The IMO’s criteria for ship abandonment are ‘deeply
flawed’, he suggested, with evidence of factors that would
at least double the notional evacuation time.
‘Criteria for evacuation must be based on the worst case
scenario rather than the present best case, and abandon-ment
be made taking into account all factors of weather,
heel and list, darkness, distance from the muster point to
the boat embarkation position, number of elderly, infirm
and disabled persons onboard, possible fire and smoke and
estimated number of intoxicated persons onboard,’ he
argued.
‘It might seem strange for those who were injured or
traumatised to understand, but they were very lucky,’ he
argued. ‘The wrong wind direction, and this ship would
have drifted into deep water and capsized, taking probably
thousands with her, providing a disaster comparable to the
Titanic and giving us the greatest peacetime marine
disaster in history. The final fortune was that the ship
grounded so close to the land and a harbour, and immedi-ately
Wellington. ”Captain Lloyd said his report
74 SUOMEN MERENKULKU J FINLANDS SJÖFART
the shore rescue services worked so admirably and
unceasingly until all those alive were found and brought to
safety.’
Capt Lloyd questioned whether Costa Concordia could
have been considered seaworthy given the evidence of
faults onboard and ashore, the failure of the safety
equipment and machinery, boats and liferafts, untrained
and inexperienced crew, the lack of SOLAS legislated
certification, the language problems, the lack of basic
navigational skills, and the lack of leadership and chain of
command.
He said maritime professionals should speak up about
the problems in the industry and deal with them before the
event rather than the reactive approach currently used.
‘We have a professional voice and I suggest if we used this
more often, it would be to the benefit of all those at sea, he
concluded.
‘Hopefully we can learn from this accident, as it could
be the last chance we have to get it right.’ •
E Captain Michael Lloyd
makes his presentation
onboard HQS
had not been produced to exonerate
Captain Schettino, but rather to
examine the full reasons for the
accident and prevent such a thing
from happening again.”