What Crew Members Say About Mega-Smeralda

On Aug 1, 2024, at a around 2:20 p.m. a 4-year-old child was the victim of a drowning incident after falling into a swimming pool on the 'Mega Smeralda'. The crew therefore called for immediate assistance. The ferry was then 12 nautical miles from the coast and was located off Alistro beach. To coordinate the rescue, the CROSS Med called a Dragon 2B helicopter with a doctor on board. The boy and his mother were both airlifted and evacuated to Bastia hospital. The child's life was reportedly no longer in danger.

The "Mega Smeralda" had to remain off Bastia for eight hours in the morning of Jan 18, 2017, due to difficult weather conditions. The ferry was able to enter the port of Bastia only on Jan 19 at 6:25 oa.m. The 163 passengers and 74 crew members were be able to disembark after a final maneuver of the ferry which had come from Toulon. Wind gusts of 35 to 40 knots made it dangerous to dock in port. The previous day, another vessel of Corsica Ferries also could not reach the port of Bastia because of the swell and the wind, and the passengers had only been able to disembark in the morning of Jan 19, spending the night aboard the ferry. French report with video: http://www.lci.fr/faits-divers/bastia-bloque-au-large-depuis-24-heures-le-ferry-est-enfin-arrive-a-quai-2022491.html