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Carnival Corporation & plc statement regarding Costa Concordia

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Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä

Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines

Published: 15 January 2012 15 January 2012

This statement is from Carnival Corporation & plc in Miami, FL. Carnival Corporation & plc is the parent company of Costa Cruises.

On January 13, 2012, Costa Cruises vessel, the Costa Concordia, departed from Civitavecchia, Italy with approximately 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members on a seven-day voyage. At approximately 10:00pm CET, the vessel struck rock off the coast of Isola del Giglio, Italy and sustained significant damage causing the ship to list severely. The order was given to abandon ship and deploy the lifeboats.

Tragically, there are reports of some deaths and injuries. This is a terrible tragedy and we are deeply saddened. Carnival Corporation & plc offers our sympathies and heartfelt condolences to all of the Costa Concordia guests, crew members and their families. Carnival Corporation & plc and Costa Cruises are committing our full resources to provide assistance and ensure that all guests and crew are looked after.

We want to express our deep gratitude to the Italian Coast Guard and local authorities and community members who have gone to extraordinary lengths to assist in the evacuation of the ship and provide support for our guests and crew.

We are working to fully understand the cause of what occurred. The safety of our guests and crew members remains the number one priority of Carnival Corporation & plc and all of our cruise lines.

Costa Concordia was sailing on a Mediterranean cruise from Civitavecchia (Rome) with scheduled calls at Savona, Italy; Marseille, France; Barcelona, Spain; Palma de Mallorca; Cagliari and Palermo, Italy.

UPDATE - Are there similarities between Costa Concordia and Carnival Splendor incidents?

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 14 January 2012 14 January 2012

UPDATE 1: It has now emerged that significant human error rater than technical problems, as had been suggested earlier, was the cause of the accident.

 

It has been suggested an a power surge in the diesel electric propulsion plant of Costa Crociere's 114,500 gross ton Costa Concordia caused the ship run aground (see separate report) as those on the bridge lost control of the vessel. 

In the autumn of 2010, Carnival Cruise Line's 110,239 gross ton Carnival Splendor suffered an engine room fire that resulted in the loss of all power and the ship had to be towed to port. Built in 2008, Carnival Splendor is technically similar to the 2006 built Costa Concordia. Both are powered by diesel electric propulsion plants as indeed are most cruise ships in service today.

On most of these ships - but not on all - the diesel generators feed power to various systems on board via a single electric switchboard. On some ships, there are two switchboards, which means that there is redundancy in case of an accident involving one of them, chief engineer of a major cruise ship told Cruise Business. 

Below news report on Carnival Splendor incident: 

 TUESDAY, 09 NOVEMBER 2010 06:43

The cruise ship Carnival Splendor, which lost power after experiencing an engine room fire, is currently being towed via tug boats to San Diego. Based on favorable sea conditions, the ship is expected to arrive around midday on Thursday. As the ship gets closer to coastal areas, guests are now beginning to receive intermittent cellular service. Additionally, the ship’s phone system is working on a limited basis and guests are able to make complimentary calls home. A large Carnival team continues to work on hotel, flight and transportation arrangements for the guests and will be on the ground in San Diego when the ship arrives. Guests continue to be provided food and beverage service and a limited schedule of activities. Toilets continue to function in most staterooms and all public restrooms.  At approximately 6 am yesterday morning (U.S. Pacific Standard Time), a fire was detected in the aft engine room aboard the cruise ship Carnival Splendor. The fire was extinguished and there were no injuries to guests or crew. The ship has been operating on auxiliary generators throughout the day and engineers have been unable to restore additional power to the vessel. As a result, the current voyage is being terminated. Tugboats are currently en route to the ship which is located off the coast of Mexico, approximately 150 miles south of San Diego. The tugs will tow the vessel to Ensenada, Mexico in an effort to get the guests home as quickly as possible. Currently several key hotel systems, including air conditioning, hot food service, flushing toilets and telephones are not available. The ship’s crew is actively working to restore partial services. Regular announcements apprising guests of the situation began at approximately 6.30 am. Guests were initially asked to move from their cabins to the ship’s upper open deck areas. At this time, guests have access to their cabins and are able to move about the ship. Bottled water and cold food items are being provided. The vessel’s command is in contact with the U.S. Coast Guard which has deployed aircraft and cutters to the cruise ship’s location. Guests on the current voyage will be receiving a full refund along with reimbursement for transportation costs. Additionally, they will receive a complimentary future cruise equal to the amount paid for this voyage. "We know this has been an extremely trying situation for our guests and we sincerely thank them for their patience. Conditions on board the ship are very challenging and we sincerely apologize for the discomfort and inconvenience our guests are currently enduring. The safety of our passengers and crew is our top priority and we are working to get our guests home as quickly as possible," said Gerry Cahill, President and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines. Carnival Splendor was on the first leg of a 7-night Mexican Riviera cruise that departed yesterday, Nov. 7, from Long Beach, Calif. Today was a scheduled day at sea. The ship’s normal itinerary includes stops in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The ship, which measures 113,000 gross registered tons and first entered service in July 2008, is carrying 3,299 guests and 1167 crew.

