We began reporting on the Costa Concordia as soon as the tragedy occurred on Friday, January 13th, 2012. That night, thousands of passengers lived through a collective nightmare which ended in the most blatant mishandling of an emergency aboard a large cruise ship since the Titanic. Every single passenger aboard…
As we previously reported, on March 10, 2012, a Princess Cruise ship, the Star Princess, failed to render aid to a drifting vessel. The multiple witness accounts, which have been documented in the media for the past two months, have shown that the cruise ship’s captain either deliberately ignored the…
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 applies to ships navigating in international waters. Article 98 of the UNCLOS provides that (1) Every State shall require the master of a ship flying its flag, in so far as he can do so without…
In the ongoing public relations nightmare the cruise line industry is facing amidst the Costa Concordia tragedy and debacle, and the latest incidents that have resulted in the deaths of multiple cruise passengers, another incident unfolded about a week ago aboard the Seven Seas Voyager, a cruise liner operated by…
We recently reported on two incidents occurring only days apart where cruise passengers had fallen and died as a result of their injuries. The first incident saw the death of Barbara Wood on the Liberty of the Seas, owned and operated Royal Caribbean Cruises. The investigators and witnesses to the…
In a previous article, we have listed the reasons why the Costa Concordia cruise passengers will have a strong legal argument to lift the cruise company’s limits of liability under the Athens Convention. The language contained in the Convention allow the cruise liner to limit is financial liability to a…
The Athens Convention establishes a comprehensive integrated system to govern the liability of cruise ship operators for personal injuries and property damage sustained by its passengers. It contains standards for establishing liability and permissible defenses as well as its own statute of limitations and venue provisions. The Convention was primarily…
A newly released audio exchange between Port Authority and Costa Concordia Captain Fransesco Schettino was released today. Below is the transcript of the exchange: Captain Schettino: It’s Capt. Schettino. Port Authority: Schettino, listen to me, there are people trapped onboard, now you go back, you will go with your rescue…
While investigators are looking at the black box of the cruise ship Costa Concordia that sunk off the coast of Italy, prosecutors did not waste time in gathering facts and evidence from passengers and crew members, which have led them to arrest Captain Francesco Schettino on allegations of manslaughter and…
Below is a timeline of events amid the cruise ship disaster that sunk off the coast of Italy, Isola del Giglio: Friday January 13, 2012 7:00 p.m.: The ship embarks on a 7-day cruise from Civitavecchia, near Rome, with 4,229 cruise passengers and crew members on board from 60 different…