The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has said that the probable cause of the ‘Carnival Pride’s’ 2016 allision with a pier and elevated passenger embarkation walkway was the staff captain’s errors during the docking manoeuvre.
According to the NTSB, the vessel approached the pier with excessive speed and at too steep of an angle. The board also blamed the captain’s insufficient oversight during the manoeuvre.
On the morning of 8th May, 2016, the cruise ship ‘Carnival Pride’ was attempting to dock at the Cruise Maryland Terminal at South Locust Point in Baltimore, Maryland, when her bow struck the pier and fendering, along with an elevated passenger embarkation walkway on shore.
The incident caused nearly $2.1 mill in damages. The walkway was destroyed, three vehicles that were under the walkway as it collapsed were damaged and the vessel sustained minor cosmetic damage. There were no injuries or pollution reported.
As a result, the elevated passenger walkway was destroyed at an estimated cost of $2 mill. Repair or replacement of the three vehicles damaged when the walkway collapsed onto them totalled $75,000. The retractable observation and mooring platform on the forward starboard side of the ‘Carnival Pride’ absorbed the majority of the impact with the walkway and was bent out of shape, hanging at the ship’s side.
Additional damage to the vessel included scraping and minor indentation to the side shell plating at the flare of the bow about 15 ft below the gunwale. Repairs to the ‘Carnival Pride’ were estimated at $10,000.
