Costa Concordia accident report released

Peter Ramsauer from internet
Ahahaha, made you look. Sorry, I used the old' bait and switch trick in my title.... like you really expected that such a thing would make the light of day.

Lloyd's List had an article a few weeks about the Costa Concordia disaster, and how Germany's Minister of Transport, Peter Ramsauer, is publicly pressuring the Italian government to release the results of their investigation, fully, and in a timely manner. I think this highlight the concerns over the ever widening secrecy over maritime accident, and the resulting investigation, or lack thereof.

With the 'Costa Fascinosa' and 'Carnival Breeze' having just been launched from Fincantieri shipyards, two more of many, for the same owner, it is plain to see that Italy has a sizable national interest in keeping one of its biggest consumers of industrial capacity and seafaring services happy, namely Mickey Arison's Carnival Corporation.

Carnival, like all corporations, have much to gain in the successful suppression of their name(s) from the public arena, outside of their "spin". The "security" operational shroud, which seems to be at the forefront of governments, and corporations alike, especially after September 2001, has probably been so widely misused that the attitudes have spilled over into the public safety sector.

"You don't need to know that", "trust us", "we fixed everything perfectly", so "there is nothing to fear", we are government and corporation watching each other and protecting you. I don't know about you, but there is plenty of evidence with an abysmal track record, that this is not a beneficial model for human kind in general. 

In the last year, there has been couple of reprimands by the European Commission of various nations (Austria, Greece, Poland, Belgium, Cyprus and Portugal) for failing to address proper maritime accident investigation. After all, history shows us that most regulations that exist, especially in the maritime world exist as a result of tragic consequences.

 Hey, if we left it to oil companies, they would probably tell us that Benzene smell like roses and that its good for our health. So by deduction, you supress accident investigative findings, put quick, simple blame on a "bad apple" and voila; problems go away. No need for governments, companies, and corporations to come under scrutiny or change their ways of placing profits above everything else.

I think its a great and timely comments by the German Minister, and certainly is required. For a guy like me, putting my life on the line on these ships, I think its pretty important to know where to look for, where the errors are made, so as to prevent that from re-occuring.

Costa Concordia evening footwear
Costa Concordia, I think most seafaring professionals have a pretty good idea of what happened. Personally I am more interested in the Carnival Splendor, and its engine room fire and black out in late 2010. To me this represents an obviously major failure in design, construction, and, or operation of the engineering spaces. Well past a year, yet no formal inquiry report has been released, not a peep on what happened. I suspect it will be like usual, some rabid "ambulance chaser" will be the only one successful in getting some minor details of the accident released, albeit for completely different objectives than marine safety.

Then again, I must say I hold a high degree of skepticism when it comes to government statements, since most nowadays are "loaded", influence by business or what have you- which is the point of the whole debacle - so who's to say that a pop shot at one of the very few rival shipbuilding nation is not the true objective of the statement by the German minister. Either way, transparency is the only solution to proper governance, but one that is welcomed by governments and corporations probably as much a syphilitic alien zombie OWS protest mob.

With 32 confirmed dead or unaccounted for, and a massive hulk hanging on a rocky ledge off the picturesque island of Giglio, the Italians authorities, who had no formal maritime accident investigatory body at the time of the foundering, have 12 months to issue an accident report under IMO rules.

Labels: , , , , ,