Emergency rescue drill has real-life twist
A helicopter rescue team
Lifeboat rescuers
Passengers from the cruiser Suzhou board a rescue vessel during the drill.
An emergency rescue drill near Wusongkou Port in northern Shanghai’s Baoshan District on Monday ended with some real-life drama.
More than 30 vessels and three helicopters participated in the exercise organized by the Maritime Safety Administration.
After the drill, a patrol vessel rescued an engineer on a nearby ship who had injured her head. She was taken to a wharf where an ambulance took her to hospital.
The drill simulated an emergency situation where a cruiser had collided with a cargo ship.
At 11am, the cruiser Suzhou with 1,500 passengers on board fired an orange smoke signal.
“We have two men injured and 10 have fallen into the water,” the captain of the cruiser reported. “The ship is flooded.”
Within an hour, rescue vessels and helicopters arrived and saved all the men in the water, with passengers retreated from the lifeboats.
Xie Qunwei, deputy head of the Maritime Safety Administration and director of the drill, said the cruise line industry is playing an important role in the growth of city tourism.
But a large-scale rescue involving more than 1,000 passengers is a worldwide problem.
“By simulating the situation, we wish to sum up methods so that if such an incident does happen, we will be able to help as many as possible,” said Xie.
