Overview
- The report, published 11 March 2026, finds care delays may have worsened Trevor Gilks’s cervical spine injury, which proved fatal four days after the accident.
- Investigators say Spirit of Discovery rolled in force 11 winds in the Bay of Biscay on 4 November 2023, injuring more than 100 passengers.
- Gilks’s high-backed armchair toppled during violent motion, X-rays lacked a side-on view, no further imaging followed, and he was placed on a bed rather than a spinal board.
- With helicopter evacuation deemed too risky in heavy seas, the captain kept him aboard until berthing in Portsmouth, where he was transferred to hospital.
- The MAIB criticises voyage and operational decisions, notes a propulsion shutdown from propeller overspeed, and calls for measures such as mandatory electronic stability monitors; Saga accepts the recommendations but disputes some conclusions and says it has updated procedures.