Princess Cruises said that human error was
responsible for the list that injured 240 people aboard the Crown
Princess on July 18 following its departure from Port Canaveral,
Fla.
The cruise line
would not expand on the nature of the error or who made it, noting
that an investigation is still in progress. But in a statement,
Princess President Alan Buckelew said, We can appreciate there may
be concern as to the cause of this incident and questions about
whether it could happen again.
We can confirm that
the incident was due to human error and the appropriate personnel
changes have been made, Buckelew continued. We want to unequivocally emphasize that we would
never operate an unsafe ship, nor would the U.S. Coast Guard allow
a ship to sail that had any safety issues.
Revising its
earlier report, the U.S. Coast Guard said the ship had listed to
the right. The ship left Brooklyn July 22 on a revised, seven-day
Caribbean sailing, with about 15% fewer passengers than the ships
capacity.
Human error also
was determined to have caused the listing of another Grand-class
ship, the Grand Princess, near Galveston, Texas. In that February
incident, 27 people were injured when the ship tried to turn around
and return to port after a passenger experienced cardiac
arrest.
The Coast Guard is
sill investigating the cause of that listing, but Princess put
distance between the two events.
The Crown and Grand
incidents were two totally separate and non-related incidents,
Princess spokeswoman Julie Benson said. The circumstances of the
lists were different as well. In both cases, the appropriate
actions were taken with regard to personnel.
The Crown Princess
was ordered by the Coast Guard to operate manually and not in
autopilot while in U.S. waters less than 50 meters deep, said New
York Coast Guard press officer Dan Bender. Outside of that, the
ship can run on autopilot.
This is a
precaution until the investigation is completed and there is a
determination of what caused the accident, Bender said.
Investigators said
they would gather data from the ships black box. Keith Holloway, a
spokesman for the National Transportation and Safety Board, said a
team is examining information on the ships data recorder, including
the speed, steering and direction of the vessel. Unlike airplanes,
cruise ships do not also have voice recorders in the ships bridge
or engine rooms.
A lawsuit was filed
against Carnival Corp., Princesss parent company, on July 25, on
behalf of five passengers who claimed to have been injured on the
Crown Princess when the ship listed. New York-based firm Parker
& Waichman said the victims suffered numerous injuries,
including broken bones, fractures and lacerations after being
thrown forcefully across the ships deck.
The claim said that
similar incidents have happened in the past, and that it is
believed the incident was caused by malfunction of one of the
components in the steering equipment ... or human error.
To contact
reporter Johanna Jainchill, send e-mail to [email protected].