Carnival Corporation the parent company of Costa Cruises has announced plans to review the safety procedures used on all of its 10 cruise lines, following the Concordia accident.
The company which currently owns P&O Cruises, Cunard, Princess and Carnival Cruises among several others have defended its ‘excellent’ safety record. However following the Italian accident on Friday 13 have called their emergency response procedures into question.
Micky Arison, chairman and CEO of Carnival Corporation & plc said: “While I have every confidence in the safety of our vessels and then professionalism of our crews, this review will evaluate all practices and procedures to make sure that this kind of accident doesn’t happen again”.
Captain James Hunn, a retired U.S. Captain and currently the company’s senior vice president of Maritime Policy and Compliance will lead the review.
The cruise industry reassurances come after more damaging mobile phone footage from the accident was released.
An astonishing video has been uploaded to the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera’s website, which shows a crew member telling passengers to ‘go back to your cabins’, apparently a second video was filmed at the same time showing water cascading down the ships stairs.
11 people so far have been confirmed dead and another 21 are still missing after the Costa Concordia hit rocks just off the Tuscan island of Giglio.
Following a press conference the cruise industry are trying to reassure concerned members of the public about the safety of ships. Industry executives stressed the importance of safety and said incidents like this are extremely rare.
Christine Duffy, president and chief executive of the Cruise Lines International Association said: “All cruise ships must be designed, built, operate and maintained and meet requirements of international law”.
“The cruise industry is heavily regulated in compliance with the strict standards of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the UN agency that mandates global standards”.
The IMO were called on by Ms Duffy to undergo a comprehensive evaluation from the investigation findings, so that lessons can be learnt from the disaster.
