The Greek Ministry of Mercantile Marine
Further to our last we are closely watching the developments from now on and wait to see what the criminal investigation will bring to light. Italy, Greece – in principal, and Albania should cooperate in full together with the countries which had citizens on board (Germany, The United Kingdom, Turkey), and in the utmost transparent way to tell us what happened on the following:
1.Cause of fire and more importantly the cause of deaths (until this very moment we know of ten plus two Albanian seafarers lost during the towage procedure from the tug towing the burned vessel).-
2.Rescue readiness and preparedness both from the ship as well as from the nearby countries on such maritime accidents which led to this latest disaster.
3.Condition of the vessel in f u l l .!!!! No hiccups.-
and, 4.What steps and measures should be taken to avoid disasters once we have today all the means and regulations to contain maritime accidents, particularly involving the loss of human life!
It is strange that in this day and age we couldn’t have a correct reply – on the spot, on how many passengers, crew and vehicles were onboard.
Many congratulations to the Italian, Greek and Albanian Coast Guard and Navy, Airforce and all the means used in saving lives and the environment in unique and adverse weather conditions. Congratulations to the master and crew for doing their best in saving lives.
Moreover we will also wait to see from the criminal investigation the following:
a)The crew and other staff training for evacuation.
b)The mass evacuation procedures and training and how same “functioned” during this accident.
c)How SOLAS worked.
d)The lifeboat designs and function for this type of vessel leading to a mass evacuation. The deployment of lifeboats and liferafts and the launching problems for both in rough conditions.
e)At which stage improvements of the last ten years functioned during this incident.
f)The role of the Companies involved and in particular the Crisis Management. The Healthcare on board!
g)The role of the Authorities involved and in particular the improved collaboration between them.
i)The role of the media.
We express our sincere sympathy to all those who lost loved ones, to all those traumatised in any way out of this accident and we hope, as said in the preamble above, that everything to come to light and enlighten us all in avoiding or better say, contain maritime accidents leading to disasters – Maritime Accidents will always happen.
We are sitting on an historic opportunity and have everything transparently open to all, one that must be seized NOW or we will live to regret it. This opportunity is not just to enhance the safety of navigation, but to deliver further improvements to maritime safety and security counting of course the human factor and life at sea as well as the environmental issues from maritime accidents/disasters.
We will revert soonest we have further updates.
