Cruising after the Concordia grounding: what you need to know

When Costa Concordia ran aground off the coast of Italy, the world watched as what seemed to be a lazy traveler’s easy road to adventure had thousands scrambling for their lives. Forget the bingo, shuffleboard and buffets; all of the sudden what was thought to be impossible unfolded before our eyes. The Concordia grounding was a clear example of just how wrong things can go when we travel, highlighting the importance of safety but yielding very few lessons. Odds are, it will be business-as-usual for the cruise industry soon with a few minor but important tweaks.

“We were having dinner when I heard a huge bang and suddenly it felt as if the ship was being ripped apart,” Concordia passenger Agata Martisi told the Telegraph. “I turned to my husband and said, ‘My God, that sounds like we’re on the Titanic!'”

Not since the disastrous sinking of the RMS Titanic, a hundred years ago in April, had the world turned its attention to maritime matters in such a serious way. A great many lessons were learned from Titanic, giving birth to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), an international maritime safety treaty that imposed strict regulations on seagoing vessels. Those lessons are in force today, making a cruise one of the safest travel options available. But that knowledge was probably of little comfort to those 4,000+ passengers and crew on the Concordia who saw their vacation/workplace/lives come to an abrupt end on Friday, the 13th of January.”The captain of the Costa Cruises ship that partially sank on Friday after hitting rocks off the coast of Italy had diverted the vessel onto a route not authorized by the company,” reported USA Today, quoting Costa chairman and CEO Pier Luigi Foschi.

Accounts of events leading up to the grounding, including blame and how the ship’s evacuation was handled, vary. But one element of the story seems clear: the chaotic reality of actually abandoning the ship was far from the well-organized, methodical process consistent with safety training that millions of cruise travelers have received over the years.

“The accident is a reminder of the importance of safety procedures and a wake-up call for the 16 million or so passengers who embark annually, some of whom may have become complacent about those nettlesome safety drills,” said the Los Angeles Times.

That appropriate training was viewed by passengers very much like the safety talk given by airlines before the beginning of every flight — something the line is obligated to do but will probably never come into play. Rarely do passengers offer their full attention. We can only imagine what those who did not pay any attention at all were doing when the delayed “abandon ship” order was given on Concordia. Recently released video suggests that the chaos was not only among passengers though as we see here:




As always, paying attention during a safety drill is a good idea that will go a long way to getting us off a ship in a timely manner if the need should arise and if the abandon ship order is given.

Another good idea would be one that travel agents have recommended for years, to memorize the deck plans of the ship, or at least be somewhat familiar with them before boarding. In the past, the idea was based on the belief that it would keep passengers from bumping into walls, trying to find their way around the gigantic ships for the first day or two, adding to more quality time on the ship. In the future it may mean the difference between getting off the ship in an emergency, or not.

“In a situation that is similar to the Titanic tragedy, crewmembers of the cruise ship, Costa Concordia, repeated many of the same mistakes as the workers on the Titanic did years ago,” reported CruiseLineJobs. “Primarily, when it became obvious that the Concordia was sinking and the passengers were seeking escape, chaos ensued, and as one passenger of this shipwreck stated, ‘It was every man for himself.’ According to one official from Italy there was no clear leadership for the rescue effort.”

As anticipated, and as appropriate, the global cruise industry recently announced a new emergency drill policy requiring mandatory muster for embarking passengers prior to departure from port. The new policy is consistent with the industry’s announcement of a complete safety review in response to the Concordia grounding and as part of the industry’s continuous efforts to review and improve safety measures.

The Cruise Lines International Association, European Cruise Council, and the Passenger Shipping Association put forward the new policy with the support of their member cruise lines.

In a joint statement, the cruise ship associations said: “The formal policy is designed to help ensure that any mandatory musters or briefings are conducted for the benefit of all newly embarked passengers at the earliest practical opportunity,” reports the Telegraph.

