Carnival Corp., the parent company of Costa Cruises and nine other brands, announced a “comprehensive audit and review of all safety and emergency-response procedures across all of the company’s cruise lines” in the wake of the Costa Concordia accident.
Carnival Corp. said that it, and the cruise industry as a whole, have maintained an “excellent safety record over the years.”
“However, this tragedy has called into question our company’s safety and emergency-response procedures and practices,” said Micky Arison, chairman and CEO of Carnival Corp. “While I have every confidence in the safety of our vessels and the professionalism of our crews, this review will evaluate all practices and procedures to make sure that this kind of accident doesn’t happen again.”
The review is being led by Capt. James Hunn, a retired U.S. Navy captain and currently the company’s senior vice president of maritime policy and compliance.
Following a 32-year career in the Navy, Hunn has held senior positions at Carnival Corp. for nearly a decade, focusing on corporate-wide efforts to establish maritime-policy standards, while overseeing the company’s health, environmental, safety and security practices.
Also, Carnival Corp.said the company is engaging outside experts in emergency-response organization, training and implementation to conduct an audit of all of the company’s emergency-response and safety procedures and to conduct a review of the Costa Concordia accident.
Carnival Corp. said it supports a comprehensive evaluation of safety regulations by the International Maritime Organization, which was requested Thursday by the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA).
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