Families mourn victims of QM2 disaster

Sobbing family members bearing flowers went to a shipyard today to identify the bodies of 15 people who plunged to their deaths when a crowded gangway leading to the luxury liner Queen Mary 2 suddenly collapsed.

The accident, at the world’s largest and most expensive oceanliner, currently dry-docked, initially claimed 13 lives, but two others died of injuries today.

Some officials had put the number of deaths at 16. However, the local prosecutor and Patrick Boissier, president of Chantiers de l’Atlantique, which is building the ship, said later that 15 people had died.

A child about 10-years-old was among the dead.

Up to 32 others were injured, and all but two remained in hospital, six in critical condition, according to another company official, Philippe Bouquet-Nadaud.

Prosecutor Pierre-Marie Block has opened an investigation into the accident for possible murder and involuntary injury.

Mourners signed a condolence book and left flowers outside the gate of the vast shipyard. Fabrice Ponchaux, 32, lost his mother and aunt in the accident. His father was in the hospital.

“This ship should have been our national pride,” Ponchaux said.

The vessel is in its final stages of construction in St Nazaire on the western Atlantic coast, with 2,600 workers boarding and leaving daily. The gangway was installed on Friday to accommodate a weekend visit by construction workers and their families of the nearly complete oceanliner before its maiden voyage in January.

About 48 people – all wearing construction helmets to protect against injury - were crowded onto the gangway when the structure collapsed, pulling down scaffolding and sending people plunging more than 50ft to the ground.

About half of the victims were members of the cleaning crew who worked aboard the ship and their families, Bouquet-Nadaud said. The gangway was used several times the night before without incident.

Patrick Boissier, president of Chartiers de l’Atlantique, said it was still unclear what caused the gangway to buckle.

“It’s too early to say what happened,” he said. “There will be an investigation.”

Philippe Venet, director of Endel, which built the plank, said on France-2 television that the company has built similar structures for Chantiers de l’Atlantique for years. The cause of the accident was unclear, he said.

Local leaders had planned a series of celebrations late next month, but the accident raised doubts about whether such festivities would go on.

“Naval construction is a family that knows how to share its glories and its difficult moments,”

St Nazaire Mayor Joel Batteux told regional L’Éclair Dimanche newspaper. ”But it’s never been as hard as this.”

The ship is being built by French heavy engineering giant Alstom’s Chantiers de l’Atlantique for the British ship operator Cunard Line, which is owned by Carnival Corp.

Later today, French President Jacques Chirac, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and several ministers were to visit the shipyard and a temporary mortuary holding the bodies of the victims.

Flags flew at half-mast over police stations and the concrete city hall in St Nazaire, which lives off heavy industries such as ship and airplane construction.

The oceanliner was dry-docked for finishing touches before its maiden voyage. Britain’s Cunard Lines, which operates the vessel and is owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp. in the United States, said the voyage from Southampton, England, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, would likely go ahead as planned on January 12.

Cunard Lines issued a statement yesterday offering ”thoughts and prayers” for the victims and their families. It made no comment on the accident itself.

The accident came just four days after ship completed its second successful sea trial. The first was in September.

The Queen Mary 2 is the world’s largest passenger ship at 1,138ft long and 238ft high – as tall as a 21-storey building.

It is also the most expensive, costing €934m to build. Once completed, the Queen Mary 2 will feature a planetarium, 22 elevators and the world’s largest floating library.