Celebrity Cruises Ship Reportedly Lost ‘Control’ Near Greece, Was Rescued by 4 Tugboats

NEED TO KNOW

• The Celebrity Infinity cruise ship reportedly lost power in the early morning of Sunday, Feb. 15

• According to the Hellenic Coast Guard in Greece, the vessel required four tugboats to pull it ashore

• Raymond Whitley, an Infinity passenger, tells PEOPLE the crew used an emergency alert signaling a fire on board

A Celebrity Cruises vessel sailing off the coast of Greece required the assistance of the local coast guard after a “loss of control” was reported on board.

In the early hours of Sunday, Feb. 15, the Hellenic Coast Guard’s Joint Search and Rescue Coordination Center informed the Port Authorities of Piraeus and Keratsini of “the loss of control of a cruise ship… due to a malfunction in the electrical distribution panels,” per a translated statement from the coast guard. The ship was located in the sea area outside the port in Piraeus, Greece.

According to CruiseMapper, the Celebrity Infinity was initially scheduled for a port call in Piraeus — the main port for Athens — on Feb. 15. The vessel was on a 13-day, one-way sailing that departed Barcelona on Feb. 3 and was set to end in Piraeus-Athens on Feb. 16.

Passenger Raymond Whitley tells PEOPLE he was on the ship when it lost power early Sunday morning.

“The incident happened just before 3 a.m.,” he says. “Shortly after, there was a ‘Bravo, Bravo, Bravo,’ alert over the ship-wide speaker system.” The Independent reports the code is used to indicate a fire on board.

“No further announcements were made regarding the fire, after that. They left passengers sleeping. But I understand that all of the crew were woken up and put on standby,” Whitley claims.

“With the assistance of four tugboat ships, the cruise ship sailed safely to the port of Piraeus,” the coast guards says. “No injuries were reported from the incident and no marine pollution was observed.”

They add: “The 1st Port Department of the Central Port Authority of Piraeus prohibited its departure until a certificate of damage repair was presented.”

A Celebrity Cruises spokesperson tells PEOPLE it is a part of normal protocol to rely on the assistance of tugboats to bring in vessels at the Port of Piraeus. The spokesperson did not answer questions about the report of a “Bravo, Bravo, Bravo,” signal.

In an emailed statement, Celebrity attributed the incident to a “technical issue onboard that the team quickly addressed.”

“We are completing the necessary maintenance and have cancelled our next sailing,” the statement continued. “We apologize to our guests for the impact to their vacation and are working directly with them on travel arrangements and compensation.”

Whitley tells PEOPLE that a subsequent sailing for the Celebrity Infinity was scheduled to depart on Feb. 16. Some passengers, like himself, were booked to continue their sailing towards Turkey. He claims that those passengers were subjected to a ship without operating electricity.

“We were actually stuck on the ship until 5 p.m. the following day,” he says. “No air conditioning, no real food. By that stage, we did have toilets and running water, but very uncomfortable. Basically, we were waiting for people to return from excursions before Celebrity then bussed us to hotel accommodations.”

He adds that there were no emergency lights on in the staterooms, making the interior cabins hard to navigate. Whitley says there was also no internet available, making it difficult to book hotel accommodations.

A message from Celebrity sent to passengers and obtained by PEOPLE, says customers on the Feb. 16 sailing would receive a “full refund” a “future cruise credit worth 100%” of cruise fare, a reimbursement for two nights of hotel accommodations and up to $200 for domestic and $400 for international flights.

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“While we appreciate the compensation from Celebrity, I actually [have] to wait five full days to get a seat on the airline that we were booked,” Whitley says. “We are probably covered two to three days from Celebrity, but I will be out of pocket for the additional time.”

Read the original article on People