Cruise ship returns to Heraklion port after two passengers need urgent medical care

A cruise ship returned to the port of Heraklion on October 14 so that two British passengers, a 67-year-old man and an 83-year-old woman, could be taken ashore for urgent medical treatment shortly after the vessel had departed, the Heraklion Port Authority said.

According to the port authority, it was informed in the afternoon by the ship’s agent that the two foreign nationals, both British citizens, required immediate hospital care. The vessel, a Bermuda-flagged cruise ship that had just sailed from Heraklion, returned to port so the patients could disembark.

The two passengers were then transferred by ambulance to a private clinic in Heraklion for medical care, the port authority said. Following the disembarkation, the cruise ship departed again to continue its scheduled itinerary.

No further details on the passengers’ conditions were provided. The incident adds to a series of cruise-related reports from Crete’s ports this season, including the recent arrival of the cruise ship Mein Schiff 5 in Souda and the docking of three cruise ships carrying thousands of passengers in Chania.