Carnival Corporation to re-assess safety procedures
Jan
23
Written by:
23/01/2012 14:18
Parent of cruise line whose vessel hit rocks off the Italian coast last Friday says it is launching a "comprehensive audit and review of all safety and emergency response procedures".
The Financial Times has reported that the chief executive of Carnival Corporation, which owns cruise brands Cunard, Holland America Line, P&O Cruises and Princess Cruises, admitted that the Costa Concordia's grounding and capsizing has "called into question" the company’s safety and emergency response procedures and practices. The accident left 11 dead and 22 people are still missing.
Company CEO Micky Arison said "While I have every confidence in the safety of our vessels and the professionalism of our crews, this review will evaluate all practices and procedures to make sure this kind of accident doesn't happen again,"
Stormy weather is now threatening to stop work off the Italian island of Giglio where rescue workers continue to search for bodies. This will have the knock-on effect of delaying the salvage operations. Officials are now concerned that the bad weather could cause the ship to break up spilling 2,400 tonnes of fuel into the Mediterranean's largest marine sanctuary.
Corrado Clini, Italy's environment minister, has described the cruise ship as a "mini-oil tanker", carrying about 1,800 tonnes of heavy bunker fuel and several hundred tonnes of lighter fuel used for generators.
Ezio Amato, Italy's leading marine pollution scientist, told the Financial Times that the fuel has the consistency of "toothpaste", which salvage workers need to heat up before pumping out. Heavier than seawater, it would sink and disperse with underwater currents, whose movements are little known. He was quoted in the FT as saying. “We don't really know where it will end up. Gasoline is lighter and very toxic, too. But certainly the entire archipelago and Monte Argentario [a popular tourist area across the strait] will be affected. It all depends on how and if the ship sinks – in one piece or if it breaks up,"
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