A group of Maltese travellers were among 8,500 passengers and crew on the MSC World Europa that suddenly stopped following technical issues.
The cruiseliner was en route to Naples as part of its itinerary between Malta, Genoa, Naples, Messina, Barcelona, and Marseille, and came to a halt 15 nautical miles off the coast of Naples after suffering machinery damage.
The coastguard sent two patrol boats and a helicopter to the region as a precaution.
The incident occurred at around 5:30am when the vessel lost power. One passenger described the scene on social media: “We had no electricity nor water at a point. It’s difficult not knowing what’s going to happen to you.”
The outage lasted several hours, with electricity reportedly restored later in the afternoon. By then, the ship was able to resume its course towards Naples.
The incident has drawn comparisons from commentators to the infamous “poop cruise” featured in the Netflix documentary Trainwreck: Poop Cruise, which recounted how a power failure left thousands stranded without basic facilities.
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