10 Feb 2017

Cruise ship explosion: "I've never heard anything like it"

From Morning Report, 7:12 am on 10 February 2017

Investigators will arrive this morning at the Dunedin wharf where a crew member of a cruise ship was killed after a gas cylinder exploded.

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none Photo: RNZ

Witnesses have described the sound as a bomb going off, with it heard more than two kilometres away.

The cylinder, containing compressed nitrogen, exploded aboard the Emerald Princess yesterday afternoon while it was docked at Port Chalmers.

It hit and killed the crew member before flying over the railings onto the wharf below.

Port Chalmers says the Emerald Princess' departure has been delayed by the investigation into yesterday's fatal explosion.