THE Costa Allegra cruise ship had a fire break out in the engine room. which was extinguished.

The ship became totally without any sort of propulsion or electricity, leaving 1,000 passengers plus crew with none of these – electricity, lighting (except flashlights), working toilets, cooking facilities, fresh water and food.

No air conditioning meant the passengers sleeping on deck to keep cool for three days until the ship reached an island in the Seychelles, being towed there by a tuna fishing boat. It took several hours for passengers to disembark.

It is hard to believe that a cruise ship of this size and with 21st-century facilities for passengers, management and crew administration could be put out of action by a incident of this kind.

Has this company not heard of back-up systems, which is a normal precaution for most institutions, especially where responsibility is for large numbers of people, as in this case? Surely all the electrical generating systems could have been duplicated and independent of each other?

Even solar panels would have made a difference in this tropical ocean.

J Beisly, Osprey Close, York.