Silja Europa’s rudder failure affects thousands of passengers

23-hour cruise extended by another day

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As a result of a technical failure that occurred on Sunday, the cruise ferry Silja Europa will be out of service for at least a week, stated Tallink Group in its press release yesterday.
      This will affect the travel plans of thousands of people who have already booked their cruises.
      ”This is a busy period with many bookings for Christmas parties”, regretted Vice President Pasi Näkki of Tallink Silja.
      All departures of Silja Europa are cancelled until December 1st and tickets bought for those trips will be fully refunded, the press release said.
     
The company regards as very rare the technical failure in Silja Europa’s rudder system that occurred on Sunday afternoon, while the 60,000-ton ferry was on its way from Mariehamn to Turku.
      The divers who inspected the ship on Monday in Airisto off Turku found that the technical failure in Silja Europa`s rudder system was caused by the broken starboard rudderstock, which has to be replaced. Manufacturing and installation of a new rudderstock will take at least a week, Tallink reported.
      How the rudderstock got broken is still unclear. The reason will be further investigated, the company says.
      ”Never before have we experienced anything like this”, said Security Manager Mikael Lindholm.
     
The situation caused an ”extra cruise” of nearly 24 hours for passengers. However, the atmosphere on board Silja Europa was calm, some passengers said.
      People worried mostly about the fact that they should have gone to work on the following morning.
      ”Communication on board the ship was reasonable, but it would have been better to report a little more accurately what had happened. All they said was that there was a technical failure”, says one of the passengers, Jukka Malm from Tampere.
      ”Most passengers were in a good mood, even though some people’s feelings ran high when they heard of the delay on Sunday”, Malm noted.
     
On Monday, it was peaceful on board Silja Europa, when the divers were investigating the damage to the ship.
      ”At the moment, everybody is enjoying what the company offers”, said Karri Kekkonen from Valkeakoski, speaking on the phone from Airisto.
      ”There is no point worrying when one cannot do anything. At least the service is impeccable”, Kekkonen noted.
      Passenger Jaakko Virtanen from Rauma agreed, saying that the workplace Christmas party got an extension when they could continue to party until Monday.
      ”At least we got our money’s worth, when there was an additional cruise”, Virtanen said at the terminal after the ship had just arrived in Turku.
      ”We could eat enough, use the sauna and jacuzzi”, he praised.
      On Monday, Tallink Silja promised that all passengers’ potential claims for compensation, for example for lost workdays, would be handled on a case-by-case basis.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Cruise ferry Silja Europa left circling in Åland Islands after rudder failure (23.11.2009)

Links:
  Tallink Group press release 23.11.2009

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