Azamara Quest Cruise Ship Heading For Malaysian Port, After Engines Catch Fire; 5 Injured

Azamara Quest cruise/ Reuters/NIR ELIAS

Azamara Quest cruise, which was drifting in the waters, 200 miles off the coast of Balikpapan (Borneo), Indonesia, after a fire disabled its engines, is now heading for an eastern Malaysian port, a Reuters report said. The cruise has 600 passengers and 411 crew aboard and is running on emergency power now.

Coast Guard Captain Perfecto Eden said that all passengers were safe and a Philippines navy ship would escort it until it crosses the Malaysian maritime border, according to Reuters.

A fire that broke out in the engines of the Azamara Quest left it drifting in the waters. The fire started at 8:19 p.m. ship time on March 30 and has rendered its engines inoperative.

The fire was extinguished but five crew members suffered smoke inhalation. One crew member is critically injured and requires urgent medical attention in a hospital, a report posted on the Azamara Club Cruises website said.

The ship was on a 17-night cruise and was heading toward Singapore. It had departed from Hong Kong, China, on March 26.

A statement released by the Azamara Club Cruises had said earlier that engineers were working on restoring propulsion to the ship, after which it would sail directly to Sandakan, Malaysia.

The latest update is that engineers have now restored power to one of the ship's engines and re-instated air-conditioning, refrigeration and other emergency services.

Engineers onboard Azamara Quest continues to work on restoring propulsion to the ship. Once they have restored the ship's propulsion, Azamara Quest will sail directly to Sandakan (Sabah), Malaysia. When propulsion has been restored to the ship, we will be able to provide an estimated time of arrival. Until then, we will be working with our guests to determine how we can best assist them with next steps and travel arrangements, the statement said.

Azamara Club Cruises is part of the Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

For any specific questions regarding the Azamara Quest, call toll free at 1-888-829-4050 from the United States and Canada. Calls from outside the United States should to be made to 1-408-916-9001.