Articles Posted in Cruise Ship Accidents/Incidents

MIAMI, FL—Eleven people have been confirmed dead and 21 remain missing following the tragic Jan. 15 Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster that occurred off the coast of Tuscany, the Washington Post reported. According to Italian Coast Guard Cmdr. Filippo Marini, “As a precautionary measure, we stopped the operations this morning, in order to verify the data we retrieved from our detectors, and understand if there actually was a movement, and if there has been one, how big.”

Furthermore, ABC News reported that 52-year-old Costa Concordia Captain Francesco Schnettino—who is on house arrest in Sorrento, Italy as investigations into the deadly cruise disaster are underway— claimed he “had no intention of escaping” upon being accused of abandoning ship. Schnettino even told reporters, “I was helping some passengers put the life boat to sea. At a certain point the mechanism for lowering it, blocked. We had to force it. Suddenly the system unblocked itself and I tripped and I found myself inside the life boat with a number of passengers.”

Although Schnettino claimed he did not intend to abandon ship, so to speak, a recorded conversation between the captain and officials from the Italian Port Authority seemed to indicate otherwise. In those recordings, Schnettino can be heard notifying authorities that he, as well as an unspecified number of additional crewmembers, abandoned ship.

That Italian Port Authority officer apparently responded by saying, “And with 100 people still on board, you abandon ship? [expletive].” 

Schnettino quickly attempted to cover his tracks, responding, “I didn’t abandon any ship… because the ship turned on its side quickly and we were catapulted into the water.”

Previous CNN reports suggested the cruise ship captain could potentially face charges of abandoning ship, shipwreck and manslaughter in connection with the fatal shipwreck. There were approximately 4,200 individuals aboard the massive cruise vessel when it veered too close to the island of Giglio—located of Italy’s western coast. The ship reportedly ran aground and subsequently tipped onto its side. Thus far, 11 accident deaths have been confirmed.

Investigations into the Italy cruise ship disaster, along with search/rescue missions for potential survivors, appear to be ongoing. The Costa Concordia is owned and operated by Carnival Corporation’s Italian subsidiary, Costa Crociere (Costa Cruises).

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MIAMI, FL—October 18, 2011 – FBI agents are in the midst of an investigation into the untimely death of a newborn baby aboard the Carnival Dream cruise ship on Oct. 12. According to information provided by Florida Today, Florida-based cruise ship company Carnival Cruise Lines reported the unfortunate discovery to Dutch authorities on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, whom subsequently took custody of the newborn’s lifeless body and detained the infant’s mother for questioning.

Awaited by a fleet of FBI agents, the Carnival Dream cruise ship returned to Port Canaveral in Florida on Oct. 15. As searches were being conducted in two of the cruise ship’s guest cabins, FBI agents went on to question both cruise passengers and ship crew members who may have had any information concerning the mysterious cruise ship death.

Dutch officials in St. Maarten have since released the newborn’s mother, whom was merely identified as a 20-year-old woman living in the United States, from their custody.

According to FBI Special Agent Dave Couvertier, “Due to the international and jurisdictional aspects involved with this incident, we are still working on obtaining facts and specific details about the matter… No one has been charged as we are still working on obtaining facts and gathering any available evidence.”

A full investigation into the Carnival cruise ship death was expected to be underway.

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MIAMI, FL—September 15, 2011 – A cruise ship passenger, whom other vacationers described as a “pleasant elderly British gentleman,” was reported missing from the cruise vessel Balmoral on September 12. The missing passenger was last seen aboard the Fred Olsen Cruise Lines-operated ship on the night of September 11, as it traveled from Stavanger, Norway to its final destination in Southampton, England, the Daily Mail reported.

According to information provided the Daily Mail, a cabin stewardess aboard the UK cruise ship Balmoral reported finding a note suggesting that a passenger may have gone missing on 9/11. It was only after ship crew members carried out a full onboard search to no avail and the cruise liner docked in Southampton that passengers were informed that they would only be permitted to disembark following preliminary missing persons investigations by police officials.

“We were only told what had happened when we arrived in Southampton. It was a very upsetting thing to hear. We had had a fantastic holiday and were just about to disembark and return home when we suddenly were told someone had disappeared… Everyone was shocked. No one knew that it had happened, even though we had been on the ship for more than 36 hours with him missing. It is the sort of thing you read about or see on TV,” an unidentified cruise ship passenger told reporters.

Authorities reportedly boarded the 700-foot Balmoral cruise ship in Southampton and approximately three hours passed before more than 1,000 passengers were given the OK to get off the ship. While authorities did not state if they suspected that the missing elderly man fell overboard, accentually or deliberately, investigations were ongoing.

Statistics provided by the International Cruise Victims Association suggested there have been 165 cruise ship disappearances since 1995. Excluding this particular missing persons case, 12 victims have disappeared at sea since the beginning of the year 2011.

