Investigation: Defective Door Interlock Caused Cruise Ship Elevator Death

An investigation found that a defective door interlock mechanism was to blame for the death of an electrical technician crushed in an elevator shaft on a cruise ship in the U.K. in October 2025, USA Today is among outlets to report. The ship was en route from Southampton to the Canary Islands when the technician was testing a passenger elevator stopped on deck 11. When he tried to open the shaft doors on deck 12 to inspect the top of the car, the door-release key failed to operate, so he proceeded to deck 14 (there is no 13^th deck) to open the doors from there. “As [he] left the lift car, intending to join [a colleague] on deck 14, the lift car and lift shaft doors on deck 11 automatically closed,” the report of the U.K. Marine Accident Investigation Branch reads. “At about the same time, the electrical technician entered the lift shaft from deck 14 and the lift shaft doors closed behind him. The lift then autonomically reactivated and moved up, crushing him between the lift car and side of the lift shaft.” The report concluded that “there was a defect in the release mechanism for the deck 12 elevator shaft doors.”