Passengers on the HoverTravel service had to be rescued on Ryde Sands this morning after a fault occurred with the fan belt of the Island Flyer.
Fortunately the tide was out quite far, enabling the passengers to disembark and move onto a replacement craft to complete their journey to Southsea.
Official word
A spokesperson for Hovertravel told OnTheWight,
“During the 0845 crossing this morning from Ryde to Southsea a fan belt broke on Island Flyer. All passengers were transferred to Freedom 90 and continued to Southsea. The engineering team is replacing the fan belt on Island Flyer.”
Passenger’s account
On his way to an Arsenal match in Nottingham, Frank Stubbs was on board the Hover. He’d just tweeted that he was probably only one of three people travelling to the match by Hovercraft.
He spoke too soon, because shortly after the fan belt went, the craft was left listing to one side. Frank shared his photo on Twitter as he and other passengers were being guided off the faulty craft.
Spoke too soon @HovertravelLtd Broke down half away across the Solent, just transferred onto another craft out in the middle. Good job the tide was out! #youlotowemeapint pic.twitter.com/YrNaJ6yI3K
— Frank Stubbs (@stubbsy70) January 7, 2018
OnTheWight spoke to Frank about the incident. He explained,
“On the right of that picture is another hover, we got on that, they took us back to Ryde then over to Southsea. There was about an hour delay.
“The funniest bit was when they said we might have to take our shoes and socks off.”
Luckily the passengers didn’t have to go that far and the company provided plastic bags to place over their shoes. Frank says that everyone was outwardly calm.
For those who are concerned, Frank and his friends made it safely to the match in Nottingham.
Hover now suspended
At time of publishing the Hover service had just been suspended due to adverse weather conditions.
Source: IWCP
