Interesting article in light of some of the other recent posts.

Passengers panicked during sinking of Greek cruise ship

The sinking of a cruise ship in the Aegean sea that forced the evacuation of nearly 1,600 people and left two passengers dead raised new concerns in the industry: how safe is it, and what might be done to improve emergency situations?

"The Greek-flagged, 21-year-old Sea Diamond isn't typical of the modern mega-ships most Americans sail on, and such Titanic-esque incidents have been few and far between," wrote USA Today.

The last cruise ship to actually sink (in 2000) was the Sea Breeze. The incident happened after engine failure off the Virginia coast; no passengers were aboard and all 34 crew were saved.

But the Greek ship sinking off of Santorini brought reports of panicky passengers scrambling for life jackets. And it raised both awareness and questions about shipboard safety drills and evacuation procedures.

The Greek incident was "an isolated incident and shouldn't create fear," said Ross Klein, a frequent cruiser who publishes a ranking of cruise safety on his Web site. He has found only 76 groundings and 22 sinkings of cruise ships or passenger ferries worldwide since 1979.

"That an entire ship was evacuated with relatively few casualties is a testament to the fact that emergency procedures did work fairly well. Cruise travel remains one of the safest forms of transportation," Michael Crye of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) told the AP.

He adds, however, that "many passengers forget about the importance of lifeboat drills. Some don't show up, and others treat them as something of a joke. What this event does is remind the crew that passengers take the lead from them."

Cruise ships must conduct a safety drill within 24 hours of sailing with instructions on the use of life jackets and how and where to gather in an emergency, according to Maritime Organization rules.

The regulations also require that ships carry a life jacket for every passenger, plus another 15%, at least 5% of which must be stored in conspicuous places on deck.

But while safety drills are mandatory, passenger participation is not.

Though the international regulations state passengers "shall be strongly encouraged to attend," cruise lines vary in how stringently they enforce attendance.

So how calm are cruisers during emergencies. Not very.

A British study in 2004 showed that 70% of cruise passengers experience impaired reasoning after serious maritime incidents; 15% display such irrational behaviors as uncontrollable weeping; and only 15% remain calm and alert.

In the Greek incident, the captain and five other officers have been charged with causing a shipwreck through negligence, breaching international shipping safety regulations and polluting the environment.

Report by David Wilkening

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Originally posted by joe at travelpage:
Interesting article in light of some of the other recent posts.

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The headline was:-

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Passengers panicked during sinking of Greek cruise ship

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... the ... sinking off of Santorini brought reports of panicky passengers scrambling for life jackets ...

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I was also reminded of this a few minutes earlier by seeing a headline in a specialist publication which ought to know better:-

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Australia's safety record comes under scrutiny

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The truth? It's here:-

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Australia's fatal accident and fatality rates are similar to those of Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the USA, says the ATSB. "Using North America and the UK as a benchmark of best-practice aviation safety, the findings demonstrate that Australia has a good safety record," it adds.

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[ 04-17-2007: Message edited by: Globaliser ]

The first cruise was back in 1992. At that time the passenger drill was carried out but not all passengers seemed bothered to attend.

During my last two cruises (aboard the Sapphire and Ausonia) I was pleasantly surprised that members of staff had lists of passenger names that had to be present at each muster station. They had them ranked by cabin number and if somebody was not there they would ask other people to call them or go to their cabins and ask them to come to the station.

I am wondering if such procedure took place on the Sean Diamond. If it did, then I am both surprised and worried that passengers "were running and panicking without knowing what to do". I can unserstand panick but not knowing what to do is not an excuse - at least fot someone who was shown what to do in case of emergency.

He adds, however, that "many passengers forget about the importance of lifeboat drills. Some don't show up, and others treat them as something of a joke. What this event does is remind the crew that passengers take the lead from them."

I have noticed this on every ship I have taken. The worst was in 1975 on "Nordic Prince." It was before major security measures. Passengers at the rails carried out loud conversations with friends on the dock; many were carrying drinks in one hand; most were chattering loudly; and literally no one, in my vicinity was paying any attention to the recorded announcements.

