A Pandaw River Expeditions ship crashed into a pontoon bridge on the River Ganges in India.
According to Cruise Critic, the Kindat Pandaw vessel struck the pontoon Wednesday near the city of Patna, doing extensive damage to the bridge and gouging a hole in the side of the ship above the waterline.
Pandaw officials evacuated the ship’s passengers and their belongings as a precaution and crew members plugged the hole with a towel. Pandaw Group Founder Paul Strachan told Cruise Critic a welder was en route to make the proper repairs.
Major crash on the Ganges and Kindat Pandaw has ripped a pontoon bridge off its hinges. All passengers ashore but we’re shaken. Not sure if ship is taking on water… pic.twitter.com/phbALhZCOL
— Sue Bryant (@sjbryant) December 4, 2019
One of the passengers on the Kindat Pandaw, Sue Bryant, spoke to Cruise Critic about the incident.
“We were accommodated in a hotel in Patna last night and are continuing our journey to Varanasi by bus,” Bryant told Cruise Critic. “We’ll spend two nights there in a hotel and are now back on schedule. We’re hoping that all the planned sightseeing will take place, as Varanasi is the highlight of the trip for many.”
Bryant went on to say the ship had to be pulled from the pontoon bridge by two tugboats and then crashed again into a barrage. At one point, the vessel also almost crashed into the sandbank, where passengers who were evacuated had been asked to stand.
She later tweeted that all were back on board and that the “ship has a hole on port side and a crack where it rammed six pontoons.”
The Kindat Pandaw can accommodate up to 40 passengers and was the first of two shallow-draft K designs from Pandaw.
