Human error may be to blame for capsized cruise liner

THE sequence of events leading up to the grounding of the Costa Concordia remained unclear last night, but two conflicting theories which could explain the disaster onboard Italy’s largest cruise liner have emerged.

The loud bang followed by a loss of power, reported by passengers, suggested that the ship might have suffered an engine room explosion which caused it to lose control, veer towards the shore, and strike submerged rocks, where it now lies on its side 400m from the island of Giglio.

The second is that human error led to the vessel running aground followed by loss of power due to the impact.

Sea industry expert Malcolm Latarche, editor of global shipping magazine IHS Fairplay Solutions, supported the first scenario, claiming it was possible that the cruise ship had experienced the same problem that saw the Queen Mary 2 lose power in September 2010 as it was approaching Barcelona.

A power surge, or “harmonic interference”, could have caused a malfunction in the generators feeding the ship’s six diesel electric engines, which was not overcome by back-up systems.

However, Scottish marine expert Alf Baird, who pointed to the second scenario, said human error might be to blame for the incident.

“Groundings like this are very uncommon,” said the professor of maritime business at Edinburgh Napier University.

“There was an issue with loss of power, but it seems that could have occurred after the grounding, which suggests that happened first. She has been holed quite significantly.

“It is always more likely going to be human error in some way – or perhaps a technological problem.”

He added: “I think one of the problems is that the captain called abandon ship too early, which caused people to panic.”

Baird said that the main safety issues were based on how easy it was for the ship to be evacuated, rather than the design of the vessel itself. “The difficulty with these large vessels is that it can be difficult to abandon ship, especially if it has listed to one side,” he said.

“The problem with huge cruise ships is that you have maybe 14 decks. There might be 50m or so above the water line and just 8m below. It is almost like a tower block.

“It becomes very difficult to get lifeboats from one side of the ship to the other and causes pandemonium. In this case, it clearly caused panic as people were jumping off the ship.”

The Costa Concordia is Italy’s biggest cruise ship, but there are larger vessels. Royal Carribbean’s Oasis of the Seas can hold more than 6,000 people, including crew.

Investigators from Italy’s equivalent of the UK Maritime Accident Investigation Branch will examine when the possible explosion occurred, why and how long it took the Costa Concordia to come to a halt.

A thorough inquiry is likely to look at possible repairs and faults the ship had in recent years and will investigate the experience and qualifications of all of the crew.

Two years ago, a Costa Cruises ship crashed into a dock at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh, killing three crew members.

Baird added that switching from mono-hull designs to catamarans could make it easier for large cruise ships to evacuate. “While they don’t tend to be the biggest, I think they are a better option in terms of evacuation. That could be the way forward,” he said.

However, he stressed the overall safety of travelling by ship. “It is one of the safest modes of transport, “he said.

“When a ship sinks, most people do manage to get off. The same cannot be said for an aeroplane that crashes.”