Island Express Hovercraft

Hovertravel boss says puncture rumours unfounded

Managing Director of Hovertravel Ltd, Neil Chapman, got in touch this morning to share the detail of yesterday’s engine problems with OnTheWight readers.

He told us the bow thruster steering mechanism had failed cross-Solent yesterday (Wednesday) morning and went on to explain that in this kind of situation, a safety mechanism shuts down the engine. The result is lower speed and lower lift on the side of the engine failure.

The problem was resolved within two hours.

Puncture rumours unfounded
Neil was keen to add that queries from other media sources that a puncture had occurred were unfounded and they don’t have such a thing.

The engineers who’d been working overnight to determine what caused the failure yesterday received praise from Neil who will give OnTheWight readers an update later today.

He finished by extending an apology to any passengers who were inconvenienced by the shuttle service yesterday and this morning and confirmed the service was now running to the summertime timetable.