Passengers on Hovertravel have been forced to walk across the sand at Ryde after it took Island Flyer over an hour to cross from Southsea today (Thursday).
Island Echo understands that the 11:15 crossing from Southsea took around 60 minutes, with passengers forced to walk across the sand to the terminal as the craft couldn’t make it up the slipway.
It is unclear how serious the issue is, but the affected craft – Island Flyer – is still in location just off Ryde Pier, awaiting recovery.
A single-craft service is currently in operation.
A spokesperson from Hovertravel has said:
“During the 11:15 crossing from Southsea one of our craft, Island Flyer, experienced a technical issue and consequently a longer crossing time.
“All passengers were kept informed with pilot announcements, including apologies for the extended time on onboard, and disembarked safely at Ryde.
“The service continued to operate with the second craft, Solent Flyer, and our engineering team are working on a repair at the moment. Services are currently operating on time.
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don’t have this issue with tunnels.
Hovercrsft and tunnels have something in common, they both need big fans to be able to operate.
Pity they don’t have a “big fan” inside on hot days to ventilate the craft. Unbearable. Horrible way to travel nowadays, in my opinion.
Give me the effectively air conditioned Sea Cat any day.
Totally agree. Build a tunnel. Like the channel tunnel. It would save us commuters lot of money.And more importantly it would reduce the inbreeding…
Why would they waste all that money building a tunnel to such an insignificant place like the Isle of Wight
And 100% guarantee you would be one of the first to complain about ; the cost, the time it takes to build it, the increase in the tax you pay to fund it.
do you rely think you’d get to travel through a tunnel for free ?. unlikely
The voice of ignorance right there as any regular user of the Dartford Tunnel will testify.
What wonderfull ferry services we have on the island best in the world..also floating turd never breaks down..
Hahaha. Shit service on a shit Island.
Let me buy you a one way to to portsmouth
Don’t think you could afford a ticket. None of you knuckle draggers work.Ohh i forget
you lot are way better of than us working people Your way better of on the old pip etc aren’t you.Spending your time down the seafront drinking all day and doing cash in hand work when it suits you lot…..
You could buy me a one way ticket anyway it’s better than here !
Er move away then? Or may be get a job with the tourist board!
Did they get a partial refund for completing the journey theirselves?
This service is becoming a joke Pointless having a timetable. Just cannot run to time timetable does not work
Totally agree, cannot recall the last time anything other than the 6:15 went on time. When it is late never get any form of apology from the pilot and when you ask why is it late,again, you get differing answers because no one has a clue on what is going on, even the Costa lotta machine has given up with no sign of repair in over a week
Not another drunk captain again.
Made by the same company that made the wonderful floating bridge
If you don’t like travelling across the Solent and living on an Island then go and leave it to the real Islanders.
Oh well, at least it will make the £36.50 per person crossing a little better value for money.
Good job the tide was out then!
Forced to walk across the sand at Ryde, oh dear how tragic. In the grand scheme of things I can think of a lot worse problems.
Last time I was on the hover I had to get off, along with several others, because it was unbearably hot and airless to a dangerous degree. All the staff were sweating buckets. They refused a refund. Will never travel with them again.