Sea Diamond, one year on
Posted on April 5, 2008 by Al
Residents in Santorini will gather today to demand the removal of the sunken Sea Diamond ferry that still contains hundreds of tons of fuel, exactly one year after the cruise ship sunk off the popular island. Boat owners and local fisherman will hold a protest at sea to demand the removal of the ship, that poses a serious ecological threat to the area. Louis Hellenic Cruises, the owner of the Sea Diamond, has said its insurance will not cover the cost of a salvage operation, as the ferry operator was not responsible for the accident. The operator has blamed inaccurate maps for the ship running aground on a reef.
Inaccurate maps? How stupid can you be to get so close to the shore and then complain inaccurate maps? This was a typical bridge resource management mistake. Everybody looks at the electronic maps and nobody looks at the depth sounder!
The crew is always blamed for everything, with regulations in Marpol 73/78, the ISM Code etc. But operator take no blame? Give your vessel good maps and make shure, your crew can do these outstanding manoevers before taking passengers on board!
We were passengers on the Sea Diamond a year ago, and although quite adequately reimbursed for whatever we lost, we still remember the panic of the children - the adults were quite calm and handled themselves very civilly - and the rescue from this catastrophe. But we lived to tell the tale, It will be interesting if the truth ever unfolds and we know the reason(s) for the event to have occurred.