On February 10th the Carnival Triumph’s engine room caught fire fire and was quickly extinguished. No one was burned. No one choked and gasped for air. No one died. No family members mourned the loss of their loved ones or buried their dead.
Three weeks later there is a litigation frenzy with lawyers from New
Yesterday the New York Times published an insightful article about the failure of the cruise industry to design their cruise ships with redundant engine systems such that if one set of engines is knocked out by a fire or explosion, another set of engines in a separate compartment would provide power to the cruise ship.
Go big or stay home, so the saying goes.
This weekend there have been several articles discussing the two lawsuits filed last Friday against Carnival arising out of the Carnival Triumph "cruise from hell." I have thrown in my two cents in television & radio appearances and in a number of local and
Last Friday, the day the Carnival Triumph passengers were finally going home from the "cruise from hell," the first two lawsuits were filed.
The first case mentioned in the press was filed by a Texas lawyer representing a woman from Brazoria County Texas. I printed a copy from the court’s online docket to read this
Last night ABC News aired a one hour special on 20/20 following the Triumph cruise ship fire.
In the video below, you will hear from passengers on the "cruise from hell" talk about their experiences, and see the Carnival marketing and PR people run away from ABC’s cameras.
I answered a few questions, and explained
The long tortuous tow back to Mobile ended last night with smiles of relief on the faces of the over-3,000-passengers as they straggled off the stinking stricken Triumph. It was a happy sight to me. Yes, there were people still upset, understandably so, but the sentiment seems to be that they had all encountered a
Today CNN asked me to write an opinion piece regarding the state of affairs of the cruise industry following the fire aboard the Carnival Triumph. CNN permits only the first 150 words of the article to be published so here you go:
Editor’s note: James M. Walker is a maritime lawyer and cruise safety
Yesterday all of the major news stations were airing updates on the latest Carnival cruise ship fire. "Cruise from hell, "nightmare cruise" and so forth were the headlines.
It was like deja vu hearing the stories of loss of power, no air conditioning, hot cabins, cold food and toilets on the Triumph that did not work.
This morning, the Carnival Triumph lost propulsion in the Gulf of Mexico after an engine room fire disabled its main engines. The cruise ship’s fire suppression system kept the fire from spreading.
No injuries have been disclosed. Carnival says that all guests will receive a full refund and transportation expenses.
The next cruise scheduled is
A retired U.S. Coast Guard official called me last week about issues of cruise ship safety. We had an interesting hour and one-half discussion about whether modern cruise ships are designed to safely evacuate passengers and crew members in times of emergencies like fires or sinkings.
Our conversation began with Royal Caribbean’s biggest cruise ships
The U.S. Coast Guard issued a press release today stating that an eighty foot yacht caught fire off of Miami Beach this morning.
The incident occurred around 10 a.m. today. The 110-foot Coast Guard cutter Sitkinak was in the process of boarding a vessel when the 80-foot motor yacht Bliss caught on fire before
A fire erupted on an Anek Lines cruise ferry (ro-ro) off the coast of Greece earlier this week.
On November 19th, a blaze started on the car deck of the Kriti II (built 1979) while the ferry approached Patras after sailing from Venice, Italy.
There were around 113 passengers on board, plus a crew of
A passenger aboard the Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas cruise ship states that an engine room fire broke out ten days ago.
According to a comment on the Cruise Critic message board, the incident occurred on November 13th while the Adventure of the Seas was making the crossing across the Atlantic. A fire
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An oil platform with 26 workers aboard exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion resulted in the death of at least two men with two additional men missing. Eleven workers were reportedly taken to the hospital, some of whom are in critical condition.
The explosion involved an oil platform, operated by Houston-based Black Elk
A number of news outlets are reporting that a fire broke out aboard an Egyptian cruise ship, which caused the evacuation of 77 tourists during a cruise on the Nile River.
The fire reportedly occurred due to a short circuit near the stern of the cruise ship as it sailed between Luxor and Esna in
This week I ran across a really interesting article by Karen Wormald who is an award-winning business writer and author, as well as a contributing editor to PC Solutions. Her work has appeared in many publications including, interesting enough, Cruise Travel.
Ms. Wormald had some very critical observations about the muster drills during a Carnival cruise
A small cruise ship in Turkish waters, transporting 100 passengers, burned to its hull after a fire ravaged the ship today while cruising off Turkey’s Aegean coast.
The Didim Mavisi, which cruises the Aegean islands,experienced a fire shortly after departing from the Aegean district of Ayvalık today.
The fire reportedly broke out in the
The Maritime Bulletin reports that a fire occurred on the Crown Princess cruise ship on July 14 2012 in one of the cabins.
The Princess cruise ship was some 3 miles east of Antipaxos island in the Ionian Sea and was sailing from Corfu to Piraeus with 3325 passengers on board when the alarm went
