cruise ship safety, wake up call, sea diamond and now concordia

[rog747]

well its is unimaginable that in the 21st century that we have had 2 huge hull losses with sadly passenger fatalities of new build cruise liners in eurpoean waters, one being a mega-ship, with a rather less than perfect evacuation process that will be now studied carefully as it seems apparent that the 30 minute 'we can get everyone off' safety rule did not happen...

 

(FYI sea diamond sank 2007 off santorini after being holed on rocks)

 

in addition the near loss of the then brand new crown princess in 2006 which

narrowly did not capsize in bungled manoeuvring and fast turn by junior crew.

if crown princess had gone over then i doubt there would have been many

100's left alive of 1000's on board.

 

its quoted now this morning that the costa concordia sailed too close for a scenic fly-past sail of the island and whilst it may have all been planned and sanctioned it was a risky passage and the price paid for this jaunt has been

unacceptably high.

the captain will not be having tea and biscuits in the office with his bosses getting a pals like pep-talk here.

see other threads on this forum for a video of previous close-in sail past by this ship last summer.

 

i hope all the regulatory bodies in Europe and the USA will now look closely into the cruise ship market where revenue earning capacity and lack of procedure standards may have overtaken the need for safety concerns to be foremost at all times.

 

mega ships have come off the production line like new cars and now i hear the queen mary 2 may have extra decks added topside making her stability altered. is that prudent to even think of that now.

 

is it time to rethink structural designs, evacuations, stability. and realise that one day one of these ships may go down with 1000's on board if tightening up on so many areas of operation, procedures, is not heeded right now.

 

i am sure some will, but will you now get me on one again now,

hummm not sure TBH unless some strict guidelines as outlined above are

re-thought and re-drawn and adhered too...

(been on QV and QM2 and felt very safe)

[rog747]

Prof ed galea of the university of Greenwich in London tonight stated he is just completing a 4 year study to present to the IMO on ship evacuations and safety drills for crew and passengers and commented that he thought Concordia's evacuation process started way too late.

 

the passengers should have been mustered immediately it was known the ship was badly holed and not to have waited so long and pax being given 'everything is returning to normal soon' announcements....

 

this delay in mustering passengers when the ship was still stable definitely caused the

injuries and loss of life.

 

it will also be shown that if passengers have no time to return to their cabins or the ship's angle prevents that then enough life jackets for all must be at the muster stations.

it has been reported that life jackets for adults were insufficient supply at the stations.

 

as i mentioned in my OP above and you care to read it please then you will see that professor galea tonight echoes my concerns i wrote today...

[dot73]

It would certainly make sense that after a ship hits something that all passengers are ordered to the muster stations. If it turns out to be something minor, then some pax may be irrated, but no one has died. Whatever happened to "better safe than sorry". The ship should have been evacuated before it had a chance to list as much as it did. They must change the rules about muster drills and have them before the ship even leaves the dock as they do on ships leaving Florida. I can imagine that if you were a first-time cruiser, you would have no idea what seven sharp horn blasts meant, how to put on your life jacket, or even where the muster stations were. I'm sure a lot will be learned from this tragedy and rules will be changed but it's too bad people had to die for it.

[TWELVEOHONE]

its quoted now this morning that the costa concordia sailed too close for a scenic fly-past sail of the island and whilst it may have all been planned and sanctioned it was a risky passage and the price paid for this jaunt has been unacceptably high.

the captain will not be having tea and biscuits in the office with his bosses getting a pals like pep-talk here.

 

I heard this also but being they passed the island at around 9:00pm (their time) what could they see, it was dark. Maybe they could make out some house and street lights but that is far from a scenic view

[Freecall]

Let's not forget the Explorer which sank in 2007. Enquiry blamed the Captain.

 

.

[rog747]

I heard this also but being they passed the island at around 9:00pm (their time) what could they see, it was dark. Maybe they could make out some house and street lights but that is far from a scenic view

 

hi there mate, re your post above

yes we know it was dark but the benefit of the close sail fly by was for the local crew and to show off to the ISLANDERS....not for the pax onboard,

altough giuglio is actually very pretty at night lit up...

 

cheers rog

[rog747]

Let's not forget the Explorer which sank in 2007. Enquiry blamed the Captain.

 

.

 

yes freecall i forgot her

sank after hitting an iceberg

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=explorer+sinking&hl=en&rlz=1C1ECSA_en-GBGB464GB465&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=cRsVT4GBK9Lv8QPXqZz6Aw&ved=0CDgQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=485

[rog747]

It would certainly make sense that after a ship hits something that all passengers are ordered to the muster stations. If it turns out to be something minor, then some pax may be irrated, but no one has died. Whatever happened to "better safe than sorry". The ship should have been evacuated before it had a chance to list as much as it did. They must change the rules about muster drills and have them before the ship even leaves the dock as they do on ships leaving Florida. I can imagine that if you were a first-time cruiser, you would have no idea what seven sharp horn blasts meant, how to put on your life jacket, or even where the muster stations were. I'm sure a lot will be learned from this tragedy and rules will be changed but it's too bad people had to die for it.

 

yes dot thanks for that

i am positive that there will be major hoohahs in the UK and EU plus IMO regs demanding tighter drills and crew training and much more

plus design and stability investigations...

the Manchester fire on a holiday jet air disaster in 1985 put forward many air safety aspects to be improved and many were implemented, but some still are not.