An excursion liner was owned by the Chiss Ascendancy's Boadil family, one of the Ascendancy's Nine Ruling Families, and captained by a member of the Ruling Ufsa family. The liner had a compact cylindrical shape, with two wide D-shaped wings on either side, housing expensive passenger suites. On one of the liner's voyages prior to 19 BBY, the captain took the vessel too close to a gas giant, and the liner was caught in its gravity well with 8,000 passengers aboard.
Senior Commander Mitth'raw'nuru, captain of the Chiss patrol ship Boco, received a distress call from the luxury liner and attempted to rescue it and its 8,000 passengers. However, the luxury liner was too heavy relative to the Boco, so the Bocos tractor beams could not save the ship from spiraling into the planet's gravity. Thrawn called Senior Captain Irizi'ar'alani, captain of the Parala, for assistance.
The crew and passengers of the liner had all been evacuated to a vacuum-sealed central compartment of the liner and away from the liner's luxury. Thrawn's Boco shot the luxury wings off the liner with its laser weapons, reducing its mass enough for the combined tractor beams of the Boco and the Parala to rescue the passengers, crew, and central compartment of the liner. In doing so, Ziara and Thrawn saved the lives of 8,000 civilians including Aristocra of at least five of the Nine Ruling Families.
The excursion liner's Boadil family owners were outraged at the loss of property, and were allied with the Ufsa family, to which the liner's captain (the individual responsible for the crash) belonged. Furthermore, the Boadil were allies with Ziara's Irizi family, but not Thrawn's Mitth family; so family politics led the Boadil to scapegoat Thrawn for the loss of property. The Boadil family demanded Thrawn be demoted or even expelled from the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet. However, the Aristocra of other Ruling Families whose lives Thrawn saved praised the Junior Commander, asking that he be promoted. As a result, Thrawn was neither promoted nor demoted; punished nor commended, with one crucial exception: the Boco, his first command, was taken away from him. Having lost his first command, Ziara requested that Thrawn be transferred to her command to serve as an officer on her Parala.