Always of interest in South Florida is the Cruise Ship Industry and of particular interest to NAUTICAL LOG is cruise ship safety. As a result of numerous incidents in the Carnival Group vessels not least of which was the tragedy of the MS Costa Concordia the Harmonized Verification Program (HAVEP) was initiated for passenger ships. This program was carried out between January 01, 2013 and December 31, 2013. The results showed that:
- Two passenger ships were detained over the 12 month period as a direct result of HAVEP for deficiencies related to operation control and emergency preparedness.
- While the results of HAVEP indicate reasonable overall compliance with SOLAS requirements for passenger ships, both from an operational point of view and hardware it should be noted that:
- in 19 out of 232 inspections a deficiency was recorded against a fire drill
- in 20 inspections a deficiency was recorded against an abandon ship drill
The objective of HAVEP was to obtain a view of emergency preparedness on passenger ships following the MS Costa Concordia incident in January 2012.
The results of HAVEP indicate that Masters and Operators must pay attention to carrying out regular realistic fire and abandon ship drills.
The HAVEP questionnaire was completed during the 232 inspections on 225 individual ships. A total of 130 HAVEP-related deficiencies were recorded and 2 ships were detained as a direct result of the HAVEP.
By Flag State:
Bahamas: 67 inspections and 1 detention
Malta: 40 inspections and 1 detention
Turkey: 24 inspections.
The HAVEP results will be presented to the 47th. Meeting of the Port State Control Committee in May 2014 and then submitted to the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
Bearing these results in mind the United States of America Government in addition to the United States Coast Guard (USCG), which has responsibility for Flag State and Port State Inspections, usual Quarterly Inspections wants additional unannounced inspections. Organized through the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) which has jurisdiction only out to 12 nautical miles offshore to decide what changes should be made. The NTSB would like to have authority to inspect cruise ships on an unannounced basis. It also wants to see more transparency in publishing findings from NTSB investigations by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). So it seem that NAUTICAL LOG is not the only body not particularly impressed by the IMO.
Good Watch.
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