Tragedy struck a cruise ship carrying hundreds of British holidaymakers on a tour of the Canary Islands on Sunday when five crew members were killed during a routine lifeboat safety drill.
Three others were injured when the lifeboat carrying eight crew snapped off its cable while being lowered from deck and plummeted 30 meters before landing upside down in the sea below. The incident on the Thomson Majesty liner occurred around noon on Sunday during a six-hour stopover in port on the Spanish island of La Palma on route to Madeira from Gran Canaria. Eight crew members were taking part in a routine emergency lifeboat drill while the ship was docked when their safety vessel fell, overturned and trapped them beneath its hull. Images showed a small, white two-hulled lifeboat capsized beside the large ship. Those that died were reportedly three Indonesians, a Filipino and a Ghanian while two Greeks and another Indonesian were seriously injured. None of the passengers on-board were thought to have been involved in the drill.
