After a ‘severe weather’ incident in Mallorca involving a cruise liner and a petrol tanker, 300 plus guests on a P&O cruise liner are set to be flown home. Britannia will return to the UK from Spain on Friday 1 September (with reduced passengers) after it crashed into a petrol tanker.

P&O says Britannia ‘was impacted by severe weather when alongside in Palma de Mallorca’ on Sunday (27 August 2023).

A witness at the scene told the Mirror: “What a mess. A 200-tonne ship … carried it to the other side of the harbour like it was straw. Something must surely have been damaged. It went like a missile to the other side.”

A P&O statement says: ‘Following inspections, our third-party surveyor has confirmed that one of Britannia’s lifeboats has sustained structural issues and cannot be repaired onboard.

‘We are so sorry, but these extraordinary circumstances mean that the ship is required, by maritime regulation, to return to Southampton with a reduced number of people.’

The company said a ‘small number of people’ sustained minor injuries and were treated by the onboard medical team.

According to Sky News, Britannia was carrying thousands of passengers, and 321 would leave the ship and be flown back to their original starting point. The rest of the guests will conclude their trip on Friday as planned.

Port authorities in the Mallorca capital Palma said Britannia had collided with a petrol tanker.

One woman told WalesOnline: “The side of the boat is battered. We were docked overnight in Palma, and the wind was so strong our anchors broke, and we blew out into another ship. We were up browsing on our phones in bed and heard the big horn after the bang. It was panic stations, I was bawling my eyes out.

“We went out onto our balcony and could see debris in the ocean and all the damage to the side of the boat and our lifeboat. The captain said: ‘Everyone, this is not a drill.’ Lots of people were running around looking panicked.”

Passenger Gary McGuinness told the Mirror: “Me and my seven-year-old daughter Kasey stepped off the ship to go out for the day. I then saw a wall of water and wind heading towards us down the concrete jetty – it looked like a sort of ferocity that you would be unable to stand up in.

“The large fold out greeting umbrellas on the jetty, shot past into the sea about 80mph. We stepped back into the ship and about eight seconds later, we broke our moorings. The walk way that we were just stood on, I think fell into the sea. But when you first witnessed it happening it looked like the ship opposite and the concrete jetty was floating away. But of course we were floating away into a small cargo ship and rocks opposite.”

The cruise industry recently refuted media reports that Amsterdam had banned cruise ships from its city centre, as part of an ongoing campaign to limit tourism and pollution in the Dutch capital.

Images courtesy of public handout.

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