New Documents Show Carnival Knew of Fire Risk Before Carnival Triumph Disaster
New documents filed this month show that Carnival Cruise Lines knew of the risk of fuel leaks from engine hoses before the Carnival Triumph caught fire at sea in February. According to a “compliance notice report” sent to Triumph a month before it left Galveston on February 7 for a four-day cruise, spray shields were recommended to be installed on the engine’s fuel hoses. The compliance notice was filed December 17 by Carnival in federal court in Miami.
The Carnival Triumph caught fire on February 10 due to a leak from a hose on engine No.6 as the ship returned from Cozumel, Mexico. No one was injured in the fire, but the 4,000 passengers were stuck on a disabled ship and endured a “floating hell,” according to the plaintiff’s attorney in the lawsuit against Carnival. The lawsuit was filed in February against Carnival Cruise Lines and Carnival Corporation on behalf of dozens of Triumph passengers.
Carnival is claiming that the Triumph’s engines passed inspection before the Cozumel trip and that its own recommendation to install spray shields was “beyond any required safety measures.” During a November deposition, Triumph ship captain Angelo Los said he was notified of the problems with fuel leaks by Carnival in January. The plaintiff’s attorney showed Los that the compliance notice report was dated January 2 and cited nine fuel leaks on Carnival’s ships within a two-year period.
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Latti & Anderson’s Little Extra: The Carnival Triumph engine room fire was the fourth such fire on a Carnival ship that resulted in losing power.
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