Under the new muster policy:

  • A mandatory muster of all embarking passengers will happen prior to departure from port.
  • Late arriving passengers will be promptly provided with individual or group safety briefings that meet the requirements for musters applicable under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS).
  • The policy is designed to help ensure that any mandatory musters or briefings are conducted for the benefit of all newly embarked passengers at the earliest practical opportunity.

This is probably nothing new to American cruise travelers sailing from North America where safety drills are customarily done before departure anyway. Though by international law, ships were only required to do safety drills within the first 24 hours. This change addresses the situation that may have contributed to what was reported as “panic” and “miscommunication” on board Costa Concordia for over 500 passengers who had just boarded that fateful day and had not received a safety briefing.

And that’s probably about all that will come of the legacy of Costa Concordia. History will probably write it as a near miss or a shot across the bow with a call for more safety, but documented facts indicate that cruising is already extremely safe. Safety measures in place before the grounding of Concordia were thought to have all possible contingencies addressed. But just as airline crashes, also rare, teach caution airlines to reexamine safety protocols, so has the grounding of the Costa Concordia served to remind cruise lines just how horribly wrong things can go.





[Flickr photo via EU Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection]

Cruise line makes offer, gets sued, waits

The cruise line that owns Costa Concordia is trying to move forward, past recovery and initial assistance efforts to make an offer to non-injured passengers. Still without conclusive forensic reasons or blame placed for the tragic grounding of January 13, Costa Cruises faces legal action as it and the entire cruise industry review safety standards.

The families of those who died, passengers that were injured and crew members will be handled on a case by case basis. For everyone else, the line is offering:

  • A lump sum of 11,000 euros (about $14,500) per person as indemnification, covering all patrimonial and nonpatrimonial damages, including loss of baggage and personal effects, psychological distress and loss of enjoyment of the cruise vacation;
  • Reimbursement of the value of the cruise, including harbor taxes;
  • Reimbursement of air and bus transfers included in the cruise package
  • Full reimbursement of travel expenses to reach the port of embarkation and return home;
  • Reimbursement of any medical expenses resulting from the cruise;
  • Reimbursement of expenses incurred on board during the cruise.

Almost simultaneously, crew member Gary Lobaton off Costa Concordia has filed a complaint in the federal court of Chicago seeking class-action status in a $multi-million lawsuit.

“The defendants failed to properly and timely notify all plaintiffs on board of the deadly and dangerous condition of the cruise ship as to avoid injury and death,” Lobaton said in the complaint. The passengers and crew “were abandoned by the captain.”

Meanwhile, Fox News reports six passengers off the stricken cruise ship filed a complaint against Carnival Corporation, parent company of ship owner Costa Cruises, in a Miami court demanding $460 million in compensation.

Maritime law experts say such actions probably won’t go far. Similar attempts to sue in the U.S. have been turned away by the U.S. Supreme Court and the expense of filing in a foreign court is often too great. Between the liability limitation clauses of the passenger contract cruise travelers agree to by booking passage on a cruise ship and the nearly-exempt status of foreign flagged cruise ships, cruise lines have themselves covered.


“It’s well-settled law,” said Jerry Hamilton, a maritime attorney who regularly defends cruise lines against lawsuits in STLToday. “The Supreme Court has said those clauses are valid clauses. They will be upheld.”

Still, the cruise industry moves on and the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), a trade group that represents the interests of 26 member lines, announced a global safety review in answer to questions raised by the Costa Concordia grounding.

Key components of the Review include:

  1. An internal review by CLIA members of their own operational safety practices and procedures concerning issues of navigation, evacuation, emergency training, and related practices and procedures.
  2. Consultation with independent external experts.
  3. Identification and sharing of industry best practices and policies, as well as possible recommendations to the IMO for substantive regulatory changes to further improve the industry’s operational safety.
  4. Collaboration with the IMO, governments and regulatory bodies to implement any necessary regulatory changes.

