Aircraft carrier helps stranded cruise ship

The Carnival Cruise Lines ship C/V Splendor, is currently dead in the water in the Pacific Ocean. The USS Ronald Reagan was sent to facilitate the delivery of 4,500 pounds of supplies to the cruise ship. Photo: AFP

A US Navy aircraft carrier, diverted from training maneuvers, helped deliver supplies Tuesday to an American luxury cruise liner and 3,300 vacationers left stranded off the Mexican coast by an engine-room fire.

The nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan anchored at sea near the disabled Carnival Cruise Lines ship about 50 miles west of Punta San Jacinto, Mexico, and 150 miles south of San Diego, as helicopters began ferrying food, water and other provisions to the marooned vessel.

The Supplies were being flown from shore to the Ronald Reagan, part of the Navy's Third Fleet, by military planes, Navy Commander Greg Hicks said.

Operating costs for an aircraft carrier and the dozens of planes and helicopters that go with it typically run about $1 million a day, including fuel, food and salaries, according to Navy spokeswoman Chief Petty Officer Terry Feeney.

The 290-meter luxury liner, dubbed the Carnival Splendor, had nearly 3,300 passengers and almost 1,200 crewmembers aboard when a fire erupted in its engine room Monday morning.

No injuries were reported. Passengers were initially ushered from their cabins to the ship's upper open-deck areas as a precaution.

The blaze took about three hours to extinguish and crippled the ship's propulsion system, leaving the vessel dead in the water and forcing Carnival to cancel the rest of its voyage.

The Miami-based Carnival Corp said it was trying to get its passengers home as quickly as possible.

Reuters