Worst cruise ship disasters in recent history
Take a look at the worst cruise ship disasters in recent history.
The Carnival Triumph cruise liner suffered a fire in the engine room on Feb. 10, which knocked out the ship's engines, electricity and air conditioning. Several of the 3,143 passengers 1,086 crew members on board the ship in the Gulf of Mexico complained of "disgusting" conditions, including sewage sloshing around in hallways, flooded rooms and trouble getting enough to eat.
The Carnival Triumph cruise liner suffered a fire in the engine room on Feb. 10, which knocked out the ship's engines, electricity and air conditioning. Several of the 3,143 passengers 1,086 crew members on board the ship in the Gulf of Mexico complained of "disgusting" conditions, including sewage sloshing around in hallways, flooded rooms and trouble getting enough to eat.
The cruise line said it compensate each passenger by giving them $500, a free flight home, a full refund for their trip and for most expenses on board, as well as a credit for another cruise.
Carnival Cruise Lines President and CEO Gerry Cahill said at a news conference that the Carnival Triumph had drifted so far north of its original position that it now needs to be towed to the southern U.S. port in Mobile, Alabama, instead of the original plan to take it to Progreso, Mexico. Cahill also the company is working hard to keep passengers comfortable, even though some on board describe the situation is being "extremely bad."
The Carnival Triumph is only one of many cruise ship disasters in recent history. In January 2012, the cruise ship Costa Concordia struck a rock and turned on its side off the shore of the Italian island of Giglio. One of the deadliest disasters in recent history, the accident took the lives of 32 people from eight countries.
Two boats filled with Somali pirates started firing at the Seabourn Spirits cruise liner off the cost of Somalia in 2005. The ship was traveling from from Alexandria in Egypt.
The ship's crew used an on-board loud acoustic bang to fool the pirates into thinking those aboard the cruise ship were firing back. None of the The 302 passengers died.
While sailing between New York City and the Bahamas in 2005, the Norwegian Dawn cruise ship was hit with a 70-foot wave that reached up to deck 10 of the ship. Sixty-two cabins were flooded, and two people suffered minor injuries. Two people also died on the Norwegian Dawn during a cruise in 2011.
In 2006, on board the Royal Caribbean ship, Mariner of The Seas, a young man named Daniel Dipiero went missing while on a cruise with his friends. Surveillance video arose of him walking alone, severely intoxicated, and falling over the side of the ship. The ship admitted to not monitoring its surveillance cameras, therefore never seeing what happened to Daniel while there was time to act.
More than 350 of the 1,800 total passengers began to began to vomit and complain of diarrhea and upset stomachs aboard Caribbean cruise ship Celebrity Mercury in 2010. It was unclear what caused the outbreak, though Norovirus is often blamed for the spreading of such symptoms in close quarters. Cases of the same illness were reported on the Celebrity Mercury after this incident. Later that year, Celebrity Cruises announced Celebrity Mercury was leaving the fleet.
A cruise ended early after bacteria was discovered on Fred Olsen Cruise M.S. Black Watch in 2007, but days after returning home, passenger Robert Heath died in his home. An inquest later ruled that Fred Olsen Cruises exposed Heath to Legionnaires' disease, and found that the two doctors he saw did not prescribe adequate medication and failed to respond to his worsening condition. The cruise line eventually paid out over $100,000 to settle the case.
The Pacific Sun ship was returning to Auckland, New Zealand when it ran into a violent storm some 400 miles off the coast in 2008. No death were reported, but over 40 people were injured due to the intense roiling of the liner, which literally flung people from one side of the cruise ship to the other.
The Mediterranean cruise ship Louis Majesty was hit by a series of rogue waves during a journey in 2010. The 26-foot tall waves collided with the vessel and flooded it. Two passengers were killed, and several others were injured.
A Royal pacific cruise ship collided with a fishing trawler in 1992 due to low visibility. According to marine Insight, crew members did not do enough to save passengers during the chaotic evacuation in the middle of the night, and as many as 30 people died with 70 injured out of the 530 passengers on board.
