Princess Chatter

"1. Go to Italy, now!  Carnival CEO Micky Arison needs to get on the overnight plane to Italy right now.  He’s left the response to Costa spokespeople but clearly it hasn’t been enough.  Worse, some business publications are commenting that Arison is issuing press statements from Miami.  This makes him looked detached.  Last I checked Miami is 5,000 miles away the scene of the wreck.  Get on site now.

2. Demonstrate empathy–a lot of it.  On his plane ride to Italy Arison should memorize the name of every one of the people who died.  His staff should find out something about these people and Arison should meet with the families as soon as possible.  Whenever Arison holds a news conference—and there should be many—he should talk about the families he met and outline the exact the policies that Carnival will put in place to avoid another catastrophe.  Show that you care.

3. Be visible.  Arison should be holding daily, if not twice -a-day, news conferences.   Any information is better than no information.  Keep the public updated constantly."

http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2012/01/18/3-things-carnival-must-do-now-to-manage-the-costa-crisis/

"To Jack Hickey, a maritime lawyer in Miami who is working with an Italian lawyer to represent Costa Concordia passengers, the cruise line’s responsibility is obvious. Referring to the captain, Mr. Hickey said that the company had “nobody with more authority or responsibility than him” on the ship, and that it was not as if a janitor had somehow steered the ship onto a rock formation. Besides, he noted, in an age when ships are in constant communication with their owners, the company should not be able to argue that it had no idea what was going on. “You mean you can’t track it?” he asked. “You mean if it gets that far off track, you don’t know?”

The issues in the case could be shaped by the highly restrictive terms of the contract that every passenger gets with his or her ticket, said Gerald McGill, an admiralty lawyer in Pensacola, Fla.

Cruise contracts are notoriously restrictive regarding the rights of passengers, and Costa’s 6,400-word contract is no exception. The Costa contract sharply limits the kinds of lawsuits that can be brought, where those suits can be brought and how much the company can be made to pay. All such provisions have been upheld in the courts of the United States, he said.

Costa’s contract states that the line will pay no more in cases of death, personal injury and property loss than about $71,000 per passenger. It allows no recovery for mental anguish or psychological damages. It bars class-action suits.

“If you read this cruise line ticket, and it doesn’t make your stomach turn, it should,” Mr. McGill said.

For cruises that do not involve a United States port, the contract states, any litigation must be brought in Genoa, Italy, and be governed by Italian law. But when it comes to liability, the contract says the company can take advantage of any limits set by international treaties or the laws of the United States, which are very generous to owners of vessels. If there is a conflict among the patchwork of laws and treaties regarding liability, it says, “the Carrier shall be entitled to invoke whichever provisions provide the greatest limitations and immunities to the Carrier.”

“That’s called the ‘the terms are whatever we want them to be’ clause,” Mr. Hickey said. “It’s a contract created by lawyers under this fantasy that the everyday passenger will understand what that means.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/world/europe/cruise-lines-use-law-and-contracts-to-limit-liability.html?_r=1

"After hitting a rock off the coast of Giglio last Friday night, the Costa Concordia continued past the port as Schettino turned it around and brought it to rest on a headland known as Punta Gabbianara. According to the transcripts, there, at 21.49, he was radioed by the harbourmaster's office in Livorno, which is a regional headquarters of the coastguard.

"Everything OK?" he was asked.

"Affirmative," came the reply. The coastguard was told the liner had suffered a "small technical failure".

Five minutes later, the coastguard radioed the bridge again. The second newspaper, Il Fatto Quotidiano, which did not provide a source for its information, said that in the meantime the harbourmaster's office had been told by the semi-militarised Carabinieri police of a call from a passenger aboard the Costa Concordia talking about a shipwreck.

This time, the coastguard asked not only if the vessel was in trouble, but also what was its position.

"We've only got a technical problem and we're not able to [give the position]," came the reply. "But as soon as it's resolved, we'll communicate [it] to you."

