Cruise Ship Costa Concordia - MERGED THREADS

[perchance]

There is a news report of another of their ships adrift off the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. According to the news report a fire on board caused the loss of power. Tugs and fishing vessels are proceeding to the stricken vessel to render assistance.

[btrayfors]

Yep....1,000 passengers aboard. Engine room fire and, this time, the electrics are really out!

They say it'll probably have to be towed to a port in the Seychelles.

Bad year for cruise ships, especially this Italian line.

Bill

[perchance]

Originally Posted by btrayfors

Yep....1,000 passengers aboard. Engine room fire and, this time, the electrics are really out!

They say it'll probably have to be towed to a port in the Seychelles.

Bad year for cruise ships, especially this Italian line.

Bill

More fodder for this particular thread.

[sigmasailor]

They seem to make a habit out if this: Engine room fire breaks out on carnival cruise ship leaving passengers stranded at sea | gCaptain - Maritime & Offshore

[MacG]

Totally unbelievable ...... what's wrong with these people?

[avb3]

Originally Posted by MacG

Lack of competent staff. My idea. After the disaster of Concordia, I could be dreaming up a scenario of hard scrutinizing the crew that handles the ships that swerve around. Not so Costa apparently. The continuous story of a company that seems not to know how to manage their ships.
Ships must be as effective in operational security and ability as well as aircraft does.

Originally Posted by sigmasailor

They seem to make a habit out if this: Engine room fire breaks out on carnival cruise ship leaving passengers stranded at sea | gCaptain - Maritime & Offshore

The only known similarity between this incident and the idiot maneuver by the Italian captain is the operator, Coasta.

Before condemning them outright and jumping to conclusions, lets just acknowledge that accidents and mechanical malfunctions do happen.

Even on sailboats, right?

Do we condemn all sailboat operators?

[sigmasailor]

Engine room fire #1: Engine room fire breaks out on carnival cruise ship leaving passengers stranded at sea | gCaptain - Maritime & Offshore
Engine room fire #2: Costa Cruise Ship Adrift off Seychelles, Fire Breaks Out in Engine Room | gCaptain - Maritime & Offshore
Costa Concordia:Cruise Ship Costa Concordia Sinks off Italian Coast [VIDEO, AIS Track] | gCaptain - Maritime & Offshore

Is this a coincidence?

[xymotic]

Originally Posted by avb3

The only known similarity between this incident and the idiot maneuver by the Italian captain is the operator, Coasta.

Before condemning them outright and jumping to conclusions, lets just acknowledge that accidents and mechanical malfunctions do happen.

Even on sailboats, right?

Do we condemn all sailboat operators?

Sorry, but this screams lack of training, leadership and enough capable people on board. Costa says that this time the captain went too close, but all those other times it was 'marketing'

Once every decade or four is an 'accident' this is something else entirely.

[justwaiting]

Originally Posted by MacG

Totally unbelievable ...... what's wrong with these people?

That my friend is where you are going wrong, its got nothing to do with PEOPLE its all about DOLLARS. From the design of the floating hotels (they are no longer ships) to the practices at sea (or at least where it meets the land) maintainance and staffing, its all about profit margins. I hate to say it but the only answer is tighter regulation of their operations. The problem there is some of that is likely to flow on and hit sailors and cruisers.: banghead:

[MacG]

So ships are not controlled by people? I used the word people but I should have said management.

If any airliner had this many problems in a row they were grounded - maybe indefinitely.

[Astrid]

The cause of the fire in the November 2011 incident was a catastrophic failure of Nr. 5 diesel which suffered a crank case explosion and resultant fuel oil fire. The fire was suppressed but the electrical system seems to have been knocked out. The Costa Allegra sounds like it suffered a similar failure. In the last 11 years, Lloyds has listed about 145 such engine failures and about 85% if them are of the same basic type (though not brand) as used on the two Costa ships in question.

[sigmasailor]

Crank case explosions usually occur due to bearings failing; heating up and being a heat source to ignite oil (finely dispersed) in the crankcase. When I was a marine engineer we always put our hand on the crankcase at all bearing positions several times a watch to feel for signs of things going wrong. Later we had a 'Graviner oil mist detector' automating that process. Simple principle: when oil becomes too hot (failing bearings) it would heat up and evaporate or burn producing smoke; you can easily detect that. Boy did we have fun with that; never saw so many trips due to false alarms. Today I guess all bearings would have their own sensors; a nice cause for more false alarms and engine trips. The 'best' way to avoid false alarms: by-pass the sensors. I wonder if anyone has gone to the trouble of finding the root cause of those incidents (like in air crash investigations). If the root cause is known proper (read costly) corrective actions (to avoid the same from happening again) can be implemented. After 145 incidents they still haven't figured it out?

I agree: it's all about the money.

[MacG]

Correct Sigmasailor, you hit the nail precisely on the head. A crankcase explosion has nothing to do with brand or dieseltype. It is a result of a mechanical failure in the supply in the lub-oil system when steel/steel contacts are overheating and igniting the gases in the engine.

First of all, the Costa Allegra is a (relative) small ship. Only (?) 28.000 m/t and does not need or use 5 diesels for propulsion purposes. The Allegra nonetheless was total powerless due to this fire and to me it looks there was no one in the MR to watch since almost all engine gauges are concentrated on the bridge and/or in a separate computerroom. It looks like one of the main generators caught fire and that fire was simply overlooked by way of bypass and no one surveying (pure speculation).

The Allegra was intensively overhauled in 2008.

[IslandHopper]

Originally Posted by Astrid

The cause of the fire in the November 2011 incident was a catastrophic failure of Nr. 5 diesel which suffered a crank case explosion and resultant fuel oil fire. The fire was suppressed but the electrical system seems to have been knocked out. The Costa Allegra sounds like it suffered a similar failure. In the last 11 years, Lloyds has listed about 145 such engine failures and about 85% if them are of the same basic type (though not brand) as used on the two Costa ships in question.

Knocked out or isolated?? it is for very good reasons when we do engine room fire drills that isolating the power to the compartment is at the top of the list of things to do, if that compartment supplys power, then so be it......

[MacG]

The basic info about the Costa Allegra is quite wrong. The boat is build in 1969 by Wartsilaa, Turku - and had the following names before she was bought by Prestige Cruises. Alexandra, Regent Moon and Annie Johnson. She carries the Liberian flag, measures 28430 gross tons and is able to carry 1066 pax. IMO nr is 691885.

Costa Allegra used to be a containership and was later on converted into a cruiseliner.