Gangway collapses in Panama during Norwegian Cruise Line visit, injures passengers
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How common is a cruise ship gangway collapse?
Ross Klein, a cruise industry expert and a professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada, said that this kind of incident is uncommon. “It’s not unheard of, but it certainly isn’t something that happens with any frequency at all,” he said.
A passenger on an MSC Cruises ship was rescued in 2009 after falling into the water following a gangway collapse, and more than a dozen people were killed in a similar incident on a gangway leading to Cunard Line’s Queen Mary 2 in 2003.
More common, Klein said, is for passengers to fall over the side of the gangway, though he noted that does not happen often, either. “From a passenger perspective, one should always be using caution no matter where they are on a cruise ship or off,” Klein said. “That may minimize some of the risk, at least.”