UPDATE 4: Costa Concordia master reported saying charts showed adequate water depth

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines

Published: 14 January 2012 14 January 2012

Francesco Schettino, master of the 114.500 gross ton Costa Concordia that ran aground on Friday night on the west coast of Italy, had told Italian television that the vessel had hit a rocky spur while cruising in waters which, according to the charts, should have been safe.

"As we were navigating at cruise speed, we hit a rocky spur," he was quoted by the Daily Telegraph’s website as saying. The website citedTgcom24 television station: "According to the nautical chart, there should have been sufficient water underneath us," he added.

However, earlier today Daily Telegraph reported on its website that Fabio Costa, who worked in a shop on the stricken cruise ship, said: "We just saw a huge rock, that was probably where the ship hit, and people were having huge trouble trying to get on the lifeboats. So at that point we didn't know what to do so it took hours for people to get off the ship.”

Cruise Business Online comment: These reports suggest that power failure has unlikely been the cause of the accident, as had been suggested by one commentator earlier. If Fabio Costa saw the rocks the ship presumably hit after the accident, why did the master and the bridge team not see them before the impact?

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UPDATE 3: The master of Costa Concordia, the Costa Crociere cruise ship that ran aground on Friday evening, was arrested late Saturday and is being investigated for manslaughter and abandoning ship, said a local prosecutor in Grosetto, Italy, CNN reports on its website.

Three people are confirmed dead and 70 are still missing. the 2006 built 114,500 gross ton he ship has capsized in shallow water. 

“The captain, Francesco Schettino, had been earlier interviewed by investigators in Porto Santo Stefano about what happened when the 4,200-passenger Costa Concordia struck rocks in shallow water off Italy's western coast, said officer Emilio Del Santo of the Coastal Authorities of Livorno.”

“Authorities were looking at why the ship didn't hail a mayday during the accident near the Italian island of Giglio on Friday night,” officials told CNN.

"At the moment we can't exclude that the ship had some kind of technical problem, and for this reason moved towards the coast in order to save the passengers, the crew and the ship. But they didn't send a mayday. The ship got in contact with us once the evacuation procedures were already ongoing," Del Santo said prior to the announcement of the arrest.

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UPDATE 2: Sixty-nine persons remained unaccounted for Saturday afternoon after the grounding and partial sinking of Costa Crociere’s 114,500 gross ton Costa Concordia on the west coast of Italy last night, while the number of casualties ranges from three to six, media reports say. Some passengers say that they heard an explosion on board before the vessel ran aground, a report on the website of the London based Daily Telegraph says.

An explosion heard by some of the passengers on board may have been caused by a phenomenon known as “harmonic interference”, according to Malcolm Latarche, the editor of the global shipping magazine IHS Fairplay Solutions. Mr Latarche said that the ship was powered by a bank of six diesel-electric engines which effectively worked as an on-board power station designed to supply electricity to all parts of the vessel., the report said.

But like power stations on land, the engines are prone to electrical surges and troughs caused by “harmonic interference”. Mr Latarche added: “From the reports I have seen it seems there was an explosion followed by a blackout which could have been caused by a power surge. There are various back-up systems in place on all ships but they may have failed also."

Mr Latarche said it was possible the cruise ship experienced the same problem that saw the Queen Mary 2 lose power in September 2010 as she was approaching Barcelona. He continued: “Once you have a problem with the electric supply to the ship’s main propulsion motors that could lead to a problem with steering. Once you are in a position where you cannot control a ship's speed and direction you have a problem until you can get those systems back on line. It seems that this may have happened quite close to land, in shallow water. When you can’t steer you are going to run aground and hit rocks at some point.”

The Costa Crociera company said the evacuation of the ship started promptly, but the operation was hindered as the vessel started to list on one side. Some passengers claimed that the crew had failed to give instructions on how to evacuate the ship. An evacuation drill was scheduled for Saturday afternoon, the Daily Telegraph report said.

 

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UPDATE 1: Costa Concordia, the Italian cruise ship that ran aground last night on the west coast of Italy, is lying half submerged on its starboard side in about 80 degree angle in shallow water near the island of Giglio, images in the media show. Three persons have been confirmed dead so far against earlier reports that said the fatalities would number at least six.

The cause of the accident remains unknown.

