Government publishes detail on investigation of disaster Spirit of Discovery cruise - dubbed SOD by angry travellers - as firm apologises again

It comes as Saga Cruises CEO Nigel Blanks has issued a further apology and offered counselling to customers following the “traumatic” voyage that left people struggling mentally and physically in the aftermath of the ill-fated 14-day Canary Island trip.

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The nightmare Spirit of Discovery “cruise” - now scornfully referred to as the acronym SOD by disgruntled travellers - descended into “absolute pandemonium” amid fears the ship would sink when it was caught in a devastating storm in the Bay of Biscay off the French on November 13, as first reported by The News on Monday evening.

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch confirmed to The News last week it is looking into the matter that led to four people of the 1,000 on board being seriously injured. “We are aware of an incident involving Spirit of Discovery and are making preliminary enquiries,” a spokeswoman said.

Now the MAIB has published further detail under its “current investigations” section on its website. It states the accident/incident type as a “loss of propulsion of a UK registered passenger vessel in the Bay of Biscay, resulting in multiple passenger injuries during heavy weather”.

The incident happened when the ship's propulsion safety system suddenly activated and turned the ship, resulting in injuries to passengers - who then spent around 18 hours waiting for the storm and gales to pass as the ship was relentlessly battered by giant waves.

As reported, Saga has told passengers it is offering to refund the cost of their voyage in what is likely to be a multi-million pound pay-out. Customer voyages were understood to have costed from around £3,000 to £6,000 depending on the cabin size and its location. The move has been well received by passengers, though it has also been suggested in some quarters that acceptance of the offer could prevent customers from later suing Saga.

In his latest letter to customers offering a refund - seen by The News - Saga Cruises CEO Nigel Blanks said last week: “Further to my letter on Monday (of last week) and following my visit to the ship on Tuesday, I would like to again extend my sincere apologies for the events you experienced during your recent cruise. I have now spoken with a number of our crew and I have also been contacted by some of those onboard and, whilst the weather was beyond our control, I have a greater understanding of how traumatic this was for you.

“I committed to contacting you before the end of this week with details of how we would be compensating you and I am now in a position to share these with you. In recognition of the significant impact of the storm on your cruise, we will be arranging a full refund of the cost of your cruise fare, because we believe this is the right thing to do in these circumstances.

“This compensation payment has been made to you as a result of the alterations made to your itinerary and for the events you experienced during your cruise. Your refund will be processed automatically over the next seven to ten working days.

“In addition to this, we would like to extend the offer of counselling support to you. My team will be contacting you next week to see if this is something you would want to pursue, at which point they will be able to provide you with further details of how to access this service.

“Finally, I would like to give you my personal assurance that we are doing everything we can to learn from this unfortunate series of events and I would once again like to offer you my sincere and personal apologies for the distress this has caused.

“Yours sincerely, Nigel Blanks, CEO, Saga Cruises.”