NEWS,28.02.2012.

Pirate risk for Costa Cruises liner

A crippled cruise ship owned by the company whose giant liner was wrecked off Italy last month is being towed by a French tuna boat to the main island in the Seychelles, its owners say.An engine room fire on the Costa Allegra knocked out the ship's main power supply in the Indian Ocean on Monday, leaving it adrift with more than a thousand people on board in waters vulnerable to pirates.It is being protected by nine members of an anti-piracy unit of the Italian navy, a precaution regularly taken on ships in the Indian Ocean which is prone to attacks by Somali pirates."The ship is not in a high-risk area, but we can't be 100% sure," said Costa Cruises' Giorgio Moretti.While yachts have been seized in the past near Seychelles, pirates have yet to successfully hijack a cruise liner in the Indian Ocean.The ship's Italian owner, Costa Cruises, a unit of US cruise line giant Carnival Corp, said a plan to tow it to the nearer island of Desroches had been aborted because it would have been harder to moor and disembark the passengers there.The Trevignon, a deep sea trawler which sails the oceans for tuna from the Atlantic port of Concarneau, is pulling the Costa Allegra, a vessel many times its size, on a 400-metre cable at a speed of only about six knots, the Trevignon's skipper Alain Dervout told his local French newspaper, Ouest-France.He was joined today by two tugs and a coastguard ship, all from Seychelles, the archipelago's government said. A military aircraft was also flying in support of the operation.The cruise ship was due to arrive at the Seychelles capital of Victoria on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning local time, depending on weather conditions, government spokeswoman Srdjana Janosevic said. Clocks in the Seychelles are four hours ahead of GMT."Helicopters will ensure continuous supply of food, comfort items, flashlights in order to mitigate guests' discomfort given the difficult conditions on board," Costa Cruises spokesman Davide Barbano said in a statement.A team from the Italian coastguard is heading to the Seychelles to investigate the accident, but a spokesman for the agency it would be wrong to make analogies to the Costa Concordia disaster on January 13, in which at least 25 people died and over which a criminal investigation has been launched."They are two different situations, totally different conditions, so they are not related accidents," Cosimo Nicastro.Prosecutors in the Italian city of Genoa have opened an investigation into the fire on the Costa Allegra, judicial sources said.Nicastro said there was no question of the passengers being transferred to other vessels."The safest place for the people is on the ship. There is no reason to put them on another ship or a helicopter. They will remain on the Costa Allegra and we will keep monitoring the situation," he said.An evacuation off Desroches Island would have presented the ship owner and local authorities with a tricky and expensive logistical operation.The 636 passengers and 413 crew would have had to use the ship's lifeboats to land on the exclusive coral-fringed island, where Britain's Prince William and his then girlfriend, now wife, Kate Middleton, stayed a few years ago."Logistics and hotels on the island are not sufficient. It would require ... an immediate transfer from Desroches to Mahe," Barbano, the Costa Cruises spokesman, said.

NEWS,27.02.2012.

Costa Cruises liner adrift after fire on board

 

A liner owned by the same company as the Costa Concordia, on which at least 25 people died when it ran aground off Italy last month, is adrift in the Indian Ocean after a fire in the engine room left it without power. The company, Costa Cruises, said the fire on the 29,000-tonne Costa Allegra had been put out and none of the passengers or crew were hurt. The giant Costa Concordia capsized on January 13 after hitting rocks off the island of Giglio. Divers and rescue workers are still searching for the bodies of seven people who remain missing. The much smaller Costa Allegra, with 636 passengers and 413 crew on board, was sailing some 320 kilometres southwest of the Seychelles when the fire broke out and it sent a distress signal, the company said. The Italian coastguard said in a statement it had alerted authorities on the Seychelles, which was sending rescue vessels. An aircraft had spotted the ship's position. Lieutenant Massimo Maccheroni of the coastguard said two fishing boats had been diverted towards the liner and the first was expected to arrive around 2300 GMTmidday Seychelles tugs were also on the way and would arrive tomorrow afternoon.Maccheroni said the ship had no engine power but was able to steer.Seas in the area were moderate with winds gusting at 25 knots, the coastguard said in their statement. Shares of Carnival Cruises fell slightly in London trading after news of Costa Allegra's difficulties and were down 2%.A spokesman for Costa said the passengers included 130 each from Italy and France, 100 from Austria and 90 from Switzerland.” It’s a fairly positive picture that we are nevertheless continuing to monitor, until the hopefully positive and swift outcome," Italian coastguard spokesman Cosimo Nicastro said. A Seychelles coastguard official confirmed that support vessels were "on their way" but said they would give no further information until authorised by Costa Cruises. The company said the passengers were "all in good health and, having been promptly informed of the situation, were assembled at the muster points as a precaution."Costa Cruises was accused by some passengers of long delays and a lack of organisation in the evacuation of the Costa Concordia.That vessel's Italian captain is under house arrest near Naples accused of multiple manslaughter and abandoning the ship before the 4,200 passengers and crew were evacuated.The Costa Allegra left Diego Suarez in Madagascar on Saturday and had been due to dock in the Seychelles capital of Victoria on Tuesday.