Safety Drills for Crew

[dkjretired]

As a point of consideration, I would seriously question the passengers who said the crew did not know what they were doing, etc.

 

I am reminded from 30 years in the emergency business that it was all to frequently heard, " I called the ambulance and it took 30 min to get there" or " When the firemen arrived the did not do anything" , "No one knew what they were doing". etc.

 

All these "valid" assumptions were made by people under maybe the first real stress/ emergency of their entire life. The half hour for the ambulance was actualy 2.5 min from the call, but to the person who made the call a few seconds seems like minutes. Not knowing what to do they make all sorts of crazy assumptions in the state of their own panic.

Feeling helpless by their own lack of knowledge and ability is frustrating to say the least.:o

 

I doubt if the Costa crew was a bunch of ignorant jerks.... the passengers maybe. Its easy to blame, harder to accept you are the problem.

 

4300 persons 5 death, that sounds like a pretty good result overall to me.

 

Your comments about emergency service are certainly true however based upon what we have been seeing on TV from passengers, these people survived despite the crew. One couple stated they tried to get into a lifeboat full of crew but they weren't allowed. Captain stating there was no problem for almost 45 minutes when the ship was listing severly. The reports just keep coming

[Despegue]

ALL passengers onboard Costa Concordia had the opportunity to see the muster drill on Television. Very few do so on cruises.

 

ALL passengers had the location of their Muster stations CLEARLY mentioned on the back of their Cabin doors, together with lifevest donning instructions and general emergency sign.

VERY FEW passengers look at this.

 

The panic and chaos that nearly alwaysgoes together with a challenging mass evacuation is not only caused by confusion by crew but also by passengers who SHOULD have familiarized themselves with emergency instructions but who couldn't care less.

 

This is a continuing problem in nearly all evacuations, both on sea as in aviation.

 

Costa Concordia had a 99 % successful evacuation rate. In the challenging conditions they were facing, this is an amazing feat. The crew of Concordia ( in general) faced a very difficult job. So "Jackdiamond", your book knows nothing about evacuation handling, so stop telling about it.

[A Sixth?]

The problem had nothing to do with crew abilities or passengers drill awareness....

 

It had to do with a Captain with an ego so big he wanted to deviate from a safe course to impress friends.

 

A captain who operated at a seven year old boys mental level of responsibility.

 

How about set up a system to train others to see that such an idiot never is in command of a cruise ship again

[Despegue]

Such a system is called BRM. Bridge Resource Management / CRM Crew Resource management. This is being taught and is practiced by all Cruise lines, including Costa.

Obviously there was a failure in BRM on the bridge. Why exactly and how the accident happened is always a combination of factors.

 

The media and non professional people always see a single cause to an accident. In reality, an accident has alsays contributing factors. I am not at all defending any action taken by Schettino, just explaining what investigators will look into to find out WHY the officers of the watch and captain took the ship on a disaster course.. "

[dkjretired]

ALL passengers onboard Costa Concordia had the opportunity to see the muster drill on Television. Very few do so on cruises.

 

ALL passengers had the location of their Muster stations CLEARLY mentioned on the back of their Cabin doors, together with lifevest donning instructions and general emergency sign.

VERY FEW passengers look at this.

 

The panic and chaos that nearly alwaysgoes together with a challenging mass evacuation is not only caused by confusion by crew but also by passengers who SHOULD have familiarized themselves with emergency instructions but who couldn't care less.

 

This is a continuing problem in nearly all evacuations, both on sea as in aviation.

 

Costa Concordia had a 99 % successful evacuation rate. In the challenging conditions they were facing, this is an amazing feat. The crew of Concordia ( in general) faced a very difficult job. So "Jackdiamond", your book knows nothing about evacuation handling, so stop telling about it.

 

Problem with evacuations also results from conditions that are beyond the control of all those involved such as the floor becoming a wall...Drills are done during optimal conditions..

 

In watching the coverage of this, I always take things in the news with a grain of salt due to past experiences with the press however this is beginning to remind me of a cruise ship sinking about 20 yrs ago which I believe was the Oceanus....The crew on that ship was universally condemned in all the official reports after the disaster and the Captain was one of the first people off of the ship so he could direct the evacuation from the beach.

[Can'tstopcruising]

Why can't they divide the ship into X zones and have a well-trained staff/crew member responsible for each zone and the people in it. That way, they can help every one, whether in a cabin or pulic area, evacuate.

 

As people mentioned, it was dark, may have been wet in some areas and slippery. Some floors had become walls. It is unreasonable to put the onus on the passengers. Some may be able to manage on their own, but most had difficulty, I am sure. So many elderly cruise. Some with scooters. What a nightmare.

[A Sixth?]

I am one who thinks that the present regime of safety drills is doing a pretty good job covering the bulk of "likely" disaster scenarios.... fire, medical etc.

 

Since there was no order to evacuate from the captain until the ship was listing severely (according to all reports thus far) crew training only kicked in when it was too late for a "normal" evacuation. Or are those that believe that the crew should have given the "abandon ship" order without the captains orders? That's mutiny isn't it?

 

It's a bit like blaming the school district for not training the teachers and staff through fire drills for not orderly evacuating students when the principals secret cave network caves-in and the school flips on its side and the lights go out.

 

The Captain negated every conceivable hope there was to minimise this disaster.

[nycmode]

I do think that the ship going dark and listing will likely stir panic, which in turn will lead to chaos. Losing half the lifeboats is also pretty scary and would freak me out too.

 

I gave this some thought the other night. If a listing ship would make it tough for young folks like my wife and myself, I can't imagine how a handicapped person in a wheelchair or someone with a walker or cane can manage to save themselves if they are in the dark and the ship is tipping over

[travelberlin]

Does not mean that every staff know what they are doing!

In my last cruise on the Oasis of the Seas, I rather had the feeling some members of the crew were not going to be very helpful in case of an emergency. It was drill time, but the Oasis is a BIG ship. We could ot find our staion, so I have asked somebody from the crew where place so and so was. He said he did not and that was his answer. He did not make any effort to find out. I have completely forgotten the experience.

[CaroleLee]

What about cruises that don't orginate/end/stop at a US port? Isn't there a International Maritime body that oversees this?

 

There is the International Maritime Organization which is a branch of the UN. Unfortunately is has NO enforcement authority.

Carole

[mamamzee]

Gee, if only all emergencies happened the way the way they are supposed to.

[mamamzee]

From now on, all emergencies MUST happen the way they are supposed to --in a calm, safe environment.