image source, Dana Craigie
All 60 passengers landed in lifeboats
Sudden mechanical failure was likely the cause of the car ferry’s grounding in the Orkney Islands, according to the Coast Guard.
There were 60 people on board the MV Pentalina when it touched down at St Margaret Hope on Saturday night.
Smoke was previously detected in the engine room of the Pentland Ferries ship.
The RMT Maritime Union has called for a thorough investigation into how the incident happened.
Emergency services, including lifeboats that landed passengers, were called to the scene around 19:30 after the ferry issued a May Day message. It then resurfaces and St. She is anchored at Margaret Hope.
The Maritime Coast Guard (MCA) said it was assessing the extent of the damage and said, “Although the facts have not yet been established, initial reports from the operators suggested that sudden mechanical failure was the cause of the grounding. pointing out.”
Following the ship’s investigation on April 18, the ferry defended the fact that it had been issued a Passenger Vessel Safety Certificate.
“At this time, the vessel met the criteria required for the issuance of this certificate,” it said.
MCA investigators added that they would conduct an initial fact-finding to establish the causes and circumstances surrounding the incident.
Gary Brown and his pregnant partner Lauren Huston were driving a Pentalina at the time of the accident.
As they were out on deck, they noticed smoke coming from the engine room, followed by a ‘freaked out’ crew member.
Lauren Haston and his partner Gary Brown board the ship and notice smoke coming from the engine room.
Brown said it will take some time before information is provided to passengers. Then one crew member “suddenly” started telling passengers to “find something to grab.”
He said he was “panicked” but remained calm for his partner.
Within about an hour, passengers were escorted from the ferry to lifeboats so their cars and belongings could be retrieved from the ship.
The Pentland Ferry crosses Pentland Bay from Gills Bay in Caithness to St Margaret Hope in the Orkney Islands.
Pentarina resumed operations on Wednesday after another ferry, MV Alfred, entered drydock to allow it to service other routes to islands on the west coast.
A technical problem occurred on Friday and on Saturday night the ferry ran aground on the shoreline about 100 yards (91 m) from its destination in Orkney.
56 adults, 3 children, 1 baby and several dogs were brought ashore by RNLI lifeboats.
There were no reports of injuries and passengers described the rescue effort as calm and professional.
A large number of lifeboat crews were called to the stranded ferry
An RMT spokesman said, “A thorough investigation will be required to determine how this serious accident on the Pentland Ferry vessel occurred.”
Gordon Martin, RMT’s Scottish organizer, told BBC Scotland that the union “raised many safety concerns” about Pentalina over the years.
He said: “A catastrophe could have been averted and we could face a real situation.
“We are now going from crisis to farce in the ferry sector in Scotland,” he added.
Last week, Pentland Ferry’s flagship vessel, the new larger catamaran MV Alfred, began a nine-month charter with CalMac on the west coast.
It is not clear when MV Pentalina will resume services.
MCA said the MV Pentalina was towed by a tug around 05:30 and brought to the anchorage at St Margaret’s Hope before resurfaced.
A spokeswoman said there were no signs of contamination and added that the ferry would be inspected to determine the extent of the damage.
She added that the Marine Accident Investigation Bureau (MAIB) was notified.
Coastguards from St Margaret Hope, Stromness and Kirkwall and RNLI lifeboats from Stromness and Longhope participated in the rescue.
Transport Scotland said Pentland Ferries will assess the ship’s condition and next steps to determine if service will be lost at Pentland Firth.
Further actions to support capacity to the Orkney Islands will be considered in due course, he said.
A spokesperson said: “Ministers were immediately made aware of the incident involving MV Pentalina and were kept informed of developments throughout the night.
“We are relieved that all passengers and crew are safe and ready to support passengers on their journey forward. I would like to express my gratitude to
“The situation, including the impact on the provision of ferries across Pentland Bay, will be reviewed over the next few days,” said Hayley Greene, Vice Chair of the Orkney Islands Local Emergency Coordination Group (OLECG). I was.
She commended the efforts of all agencies involved, including the local community and volunteer lifeboat crews.
“A pathetic lack of resilience”
Scottish Conservative MP Jamie Halcro-Johnston, from Orkney, said the incident exposed a “pathetic lack of resilience in the Scottish ferry network”.
He said: “Pentalina was called out this week as MV Alfred had to be seconded from Pentland Ferry to fill a gap in the aging and unreliable Karmac fleet. It’s all about it.
“While it is important to know how this incident happened, my immediate concern is what this means for the Orkney Islands and how much this important link between our islands will be severed. It means that
“There are many questions the Scottish government needs to answer, such as whether the £9m deal between Calmack and Pentland Ferries will allow MV Alfred to be brought back to Orkney early, or whether Alfred will remain on the west coast. I have a question: the Orkney Islands will lose critical services.”
Orkney Islands MSP Liam McArthur said there are also important questions for the Maritime Coast Guard to answer about the fact that Pentarina was recently inspected and qualified for service.
He added: “We also need a response from the Scottish Government, who were unable to procure new ferries in a timely manner. As a result, services on both the north and west coasts have become very vulnerable. As a result, the islanders and the island community must pay a price.”
there is no sunday newspaper on the shelf
Rob Frett of BBC Scotland in Orkney
The immediate impact of the interruption of Pentland ferry services to mainland Scotland is already being felt in Orkney. There are no Sunday newspapers on the shelves here today.
When Pentarina passengers stepped off two buses last night, they wanted to avoid the news headlines. People we spoke to, regular travelers and first-time visitors alike, seemed very excited about the evacuation process. They could only praise the ferry crew and the RNLI for bringing everyone to shore, including six dogs.
Pentland Ferries is a company with strong loyalty to the Orkney Islands. Over the past 20 years, it has transformed travel to and from the island without public subsidies. It serves communities east of the archipelago from its home port of St Margaret Hope in South Ronaldsee.
The Orkney Islands Subsidized Lifeline Ferry Service is operated by Northlink in the town of Stromness, about 28 miles west. Debate over the merits of each service can get heated, and no matter what happens, some people find it hard to hear criticism of their favorite provider.
The Orkney Islands are no different than island communities that are often hotbeds of rumor and gossip. Pentland Her ferry’s workhorse, the new and larger catamaran MV Alfred, docked at Suwona Island in Pentland Bay last July.
The Marine Accident Survey Service has yet to report its findings, but most islanders believe they know exactly what happened during the accident through information from friends and contacts. , the situation surrounding the grounding of MV Pentalina is already felt to be quite different.
People are already demanding MV Alfred from charter to CalMac back to Orkney. By the time MAIB releases the report, the community is well ahead of its time.
A cornerstone of the Pentland Ferry’s commercial success was the large volume of bread and butter freight traffic to the islands. A road trip that transports many trucks carrying commodities and supplies across the Pentland Firth and through the four Churchill Barrier Causeways built during WWII to local shops and suppliers Land at South Ronald Say before continuing.
Maintaining Pentland Bay ferry capacity is critical to keeping supply on the shelf here. Local debate is now raging over what this latest incident says about the individual merits of outside ferry operators in the Orkney Islands.
The big question is what will be done now to keep the flow of goods, vehicles and people unimpeded while the official investigation is well underway.
