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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
National
Sophie Collins

P&O Ferry with up to 410 passengers onboard adrift in Irish Sea after 'mechanical issue'

A P&O ferry carrying up to 410 passengers has gone adrift in the Irish sea after a suspected ‘mechanical issue.’

The European Causeway vessel which operates between Larne and Cairnryan is around five miles off Larne Harbour after leaving Cairnryan at 12:00 pm this afternoon.

It is currently unknown exactly how many passengers are on board, but after not arriving on schedule at 2:00 pm the RNI launched a lifeboat to investigate its whereabouts.

The ferry had reportedly failed a safety inspection at the end of March 2022, but despite this, it had been cleared for travel just two weeks ago.

READ MORE: P&O Ferries pause all services for next few days as 800 redundancies announced

A spokesperson for P&O said: "Due to a mechanical issue with the Causeway in the Irish Sea, tugs from Larne and Belfast were deployed to guide it back to port.

"Once the ship is back in Port a full inspection will take place."

Its automatic identification system (AIS) says it is currently Not Under Command - so the ferry essentially lost power at some point on its 2-hour journey.

This latest incident comes after the ferry company made headlines after illegally firing nearly 800 staff members without notice over a Zoom call.

According to reports, they replaced every member of staff immediately with foreign workers who agreed to work for much less pay.

P&O's Ferries boss Peter Hebblethwaite admitted that what they did was illegal in testimony to MPs, and said employees were replaced with cheaper €6.52-an-hour foreign agency workers.

Some crew members admitted to earning just €886 a month for a 40-hour week – which equals just barely €5.30 an hour.

Unions have since been calling for Mr. Hebblethwaite’s resignation while some have been calling for jail time over the sacking of workers.

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