This is the terrifying moment a freak storm caused a cruise liner to tilt ’45 degrees’ on its side and send furniture flying across the floor.
The Royal Caribbean Explorer Of The Sea liner was at the start of its transatlantic journey to Miami on Thursday November 7 when it was hit by a squall – a sharp and sudden gust of sustained wind – off the coast of Tenerife.
Shocking footage, taken from inside the ship’s promenade and shared on social media, shows the chaotic scene onboard the vessel as passengers and furniture are flung around.
Guests can be seen attempting to manoeuvre around the area as the ship continues to lean at an ever more precarious angle.
Furnishings and merchandise slid across the deck, with a digital display screen coming close to knocking one guest over. Another man can be seen clinging on to a table.
Shocking footage – taken from inside the ship’s promenade – shared on social media shows the chaotic scene onboard the vessel as passengers and furniture alike are flung around
Debris in the aftermath of the storm
The terrifying incident lasted less than ten minutes and left one guest in need of medical care. It meant the 12-night cruise had to make an unplanned stop in Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands, so the injured guests could leave, but it’s now back on course.
Dan So, 41, filmed the dramatic footage after leaving an on board pub quiz. He noticed the deck tipping to a ’45-degree-angle and recalled hearing ‘screaming and glasses smashing’.
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.
‘Some people told me to come over to them so we held each other and the chairs around us.
The Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Sea liner was at the start of its transatlantic journey to Miami on Thursday November 7 when it was hit by a squall, a sharp and sudden gust of sustained wind, off the coast of Tenerife
Dan So (pictured), 41, filmed the dramatic footage after leaving an on board pub quiz. He noticed the deck tipping to a ’45-degree-angle and recalled hearing ‘screaming and glasses smashing
In Mr So’s footage guests can be seen attempting to manoeuvre around the area as the ship continues to lean at an ever more precarious angle
‘I had thought that this could be the end and the ship was going to fall into the water.
Mr So, from Toronto, says it was a ‘huge relief’ when the ordeal was over and believes climate change could be the culprit of the storm.
He said: ‘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 shows climate change is creating some things that even experienced cruisers haven’t seen.’
It’s believed the ship hit a squall, which is a sudden storm often experienced in sea, and its wind tipped the ship.
He captioned his TikTok video ‘cruise hit a squall in Atlantic Ocean and tilted 45 degrees into the ocean’.
One person commented: ‘The ocean is not to be played with.’
In a statement Royal Caribbean said: ‘During an unexpected wind gust near Tenerife, Spain, one of our sailings experienced sudden movement.
‘One of our guests was injured and required additional medical care, so the ship called in Las Palmas for a medical disembarkation. We communicated these changes directly with our guests.’