The Port Authority of the Cayman Islands says it does have measures in place to deal with any cruise-related incident, but won’t reveal what those plans are.
“If there is an accident in the harbour, the Port does have a contingency plan to deal with such emergencies,” said Joseph Woods, cruise and security manager, in the light of news from Italy that the Costa Concordia had been stricken with the loss of at least 11 lives.
However, he did not elaborate on what such measures were.
The Costa Concordia ran aground after it hit a rock off the coast of Giglio off Italy’s west coast on 13 January. There were 4,211 passengers on board.
The Concordia shipwreck took its toll Monday on Carnival’s stock, which dropped 16 per cent in Europe, the biggest decline since 2000.
Carnival said it expects the Concordia to be out of service at least until November, the end of the fiscal year, and possibly longer. That will impact 2012 earnings by $85 million to $95 million or 11 to 12 cents per share, according to guidance issued by the company. Carnival is self-insured for the loss of use of the Costa Concordia. Future bookings
Worldwide, industry analysts are sensitive to the impact the disaster will have on future bookings, especially in Europe, which has become a larger part of Carnival’s business. European brands in total represent about 37 per cent of Carnival’s fleet, with Costa accounting for about 16 per cent of Carnival’s available passenger cruising days, according to UBS Investment Research. Travel agents in Cayman were not reporting any downturn in cruise bookings following the sinking.
“To be honest I’ve not had anybody phone to cancel or even just to be reassured,” said Linda Gayler of Longtitude Travel.
“I think cruise is 100 per cent safe. It hasn’t stopped people phoning to enquire about cruises in the last couple of days at all. These incidents are extremely isolated – when was the last time you heard about a ship going down? When you think about the thousands of cruises that are out there and those which come here it is extremely isolated.”
The Compass also contacted the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association and the Maritime Authority of the Cayman Islands for comment, but neither had responded by press time.
Investigation ongoing
Costa Cruises, in a statement to the media, said the black box recorder, containing navigation data, had been retrieved and that investigations were ongoing.
“We are working with investigators to find out precisely what went wrong aboard the Costa Concordia,” read the statement, released Monday, 16 January.
“While the investigation is ongoing, preliminary indications are that there may have been significant human error on the part of the ship’s Master, Captain Francesco Schettino, which resulted in these grave consequences. The route of the vessel appears to have been too close to the shore, and the captain’s judgment in handling the emergency appears to have not followed standard Costa procedures.
“We are aware that the lead prosecutor has levelled serious accusations against the ship’s captain, who joined Costa Crociere in 2002 as a safety officer and was appointed captain in 2006, after acting as staff captain as well. As all Costa Masters, he has been constantly trained passing all tests.”
In light of these accusations and the continuing investigation, the company said it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.
“As we are learning more about the event itself and the evacuation; however, it is becoming clear that the crew of the Costa Concordia acted bravely and swiftly to help evacuate more than 4,000 individuals during a very challenging situation. We are very grateful for all they have done. Costa is committed to ensuring that no such incident ever occurs again. Our No. 1 priority is always the safety and security of our guests and crew and we comply with all safety regulations.”
Pier Luigi Foschi, CEO of the Carnival Costa Crocierse SpA unit, which operated the Concordia, spoke to reporters at two press conferences in Genoa.
“We can’t deny that there was a human error,” he told reporters. “The route had been properly programmed in Civitavecchia. The fact that the ship strayed from that course can only be due to a manoeuvre that was not approved, not authorised nor communicated to Costa Crociere by the captain of the ship.”
Captain Schettino is in custody.
“At this time, our priority is the safety of our passengers and crew,” said Carnival Chief Executive Officer Micky Arison in the statement.
“We are deeply saddened by this tragic event and our hearts go out to everyone affected by the grounding of the Costa Concordia and especially to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives. They will remain in our thoughts and prayers.”
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.
Click here to read people’s reactions to the accident in Italy.
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Theres a plan but nobodys prepared to tell what the plan is. I smell politics here and maybe something else. Whats the secret here. Its not the recipe for KFC.
You can practice your emergency maneovers all you want, but the stark reality is that less and less cruise ships are coming because we do not have a proper cruise ship dock. So the ships pass in the night . . . So what’s our government’s contingency plan when they stop coming altogether because no-one wants to bother with our mickey-mouse tenders? Have they got a plan for that ?
Nope it’s the recipe for lets all panic about something that has never happened before, and probably won’t ever happen again, but lets look like we are doing something about it. These ships are too valuable to lose. This is why they are going to throw the book at this captain to make an example of him, for other captains.
Or what i like to call it a knee jerk reaction recipe
Same thing happened with the drownings at pedro. Lets all erect barriers, signs, bug zappers and land mines, because of some kids that didn’t pass the Darwin test.
And like anything. This will only be a waste of money, and it’s not going to solve anything.
Big Bird, you should watch the news. This said Captain steered the ship off its projected course. When the ship ran aground and tilted, he left the passengers on board the ship. Port Authority orders him to get back on the ship and assist the passengers (women and children) but he fails to do so.
I think the fault was more on the Captain and those who were under his command ship – not the Carnival Cruise line company!
what don’t you understand about (they are going to throw the book at him)?
Sighhh. I gotta explain this simple concept. Don’t I?
You see, here in cayman they are talking about, how they have contingency plans for a boat capsizing, like this boat capsizing in italy. But since boats rarely, if EVER have this happen. It’s sort of a silly response to say we have disaster plans, for what happened in italy. Since this rarely happens if at all. And we don’t have any rocks near where the boats land. So….this is called a knee jerk reaction.
And when I said they are going to throw the book at the captain. (this means the captain is in alot of trouble). If it’s his fault or not.
And then I pointed out another knee jerk reaction, with the pedro incident.
Putting up signs, and barriers and I did embellish by saying bug zappers and land minds (that was an exaggeration in case you don’t understand what embellish means)
…..seriously. I had to do this?!