A situation many motorists have cursed over the years also became reality for operators of a Danish ferry on Tuesday.

A wrong button pressed the driver of a fuel tanker resulted in thousands of litres of gasoline being poured into the diesel-driven Samsø Ferry at the harbour in the town of Hou, reports DR Østjylland.

Two departures were subsequently cancelled while 48,000 litres of fuel – 42,000 litres of diesel plus 6,000 litres of gasoline – were pumped out of the ship’s fuel tank.

The embarrassed driver of the fuel truck alerted the ferry’s crew to the error, Carsten Kruse, director of ferry operator Samsø Rederi, told DR Østjylland.

“If it had got into the system and into the engine, it would have been really bad. The engine is not designed to sail on petrol, only natural gas and diesel. So it is very, very good that the petrol didn’t get into other places,” Kruse said.

The fuel supplier will cover losses sustained by the ferry operator as a result of the blunder, according to the report.

The ferry serving the island of Samsø – a community that prides itself on its use of sustainable energy – uses primarily natural gas, but also runs on ten percent diesel, mainly during harbour manoeuvres, writes DR Østjylland.

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