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MIAMI, FL—July 27, 2011 – Authorities from the U.S. Coast Guard on July 23, 2011 called off the search for a California man who was reported missing from a cruise ship less than one day before. According to information provided by 10News, Fallbrook resident Blake Kepley, 20, was traveling in Alaska aboard the Holland America cruise vessel Oosterdam when he went missing on June 22, 2011.

Reports indicated Kepley was last seen aboard the cruise ship Oosterdam, a 7-day Alaskan cruise voyage, at some point between 12 a.m. and 1 a.m. on June 22. Kepley’s family members reported him missing at approximately 2:30 p.m., when he failed to meet up with them before disembarking from the ship at a port in Ketchikan. Holland America then reported the missing persons case to Coast Guard officials. Cruise line representatives appeared to believe Kepley may have fallen overboard.

Although the Coast Guard search lasted less than 24 hours, ending at about 3:45 p.m. on June 23, USCG personnel in helicopters and other boats covered a span of nearly 400 miles in an attempt to find the missing cruise ship passenger. The cruise vacation came to an end on June 24.

According to an unidentified passenger who sent 10News an e-mail regarding the missing persons case, “Two passengers, twin sisters, told me they were walking on deck Thursday at 8:15 and saw Blake by the railing. He was kneeling and had his hands in a prayer position, crying. A few minutes later they observed him being carried or dragged off the deck by a man and another young man. They believed that the man was his dad and a brother or cousin.”

Petty Officer 1st Class Lindsey Kirby, Sector Juneau Operations unit controller maintained, “While we have suspended active searching, we encourage anyone who sees anything while transiting though the area to call the Coast Guard… Suspending a case is one of the hardest decisions that we as search and rescuers have to make.”

Recreational boating accident statistics provided by the Coast Guard indicated there were 431 falls overboard, resulting in a total of 188 deaths and 257 injuries, in 2008.

Also, drowning was the leading cause of death related to such boating accidents. During the year 2008, recreational boating accidents resulted in at least 510 drowning deaths.

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Today’s cruise ships are full of surprises. From the almost endless variety of entertainment and leisure activities, to the food and company at dinner, passengers never know what a trip may bring. But one surprise isn’t welcome: cruise ship practices regarding emergency aid for sick or injured passengers. This issue is at the heart of an upcoming trial pitting Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. against a young passenger who became severely disabled after what her family says was a needless delay in getting medical attention. That case — Amaran v Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. (Case No. 04-26948 CA 27) — will begin November 7 in the Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade County. But its impact, says cruise ship injury lawyer Philip M. Gerson of the law firm Gerson & Schwartz, will be felt wider, and for a long time to come.

“In the six years we have spent in pre-litigation, the defendants — Royal Caribbean and the firm that manages its fitness centers and spas, Steiner Transocean — have said they have no duty to provide emergency care at sea,” says Gerson, a longtime advocate for cruise ship injury victims. “They’ve said it during hearing after hearing, on transcript after transcript, that there is no duty to provide emergency medical care. We don’t think that’s correct. And with this case, we plan to both publicize and end this dangerous practice. We’re going to help push the cruise ship industry into the 21st century.”
Preetha Amaran, the plaintiff in the upcoming trial, was a 26-year-old medical resident — bright future and life ahead of her — when she collapsed aboard a treadmill on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship on March 8, 2004. In a sworn deposition, her mother, who witnessed the event, testified that the fitness center’s director failed to use his training in CRP to render aid, and that, indeed, he failed even to assess the seriousness of the situation. Preetha and her family contend that medical attention was needlessly delayed, resulting in severe brain injury and permanent incapacitation.

“No one disputes that the fitness director did nothing — no CPR, no assessment, no running for the ship’s doctor,” says Gerson. “That is something lawyers for Royal Caribbean and Steiner Transocean have said on the transcripts, too. But that’s okay, the defendants contend, because the case law says cruise ships are under no obligation even to carry doctors. What we plan to show at trial is that they’re improperly extending a very old, out-of-date rule.”

Historically, says Gerson, ships didn’t have to carry doctors because the vessels were alone at sea, with only limited, primitive communications links, so there was no way to have control over what the doctor did. “But times are very different now,” the injury lawyer adds, “with ships carrying advanced technology, like satellites and Internet connections and even videoconferencing.” Just as significantly, Gerson adds, there are more recent laws in place — international maritime regulations that say that ships do need to have an emergency plan and crew members do need to train in CPR. “To say there is no duty to do anything just flies in the face of both maritime law and logic,” the veteran attorney says.

Gerson’s hope is that the Amaran case will clarify what the duty of a cruise ship crew member is. But he also hopes that the trial will help get the word out about industry practices that, he says, are both antiquated and dangerous. Public pressure, the injury lawyer notes, can be an effective way to spur industry-wide changes.

And those changes, says Gerson, are urgently needed: “Nowhere does the cruise industry publicize the fact that if you’re injured, or you become sick, or you have a heart attack on their treadmill, they have no duty at all to come to your assistance. People walk onto a ship expecting a lot of things — entertainment, recreation, a good time. But they never expect that when they need help most, they’re not going to get it.” 

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