“While the cruise industry has an outstanding safety record, CLIA is fully committed to understanding the factors that contributed to the Concordia incident and is proactively responding to all maritime safety issues,” the organization said in a statement, adding “The Cruise Industry Operational Safety Review will enable the industry to do so in a meaningful and expedited manner.”

How this story ends, how much compensation will be given or awarded, will have a lot to do with conclusive results of investigations underway involving the captain of the ship and black box evidence of what really happened.

For now, concerned parties wait while preliminary operations to pump fuel out of the cruise ship were suspended Saturday due to bad weather. Workers decided the sea was too rough to continue the salvage operation.


Flickr photo by Cyr0z

Cruise tragedy calls for increased focus on safety

On the heels of the Costa Concordia cruise tragedy, where a once-proud ocean going vessel now lay on its side off the coast of Italy, calls for increased safety standards and procedures are being made. While history will remember the Concordia event as more of a near-miss than a Titanic-like disaster as tabloids might have us believe, most experts agree: this can’t happen again.

As rescue workers still try to find 20-some missing passengers, blame has been placed squarely on the shoulders of the ship’s master, Captain Francesco Schettino. The ship was sailing a course approved by the cruise line, similar to an airline flight plan, when Captain Schettino chose to deviate from that plan, sailing too close to a nearby island in order to show the ship to locals.

“This route was put in correctly. The fact that it left from this course is due solely to a maneuver by the commander that was unapproved, unauthorized and unknown to Costa,” said Costa Chairman and CEO Pier Luigi Foschi in a live press conference via telephone from Italy yesterday.
Rogue move on the part of an out-of-control captain or not, it is clear that changes will have to be made in the way cruise lines do business to insure another event like this never happens again.

“The incident has many in the maritime industry and those contemplating a cruise questioning how something like this could happen” says cruise expert Paul Motter on FoxNews. “After all, the Costa Concordia, which was carrying 4,200 passengers and crew, was stocked with the state-of-the-art navigation equipment.”

Look for changes in the way cruise lines do business very soon. Maybe more focus on safety instructions, starting at embarkation. Perhaps more detail and a different way of handling safety drills and surely some sort of check system that requires more than just a Captain’s whim to change a ship’s course. But Motter urges passengers to take responsibility for their own safety with a number of suggestions.

“Choose a cruise line that specializes in your native language,” says Motter. During the Costa Concordia event, safety instructions being broadcast over the ship’s loudspeaker system were difficult to hear in any language, leaving those who did not speak the language being broadcast at a disadvantage. “Costa, MSC and other cruise lines offer cruises in as many as five languages simultaneously. Europeans are used to hearing announcements in five languages consecutively; Italian, French, German, Spanish and English. In a critical situation the idea of having to communicate in five languages is not just daunting, it can mean life or death.”

Another lesson to be learned from Costa Concordia is to avoid itineraries where passengers are allowed to embark from multiple ports. In the U.S., passengers embark and disembark at the same port in most cases. European sailings allow passengers to embark along the way.

“During a disaster, having people onboard who have not yet had a boat drill can really add to the chaos, ” says Motter, noting the International maritime law requirement that says a ship must hold its safety drill within 24 hours of sail-away. Many cruise lines have a safety drill before the ship begins to move. While procedures followed on Costa Concordia were in compliance with this rule, it left 600-some passengers who embarked the ship the day of the event, uninstructed on safety procedures, adding to the confusion of getting off the ship.

Cruise lines, appropriately, will wait until the final story is told about Costa Concordia. The ship’s “black box” of navigational data and other pertinent information was seized by local authorities in connection with their investigation of the captain. That may add information that will steer the direction the cruise industry takes.

Costa has placed priority appropriately. They still have 20-some unaccounted for passengers to find. Addressing potential environmental hazards caused by that ship laying on its side off the coast of Italy is also a priority right now. But look for changes to be coming soon, changes that will impact the on-board experience of a cruise vacation, hopefully in a safety-conscious way that will make for smooth sailing into the future.

Getty image/daylife