Two QE2 workers airlifted to Cork hospital

Two Filipino workers on the luxury liner QE2 were today being treated for severe burns after being airlifted to hospital in Cork.

A helicopter from RAF Chivenor, Devon, met the ship 250 miles off the south-west coast yesterday evening and flew the injured men to a hospital in Ireland.

The men, both in their 20s, were injured on Sunday when they were showered with scalding steam as they did routine maintenance and cleaning in the ship’s engine room.

A spokesman for Cunard Line, which owns the QE2, said the pair were taken to the ship’s hospital where their condition was described as stable but serious.

The ship was in the mid-Atlantic carrying 1,700 passengers when the accident occurred.

It left New York on June 20, and was due to arrive in Southampton on Wednesday.

‘‘The ship has been making full speed since the accident to get to the nearest land point,’’ the spokesman said.