Thereafter, all radio calls to the stricken liner went unanswered. But at 00.32 the coastguard managed to contact Schettino by telephone.

By then, the evacuation had been under way for only about 40 minutes. The captain was asked how many people were still aboard.

"Two, three hundred," he replied.

Ten minutes later, the coastguard rang him again. By then, said Il Fatto quoting a local fire brigade commander, Schettino had left his ship and was on the rocks at Punta Gabbianara.

He was again asked how many people were still aboard.

"I've called the ship owners, and they tell me that about 40 people are missing," he replied.

"So few? How is that possible?" asked the coastguard, before adding: "But you're on board?"

"No. I'm not on board because the bows of the ship are coming up. We've abandoned her."

"What do you mean? You've abandoned ship?"

"No. No way have I abandoned ship. I'm here," Schettino replied.

The final, and most dramatic call, took place at 1.46am when, after confirming that he was speaking to the captain, a coastguard officer told him: "Right. You are now going back on board. You are going to go back up the rope ladder, return to the bridge and co-ordinate operations."

There followed a long silence, Il Fatto reported.

"You must tell me how many people there are," the coastguard officer continued. "How many passengers, women and children – and co-ordinate the rescue."

Schettino protested that he was on hand.

"Captain," said the coastguard officer, cutting across him. "This is an order. Now I am in command. You have declared the abandoning of a ship and are going to co-ordinate the rescue from the bridge. There are already dead bodies."

"How many?" asked Schettino.

"You're the one who should be telling me that," came the reply. "What do you want to do? Go home? Now, go back up and tell me what can be done: how many people there are and what they need."

"Alright," said Schettino. "I'm going."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/17/costa-concordia-coastguard-captain-return

"Just what is Schettin’s culpability will be determined by the DVR (also known as the Maritime Black Box), which records and stores vital information of a ship’s journey.

It is required on all ships by the International Maritime Organization, a UN agency.

The DVR records the position of the vessel, date and time, the speed on water and over ground; all radio communications and the course of the vessel from a compass. It also measures the depth under the ship’s keel; whether any part of the hull is open and water is getting in, hull stressors, as well as propeller direction and how fast the propeller is turning.

The DVR records up to 12 hours of a voyage. The data can be downloaded to a personal computer or laptop for examination."

http://www.thestar.com/article/1116319--how-the-fatal-cruise-ship-grounding-will-be-pieced-together

"A state of emergency has been declared after an unidentified liquid began leaking from the capsized cruise liner Costa Concordia.

Protective barriers have been put in place around the ship where 29 people are still missing, the Italian environment minister Corrado Clini said.

He told a news conference: "Monitoring is continuing to take the decisions aimed at
avoiding environmental risks."

Anti-spill booms were earlier being deployed to minimise the risk if there were a leak."

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16150043

"Foschi said 2,300 tonnes of fuel were aboard the vessel but that there was no sign of leakage so far, as concerns grew of an impending environmental disaster if the giant ship breaks apart.

He said removing such a big vessel from its rocky resting place would be "one of the most difficult things in the world."

The priority would be to seal any holes caused by the accident, and then the ship could possibly be lifted by giant balloons and towed away.

But he said he could not rule out that the ship would have to be cut into pieces in order to be removed from the scene.

Foschi said the accident would likely hurt the cruise industry in the short-term but did not expect a lasting fallout.

"We have one million loyal customers are hoping that the reputation of our company will be repaired."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/16/italy-ship-chairman-idUSL6E8CG2T620120116

"Foschi suggested other officers and crew members of the ship didn't interfere with the captain's decision because it was not their place.

"The captain has the authority by law to take (a) decision on board," he said. "In this particular case the captain decided to change the route, and he went into water he did not know."

Foschi said the captain was on the bridge of the ship at the time of the accident along with several other crew members. He said the company is unable to give a timeline of what took place after that because Italian prosecutors have seized the ship's data recorders and other resources that would allow it to piece together a sequence of events."

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/post/2012/01/costa-concordia-cruise-ceo-captain/604363/1