Monday, September 3, 2007
Cruise ship delayed for hours over grenade-looking belt buckle
MIAMI (AP) -- A child's grenade-shaped belt buckle caused a lengthy delay for passengers who were trying to leave a cruise ship Sunday morning, a Royal Caribbean spokeswoman said.
Thousands of cruise passengers aboard the Freedom of the Seas vessel waited several hours as a Miami-Dade police bomb squad investigated the scene. Workers spotted the belt buckle while screening a suitcase that was loaded off the ship.
Passengers were kept aboard the boat as a precaution, said Lynn Martenstein, a Royal Caribbean spokeswoman.
Some passengers were told to go back onto the ship as the terminal was evacuated, one passenger told The Miami Herald.
"It's entirely blocked off," Illinois resident Bonnie Knight said. "Not a soul in. Not a soul out."
The Freedom of the Seas is the world's largest cruise ship. It can hold 4,300 passengers and 1,300 crew members, and was returning from an eastern Caribbean cruise.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