Also, it is not known at this point whether the ship would be salvaged or declared a constructive total loss (CTL), whereby underwriters would pay Costa Crociere the insured value of the vessel and sell the wreck most likely for scrap.

Cruise Business Online will follow developments and further updates will be posted as more news emerge. 

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At least six people are reported dead after Costa Crociere’s 114,5000 gross ton Costa Concordia with more than 4,000 people on board ran aground off Italy, the BBC reports on its website. 

The Costa Concordia hit a sandbar on Friday evening near the island of Giglio and listed about 20 degrees, after which people tried to reach land in lifeboats or by swimming. The dead are believed to be people who jumped from the ship and attempted to swim ashore but drowned, a crew member interviwed by BBC by telephone said.

The last 50 people on board are being evacuated by helicopter in a "worsening" situation. Italians, Germans, French and British were among the 3,200 passengers. In addition, 1,000 crew were on board the vessel. One thousand passengers were Italian, with 500 Germans and 160 French. Some media reports said eight people had died.

The Costa Concordia, which was built in 2006,  had sailed earlier on Friday from Civitavecchia port near Rome for a Mediterranean cruise, due to dock in Marseille after calling at ports in Sicily, Sardinia and Spain.

Cabin steward Deodato Ordona says the ship suddenly began to list. Passengers were eating dinner on Friday evening, when they heard a loud bang, and were told that the ship had suffered electrical problems, one passenger told Italy's Ansa news agency. "We were having supper when the lights suddenly went out, we heard a boom and a groaning noise, and all the cutlery fell on the floor," said Luciano Castro.

The 290-metre (950 ft) vessel ran aground, starting taking in water and listing by 20 degrees, the local coast guard said. Orders were given to abandon ship, Deodato Ordona, a cabin steward on the Costa Concordia, told the BBC. "We announced a general emergency and took passengers to muster stations," he said. (NB: General emergency signal is not order to abandon ship, but to proceed to muster station – CB note)

"But it is hard to launch the lifeboats, so they moved to the right side of the ship, and they could launch." Elderly passengers were crying, said Mr Ordona, adding that he and some others jumped into the sea and swam roughly 400 metres to reach land. Rescued passengers are being accommodated in hotels, schools and a church on Giglio, a resort island 25km (18 miles) off Italy's western coast. Searches are still going on for "possible missing people", regional official Giuseppe Linardi told the Italian broadcaster RAI.

Costa Crociera, the company which owns the ship, said it could not yet say what had caused the accident. "The gradual listing of the ship made the evacuation extremely difficult," a statement said. "The position of the ship, which is worsening, is making more difficult the last part of the evacuation. "We'd like to express our deepest gratitude to the coastguard and other emergency services, including the authorities and citizens of the island of Giglio, who did their best in saving and helping the passengers and crew."

In April 2010, three crew members died when the 53,876 gross ton Costa Europa hit berth at Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt. Cosyta Crociere is part of the Carnival Corp & plc group.

Nigel Lingard assumes consultancy role at All Discovery Cruising

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines

Published: 10 January 2012 10 January 2012

Nigel Lingard, who recently retired from the position of sales and marketing director of marketing at Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, has joined All Discovery Cruising, the trade facing arm of All Leisure Holidays, in a consultancy role as part of the company’s plans to strengthen its relationship with the trade, the company said in a statement.

LIngard, who is one of the best known personalities in the UK cruise industry,  will help develop trade awareness and sales of Voyages of Discovery, Swan Hellenic and Hebridean Island Cruises, All Discovery Cruising’s three cruise brands. His appointment as Business Development Consultant comes as All Leisure embarks on a £35 million investment in its cruising operations during 2012. Initiatives under way include the £10 million refurbishment of Swan Hellenic’s flagship Minerva; the addition of a second ship, Voyager, to the Voyages of Discovery fleet; and a new river cruise vessel Royal Crown, for the Hebridean Island Cruises programme.

Geoff Lawrence, Sales & Marketing Director, explained: “Nigel is such a well-respected and experienced figure in the cruise industry that it is brilliant to have him on-board during these exciting times.” “All Discovery Cruising has some ambitious targets as we believe that travel agents will play a vital part in our success. We are looking for a very substantial increase in the business we get from our existing trade partners, and hope to get many more retailers working with us in the future. We are committed to stepping up our trade marketing, support and training and are certain Nigel’s expertise will prove invaluable as part of this.”

Refurbishment to Swan Hellenic’s Minerva, which includes the upgrading of cabins and public areas and the addition of balcony suites, is progressing well. The ship is scheduled to re-enter service in March 2012.

Lingard added: “All Discovery Cruising knows that agents have the potential to be its greatest ambassadors and for me that is very exciting. Working with the trade has always been a passion of mine and I am looking forward to using my knowledge to help take these three brands to the next level.”