A French public prosecutor probing the death of 15 people as they boarded the Queen Mary 2cruise liner said today the gangway which collapsed under them was a last-minute replacement.
Mr Pierre-Marie Block did not apportion blame for Saturday's accident at the Saint-Nazaire port in west France but told reporters the structure had been changed at the request of the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard.
"The gangway had been changed. The one that was in place on Saturday was put up the evening before at the request of the management who wanted a gangway 1.4 metres wide, whereas the first one was only a metre wide," Mr Block said.
Two inquiries into Saturday's disaster are under way, including a criminal investigation into manslaughter and involuntary injury.
Forty-eight people are thought to have been on the gangway to Cunard's new flagship cruise liner - the world's largest - when the temporary structure suddenly gave way, throwing them 20 metres (50 feet) to the bottom of the dry dock.
Among the dead were workers who had helped build the liner, their friends and family members. Thirty-two other people were injured, some seriously.
Town authorities said the various parties and fireworks display which were to have celebrated the December 20th handover to Cunard had been cancelled.
The Queen Mary 2, which was in the final stages of construction and had completed sea trials off Brittany last week, is being built for Carnival Corp's Cunard Line at a cost of about $800 million.
It is as long as four football fields and stands as high as a 23-storey building. Its maiden voyage, from the southern English port of Southampton to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is scheduled for January 12th.