'Sick ship' passengers may sue P&O
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Several passengers have said they will take legal action against P&O.
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SOUTHAMPTON, England -- Several passengers of the cruise ship Aurora are planning legal action against P&O Cruises over its handling of a virus outbreak that left hundreds ill and sparked a diplomatic row between Britain and Spain.
Dubbed the "sick ship" after hundreds of passengers contracted a stomach virus, Aurora docked in its home port of Southampton Thursday after being denied permission to stop at Mediterranean ports amid fears over the highly contagious gastro-intestinal bug.
During Aurora's 17-day cruise around the Mediterranean, more than 500 passengers fell ill with the virus, which caused nausea, severe diarrhea and vomiting.
Michelle and Barry Seaborn, of Lancashire, north west England, are among those passengers considering legal action against P&O over the incident.
"We will be suing P&O for holding us hostage on the ship. We have flights from Gibraltar with British Airways but P&O would not give us our passports. They held us hostage and we will be suing them for kidnap," she told the UK's Press Association. "We were given the all clear that we didn't have the virus.
"It (the virus) was on board when we got there and it's their fault that we got it. They put a notice up warning passengers and that but it's not good enough. P&O (cruises) are at fault. They knew all about it and they should have cancelled the voyage and given us our money back."
David Dingle, Managing Director of P&O Cruises, owner of the ship, said: "We need to treat this in proportion.
"This is a 24-hour virus which affected just over 500 people on the ship. It was a relatively small portion on the 17-day cruise on which they traveled."
He added: "Clearly this is an incident which we would have preferred not to have happened.
"What we need to do is to put this behind us, deal with the passengers in the right way, and go on from there," without offering a blanket compensation package.
He said the company will "deal with the matter accordingly to do everything we can to restore the goodwill of those affected."
On Monday, the ship -- carrying about 2,000 British passengers -- docked in Gibraltar, causing a diplomatic spat when Spain closed its border with the British territory citing health concerns. It was the first time in 20 years that the border had been closed. It was re-opened after the ship left.
Earlier, passengers and crew were denied permission to land at the Greek port of Piraeus, near the country's capital Athens.
P&O also confirmed that two passengers in their 70s died during the cruise from heart conditions unrelated to the virus.
Officials say that in the last few days of the trip, the number of new infections among passengers had subsided, with just one passenger still displaying symptoms at the time of the ship's arrival in Southampton.
The Aurora, meanwhile, is scheduled to depart Southampton at the start of another cruise late Thursday evening.
