It may not have been the Titanic, but it certainly felt like it on this Royal Caribbean cruise ship. Passengers thought they were going to die after the ship ended up tipping 45 degrees.
A bad storm with 86 mph winds hit the cruise ship off the coast of Africa on November 7. Wild footage has surfaced the cruise ship showing the utter chaos that followed. The boat had 5,000 people on board, and many of them began panicking when the ship titled for three minutes.
One passenger Dan reflected on those agonizing moments. He said, "When I left the pub I could hear screaming sounds, glasses were falling around and the cruise had started tilting. You can see a whole advertisement sign hit a guy and he saves himself and grabs his girlfriend. He was in a state of shock. I wondered if this was a normal thing but the more I heard people screaming that's when I got scared and had to turn the video off. It wasn't the full tilt you see in the video, but around half way. It was like the Titanic."
Please enable Javascript to view this content
Cruise Ship Tilts
Dan and other passengers ended up holding onto each other and chairs around them. At the time, they thought the cruise ship was going to capsize into the sea.
He explained, "Some people told me to come over to them so we held each other and the chairs around us. I had thought that this could be the end. And the ship was going to fall into the water. I took out my phone and sent my colleagues a message that I don't know what's going to happen and to take care. I was writing my last message thinking that I would die. Usually waves make the ship wobbly but this was tilting for five minutes on one side. It held its position for around three minutes."
It came as a big relief to Dan and the other passengers when the cruise ship finally settled back into place. Meanwhile, another passenger said her neighbor almost went into the sea.
They said, "Spoke to a neighbour who stated she went to and opened her balcony during this listing and was surprised how close we were to the water. She's lucky she didn't go in. Her son is deck 2 and his window was in the ocean."
Following the terrifying incident, a Royal Caribbean spokesperson said: "During an unexpected wind gust near Tenerife, Spain, one of our sailings experienced sudden movement. One of our guests was injured and requires additional medical care, so the ship will make a call in Las Palmas, Spain for a medical disembarkation. We are communicating these changes directly with our guests."
