Triumph Cruise Ship FireAnderson Cooper aired a short special last night on his program AC360.

Over and over again, Carnival engineers indicated on their Triumph inspection reports and maintenance records that one of the ship’s diesel generators was way past due for maintenance. The cruise ship was out of compliance with the IMO’s Safety of Life at Sea

AC 360 Keeping Them Honest - Cruise Ship SafetyAnderson Cooper’s show AC 360 "Keeping Them Honest" aired a special program last night "Who’s Keeping Cruise Passengers Safe?"

The program follows a string of cruise ship mishaps dating back to the Costa Concordia disaster last year up to the fire aboard the Royal Caribbean Grandeur of the Seas last week. 

Where are cruise lines

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

The big news coming from the cruise industry is that the CEO of the Cruise Line International Association, Christine Duffy, launched a new blog.  One of the primary purposes of Ms. Duffy’s blog is to attack what CLIA is calling “sensationalist” and “misleading” news accounts of crimes on cruise ships.

Ms. Duffy recently sent

CNN - Cruise to Disaster Costa Concordia DisasterTonight CNN will broadcast "Cruise to Disaster," a documentary into the Costa Concordia disaster. Here is the lead in to the CNN special program:

"What we found will be unsettling for anyone who has taken or is thinking of taking a cruise: allegations of inadequate safety briefings and chaos in the minutes after the collision