Until I inpolitely bellowed at them: "Will you please shut up and listen! This stuff could be important." They looked resentful, but, strangely enough, did just that.

I fear attitudes have not changed. There still is more time spent in takling photos of fellow pax in their life jackets than in comprehension of what they are for.

Bit like the 'drunk' Virgin Pilot arrested not so long ago, damned by the press .. blood tests proved he was a non-drinker.

Greek Officers are abound on many fleets.

As to drills, read any forum and see the number of people who think it's a waste of time. They hide in their cabins and get friends to shout yes when there is a roll call. Lines which don't have roll calls just do a rough head count. Pax are always called for a 2nd drill if they are known not to have attented the first for any reason.

The comments in the above article may have stemmed from statements made by these Canadian kids; however others have said plenty of life jackets, and indeed the photos show as much. Punching is the thing to do it seems

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Originally posted by Cambodge:

And the ship's photographers should knock it off. They consider it a costume party!

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More importantly though the industry needs to standardise the way they do drills, for instance Carnival line you up at a specific boat , Princess muster pax inside public rooms, some take roll call, others do not, I also think that given the level of tech wizardry now a days it is high time that all muster spaces should play a instructional video during the pax muster that reinforces visually the messages being given. Also all drills should take place BEFORE the ship sails not within 24 hours - not much point if you go Poseiden leaving port ! Pax attendance should be mandetory, if they do not go to drills they should be immediately landed with no refund as they are a danger to all on board.

I have to say the level of training given to crew is excellent, even I as hotel crew was trained to lower lifeboats, launch life rafts, abseil the ships side, use foam machines, etc etc.

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Originally posted by LeBarryboat:
I'm not surprised that the Captain and officers are being charged with negligence. Perhaps there needs to be more accountability with Greek officers and Captains based on their poor track record.

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I can't see your point LeBarryboat.

I fully agree that sometimes Greek officers become too familiar with the sea and its dangers and don't consider risks as they should, however there are is a respectable number of Greek officers working for international companies with no problems at all.

Also, the way Greek law works, means that you are provisionally charged with something until it is proven otherwise. In this case, charging the crew with negligence, means that the Court will try to put a case forward to prove this (based on the black box data) but until this is proven, there is no actual charge.

Obviously 2 missing people is very upsetting but I think that whatever is written in the press, the evacuation must have been successful with 1150 passengers and 391 crew leaving the ship without "wetting their feet"

I hope that the ship's Black Box gives details as to why the accident happened soon.

[ 04-18-2007: Message edited by: Panos ]

The only reason I am defending Louis is that (having travelled with them) I believe that their safety procedures are adequate and similar to those of other (bigger) international companies. Being from Cyprus, I have seen Louis expand slowly over the years to become what they are today and I feel that it would be unfair to judge them because of one incident.

In fact, they are well known for taking over older ships and maintaining them to high standards keeping them going for many more years.

It seems that most of the bad press about the company arises from Greece and is quite interesting to see why is this.

Unfortunately I could not find any papers in English , but what is obvious from reading the daily Greek press over the last 15 days is that some people in Greece are upset because a Cypriot company took over the operations of the Greek cruise industry, hence they found the accident as an opportunity to attack Louis hoping that they will abandon the area.

"Eleuterotypia online", was stressing last Sunday that is strange for a company to be registered in Cyprus but at the same time have only 20% of its operations there with the rest 80% being in Greece.

It also referred to the fall of ROC and the fact that Louis owner (which had 37% of ROC at that time) did not try to save the company. It continues to mention that Louis found the opportunity and purchased one of ROC's best ships (Triton) which as you can judge is misleading since ROC owned two brand new ships at that time.

The rest of the article implies that the Church of Greece had an exclusive deal with Louis for a cruise to the Greek islands that happened last year (as if there was any other company to use!).

For any Greek readers, this is the link for the article:

Link

[ 04-18-2007: Message edited by: Panos ]

With announcments to all Cypriot newspapers, the Cypriot Organisation of Hotel owners, Cyprion Champer of Commerce and Organisation of Employers critisise the comments made by Greek media about Louis and raise their concern about the fact that Greeks have never been confortable with the idea of external companies operating within Greece.