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On the 7th April 2009, a multi-agency debrief was held for the Riverdance incident. This involved members of the Lancashire Resilience Forum as well as colleagues from RAF, PGC Demolition, Environment Group and Blackpool Airport. A background to the incident can be seen below.
On 31st January 2008 a major incident was declared for Riverdance ferry after it was hit by a freak wave. The vessel had got into severe difficulties off the coast of Cleveleys and had take on a severe list of 40 with 23 persons reported to be on-board. The passengers and crew were subsequently air lifted off the vessel to safety.
The Riverdance ran aground on Cleveleys Beach, Blackpool in the early hours of 1st February and preparations were made to right the vessel and float her out from the grounded position during the following months. Although throughout February and March the condition and list of the Riverdance deteriorated, expectations for righting the vessel were high for the high water period ending on 13th March, 2008. Unfortunately, on 12th March 2008, the vessel was subject to severe storm conditions. As a result, the list increased to 100 degrees. This resulted in the plan to right the vessel having to be abandoned.
On 4th April the contract to cut up the vessel in situ was awarded to Hancocks, with PGC Demolition as sub-contractor. Work commenced on this during May 2008. Throughout the following months, work continued but was somewhat limited due to the tidal cycle. This resulted in periods of several days every fortnight where shifts were limited to only a few hours. Regular multi-agency meetings were held to monitor progress and identify and resolve any difficulties that were foreseen or arose.
On 19th November 2008, the final piece of the Riverdance was removed and the beach was declared clean the following week on 25th November. The Temporary Exclusion Zone (TEZ), which had been in place since the originally grounding was lifted and the beach was re-opened to the public on the 28th November.
Throughout the operation, both the emergency phase on the night of the incident and throughout the months of salvage/demolition all agencies worked very closely and well together, resulting in an excellent job being carried out with no injury to personnel, all of the wreck being removed safely and without any loss of oils, pollutants or otherwise causing any damage to the environment.
The Salvage Control Unit maintained very good communication links with the Lancashire Resilience Forum and particularly with the Local Authorities involved (Lancashire County Council, Wyre Borough Council and Blackpool Unitary Council) and all worked together to ensure all were kept informed and involved as necessary – enabling all involved to assist wherever possible to achieve the safe and efficient completion
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