Hovercraft Hits Dover Pier; 1 Killed, 3 Missing

A huge Hovercraft carrying nearly 400 people crashed into a pier while trying to dock in rough seas Saturday at this southern port and police said one person was killed, three were missing and 32 were injured.

A flotilla of small craft surrounded the stricken vessel, the Princess Margaret, and plucked dozens of survivors from the sea, while others were removed from the Hovercraft in lifeboats.

Police earlier reported that two people had perished, but a spokesman at police headquarters in the nearby town of Maidstone, in Kent, said later that only one body had been retrieved from the sea. Police added that two of the three missing passengers were French teen-agers, a girl and a boy.

“But it is confused. We’re not certain we’ve accounted for everybody,” the spokesman said.

He said two of the injured were seriously hurt and the others suffered cuts and bruises.

“The fuel tanks were ruptured and many of the injured were overcome by the fumes,” a police spokesman said.

The Princess Margaret, carrying an estimated 370 passengers and a crew of 17, was hurled against the pier as it ended a 40-minute English Channel crossing from the French port of Calais, and a hole was ripped open in one section.

“It was a rough ride over . . . then there was a loud bang and the craft just sat down on the sea,” passenger Gordon Graham, a 56-year-old British engineer, told reporters.

Towed to Pad

Several hours after the 4.25 p.m. accident, the Princess Margaret was towed to the Hovercraft pad in Dover harbor.

Most of the injured were taken to Dover’s Buckland Hospital, where a “major alert” had been declared, a hospital spokesman said.

Hoverspeed, the British company that owns the eight-year-old vessel, named after Queen Elizabeth II’s younger sister, said rescuers continued the search for survivors several hours after the accident.

A Hovercraft is a vessel that operates on a cushion of air created by powerful downdrafts from the craft’s engines.

“It is not yet clear exactly what happened,” said a Hoverspeed spokesman, who spoke on condition that he not be identified by name. “But when the Hovercraft was holed in its side some of the passengers were thrown into the sea by the impact.”

One of the passengers, Charles Leroux of Brussels, told reporters: “We were going very fast and suddenly there was a bang and a scraping noise. A big gap appeared in the side of the Hovercraft. It was terrible.”

The giant vessel can carry up to 424 passengers and 60 cars.

Residents from apartments overlooking the harbor rushed to the pier after the sound of the crash reverberated through the port.

“The Hovercraft was sitting about 100 yards out to sea from the dock with a huge gaping hole in the back big enough to drive a car through,” said Dover resident David Waters.

“The sea had been rough all day, and the craft was being pushed from side to side,” he added.