German and Colombian media report that last Friday an excursion boat from the Carnival Corporation-owned AIDAbella cruise ship, with 38 tourists aboard, capsized off the coast of Colombia near the Barú Peninsula, Cartagena, Colombia, according to the popular Crew Center site.
The accident apparently was caused by strong winds and high waves, which overwhelmed the vessel when it was attempting to return to the AIDA cruise ship. As you can see in a video posted online, there are several dozens of heads bobbing in the rough weather as the excursion boat lies partially submerged.
Fortunately, there were no reports of deaths or serious injuries due to this dangerous incident.
Cruise lines face legal liability when mishaps like this occur during excursions. Cruise lines should cancel excursions when rough weather threatens and should promptly refund excursion fares to their guests.
Over the years, we have reported on a number of similar mishaps involving excursion boats. In 2018, an excursion craft sailed from Cozumel with ten cruise guests aboard it. The boat’s crew instructed the cruise passengers to head to the bow; however, the boat took on water quickly and the guests had to jump into the water. The cruise passengers reportedly were from an unidentified Royal Caribbean cruise ship and a Celebrity ship (the Celebrity Equinox).
In late 2017, 95 German cruise passengers from the Mein Schiff 6 cruise ship were rescued after a catamaran boat (photo above) began to sink during an excursion, according to the Baja Post.
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Image Credit: AIDAbella – Wolfgang Fricke CC BY 3.0 commons / wikimedia; video screengrab – HT24 / @HT24___ Colombia; story – Crew Center; – November 16, 2017 sinking of catamaran / Mein Schiff 6 incident – Noticaribe via Baja Post.