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Dozens of revelers are thrown into the water as the birthday party boat crashes before the LUNAS MAN onlookers return to shore
- Authorities are investigating how the party boat crashed into the canal marker
- The charter boat was badly damaged and took on water
- Passengers recalled the ordeal of being thrown from the impact
A birthday party on a harbor cruise ended in disaster after the ship crashed into a buoy, throwing passengers overboard.
Dozens of partygoers gasped after their charter boat crashed some 2km offshore in Fremantle Harbor on Saturday as temperatures in Perth reached a sweltering 39C.
The remaining passengers on board were forced to climb to the rear of the ship as the ship began to fill with water.
Water Police were called to the scene to rescue the passengers falling overboard and to escort the badly damaged boat back to Fremantle Boat Harbour.
This party boat will need major repairs after it crashed into a canal marker
Photos from the scene show significant damage to the front of the charter boat, including the hull being split open.
One man believed the skipper of the ship saw the funny side of the ordeal and was seen dropping his pants to moonlight onlookers and media crews reporting from the scene. perth now informed.
No major injuries were reported.
Some 30 passengers were celebrating their 26th birthday on the charter ship at the time.
A passenger who recalled the ordeal said everyone thought it was a joke at first.
‘There was a massive jolt out of nowhere. We were floating and the next minute we stopped and everyone fell down,” Mikayla Brown told Nine News.
“It was pretty hectic.”
Western Australian Police interviewed the ship’s captain and opened an investigation into the incident.
Reports of passengers being thrown overboard by the impact were later denied by police.
“There are no reports of injuries, collisions or people being thrown overboard,” a spokesman said.
‘This is now a matter for the Department of Transport and the Australian Safety and Maritime Authority.
Thirty passengers on board at the time were thrown from the impact but were not injured.
It was a busy day for Perth’s waterways that ended in tragedy with a late-night ship collision.
One woman was killed and another is missing after a boat with four people on board collided with a marker near the Mandurah Bridge around 10pm Saturday, throwing two women overboard.
A 54-year-old woman was recovered from the water but unfortunately she could not be revived.
Police spent the night searching for the other woman, 52, who is still missing.
A man, aged 47, who is believed to have been driving the boat, was rushed to hospital with serious injuries.
A second man on board was uninjured.