Passengers aboard a Carnival cruise ship last week captured the chaos and panic as a vessel carrying 2,000 people was sent listing to one side due to mechanical issues.
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Randy Gibbs, from Puyallup, Wash., posted video of the Aug. 29 incident to social media, showing water from the ship’s pool cascading over the side of the boat onto the decks of passenger cabins below, as the ocean liner prepared to dock in Victoria.
Gibbs, who was vacationing with 20 family members on the seven-day Alaskan cruise, can be heard asking some of them if they felt the ship thrust to one side.
“This boat just tipped like crazy, did you feel that?” Gibbs asks. “What the hell is going on?”
WATCH: Video shows damage aboard listing cruise ship docking in Victoria
Moments later Gibbs tells some of the children with him to “get back, get back, get back” as more water is seen flowing over the side.
The wild motion on board left many passengers concerned for their safety, including Gibbs’ nine-year-old son and his 91-year-old grandmother.
“Are we sinking?” Gibbs’ son can be heard asking at one point.
Shortly after the incident, the ship’s captain and a crew member can be heard on the boat’s speakers reassuring passengers everything is OK.
“The listing that you felt just a moment ago was because of a failure of our Azipod system. The Azipod system affects the ship’s propulsion,” said the crew member. “There is no need to be concerned.”
In a statement, Carnival Cruise Line confirmed the “Carnival Legend experienced a technical issue related to the ship’s starboard steering gear which caused the ship to unexpectedly list.”
“The issue was rapidly corrected and the ship proceeded on to its scheduled stop in Victoria, B.C.,” the statement read.
Despite Carnival’s actions to calm passenger concerns, Gibbs said he was “freaked out.”
“I grabbed life-jackets and a bed sheet to tie us together if we went over,” Gibbs told the Times Colonist.
“It just seemed to me like we might be going over,” Gibbs told KING5. “It was definitely a panic situation.”
Early reports suggested the steering issue caused the 12-deck ship to list 30 degrees. Carnival denied those figures, saying the boat only listed eight degrees.
Carnival confirmed three minor injuries were reported.
“As far as damage, there was some very minor damage such as broken dishware and some merchandise in the shops that came off the shelf,” spokeswoman Jennifer de la Cruz told the Colonist.
The ship arrived at its home port of Seattle on Aug. 30, before beginning another seven-day cruise later that day.
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