Trials of a late and over-budget ferry have been suspended following a blackout on board.
The Glen Sannox has faced a further blow after a false fire alarm shut down the boat's engines on Wednesday.
The incident happened three days into a five-day trail with the vessel due to be delivered by the Ferguson Marine shipyard to Scottish Government ferry-owning firm Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited in 10 days time.
Glen Sannox and its sister vessel Glen Rosa are already more than five years late in being delivered and the original £97 million cost has soared to more than £300 million.
The vessel is set to service the Ardrossan to Brodrick route and was initially due for delivery six years ago in 2018. However, it has since faced multiple issues including design difficulties, which has delayed the over-budgeted ship.
John Petticrew said in a letter to Holyrood’s Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee on Thursday: “Yesterday, during day three of owner’s trials, MV Glen Sannox experienced a blackout.
“This was a result of inadvertently triggering a fire detector on board; although a false alarm, it ultimately resulted in the shutdown of the ship’s main propulsion.
“The ship was operating on marine gas oil at the time.
“Checks of the main engines were undertaken, and a soft restart followed, all systems were safely restarted without any adverse effects; however, trials were temporarily halted.
“As a precaution, tugs were called to assist, the vessel returned to Inchgreen under her own power with a view to assessing the event and the operation of the fire detection system.
“Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow, Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited and CalMac together have agreed that trials should remain suspended today with an aim to resume tomorrow.”
The ferry was scheduled to be delivered by the yard on October 14 before entering passenger service.