What caused the ferry crash at Gunwharf? Wightlink's passenger services to and from Portsmouth back to normal

Wightlink’s sailings to and from Fishbourne were thrown into chaos yesterday (February 17) after St Clare collided with the Gunwharf terminal. The “heavy-berthing incident” caused various sailings to be cancelled.

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Passengers were stranded onboard at the time of the collision. Sailings were moved to Portsmouth International Port yesterday evening. St Clare and port infrastructure were damaged in the collision, with engineers working overnight to fix the problems and return sailings to normal. Temporary repairs have been made, with follow up work planned.

Operations director Gavin Marshall apologised to customers for the disruption and thanked them for their patience. Speaking to BBC Radio Solent, he said there was “no indication that there was any kind of machinery or technical issue".

“I've seen reports that state human error but really that's not a very helpful term, it's such a blanket term,” he added. “There are so many factors involved, in terms of the layout of vessel, the level of training, distractions, all kinds of things that could come into play, so we'll have a thorough look at that internally."