Landing the Big One

Landing the Big One

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Murphy's Law at Work: The Sinking of the Sea Diamond


Several variations of Murphy's Law seem to have come into play with the sinking of the Greek cruise ship Sea Diamond:
"Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time"
Or from here:
Everything goes wrong all at once.


Sinking reveals muddy waters:
The owners of the cruise ship that sank off Santorini said yesterday that human error had been to blame for the accident and that efforts had been made to keep the vessel afloat and that it is not clear who ordered the tugboat to pull the ship from shallow waters.

«The incident was a result of human error but so are 75 percent of all accidents at sea,» said Giorgos Koubenas, head of the operations department at Louis Cruise Lines.

The government has also pointed to human error as the key factor that led to the accident last week. Captain Yiannis Marinos has blamed a current for pushing the Sea Diamond off course and onto a well-marked reef.

However, there is confusion about what happened in the hours following the collision.

Koubenas told reporters that the company ordered the captain to move the ship to shallower waters, some 130 meters away, so efforts could be made to prevent the vessel from sinking.

Louis Cruise Lines claims the tugboat, which steadied the ship while passengers were evacuated, pulled the Sea Diamond in the opposite direction once the rescue operation was complete.

«I do not know who gave the order for the ship to end up there,» Koubenas said. He added that the cruise firm is hopeful that the ship's voyage data recorder can be recovered from the wreckage.

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