"Divya and Sameer Sharma, two American survivors who testified before Mica’s committee, recalled that in order to get into a lifeboat, they had had to join a mob of passengers and force their way past reticent crew members who were still urging them to return to their cabins. “The crew members were running around panicked, frustrated, and clueless,” said Sameer. “No one seemed to have any clear idea as to what they had to do in this situation or where they were supposed to send us.”
Although the Sharmas’ description of events is consistent with that of other survivors, Mark Conroy, president of Regent Seven Seas Cruises, notes, “It does appear that at least a portion of the Concordia crew actually did their job, because they were able to rescue more than 4,100 people and all but two of the lifeboats were launched. Those things don’t happen by themselves.
Under SOLAS, crew are required to demonstrate that they can get all of the lifeboats into the water within 30 minutes of the shipmaster’s announcement of an evacuation, but full-scale drills, in which ships like the Concordia or the Allure are fully loaded with passengers and then evacuated in lifeboats, are simply not feasible, says CLIA’s Michael Crye, executive vice president for regulatory and technical issues. “There is a certain amount of risk of injury to passengers if you have a full-scale ship evacuation,” he says.
Computer modeling used to demonstrate safe evacuation plans, meanwhile, usually does not account for factors like heavy ocean swells, cold water, loss of power, the darkness of night—or a situation in which the ship is listing or flooded. “I don’t think regulations have kept up with the increase in capacity,” says Antonio Simoes Re, who heads a research group focused on marine evacuations and rescue at Canada’s National Research Council.http://www.cntraveler.com/cruises/2012/06/special-report-cruise-safety-regulations-costa-concordia?intcid=trail_gl
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