped into what she estimated was 2 to 4 inches of water. “We opened the door and people are yelling and screaming ‘Hey, we're taking on water. We're flooding,’ ” she told USA TODAY.

Cox, 38, was staying in an inside cabin on Deck 10 with her partner and son, and her mother and daughter stayed in the adjacent room.

After a man wearing what looked like a security uniform told them to go to their muster station, they gathered their belongings and scrambled down the stairs – in part because water was pooling around the elevator bank.

“We're literally running down the stairwells, and as we are, (on) every single floor water's just coming out of the ceilings, it’s coming up through the floor, we see water on the sides of the walls,” said the Arkansas-based nonprofit executive director.

The captain came to speak with Cox and other guests holed up in the ship’s Liquid Lounge. He informed them that the vessel had taken on water and that bad weather had changed their route, though Cox said the captain did not get specific. Cox and her family did not hear any other official updates from the line, but the crew distributed bottled water and a small number of blankets to passengers.

They stayed there until they got off the ship shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday (though Cox and her partner did go back upstairs briefly to retrieve their life jackets).

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“Carnival Sunrise encountered heavy rain while the ship was returning to Miami overnight Friday into Saturday,” Carnival spokesperson Matt Lupoli said in an emailed statement. “Some staterooms were taken out of service for Saturday's departure as our team completed clean up and replaced carpet. Those guests who were not able to sail were provided full refunds, a future cruise credit and received overnight accommodations if they needed them.”

Cox said the cruise line did not initially offer her a refund or other compensation, despite her belongings getting wet, including large suitcases the crew had stored ahead of disembarkation. She contacted Carnival when she got home and said she didn’t hear back until Wednesday morning, when a guest services representative asked to set up a call.

A couple of hours later, the cruise line also sent her a note signed by Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy, offering a 25% future cruise credit and inviting guests to submit documentation for review of damage to personal belongings.

“On behalf of the entire Carnival family, I am writing to express our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience you experienced as a result of the water intrusion incident that occurred the final night of the voyage,” Duffy said in the email, which Cox shared with USA TODAY. “We understand that being moved from your stateroom during those late hours must have been frustrating, and we deeply regret the disruption to your plans and comfort.”

Lupoli said in a separate statement that passengers "affected by the flooding incident on Carnival Sunrise were directed to the main lounge, not their muster stations, where our team worked to make them as comfortable as possible."

"The captain apologized for what occurred on board, a burst pipe due to a large amount of rainwater, and our Guest Care team has followed up as well, sending a letter and issuing a credit for those inconvenienced," he said. "We appreciate their understanding and support."

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Cox, who has been on over a dozen Carnival cruises, said the experience soured her on taking another – at least for now. “I had several pleasant experiences before this one, but at this moment in time, I can't imagine ever getting on another ship because I just felt so helpless.”

The news comes after Royal Caribbean International’s Serenade of the Seas, which is now operating the nine-month Ultimate World Cruise, also experienced flooding after rough weather off the coast of South America in January.

Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at [email protected].