Safety and Security

In what could be the first of many Congressional actions spurred by the Costa Concordia incident, U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John L. Mica (R-FL) said today his committee would conduct a hearing to review cruise ship safety in February. ...

Dramatic footage released by the U.K. Ministry of Defense January 16 shows the arrest of Somali pirates a Royal Navy task force in the Indian Ocean after a dramatic chase. A boarding team of Royal Marines commandos apprehended the pirates on their dhow following a concerted effort by RFA Fort Victoria and American destroyer USS It took a team of commandos from sup ...

Five more bodies have been retrieved from the Costa Concordia, bringing the death toll in the tragedy to eleven. The bodies were discovered in the aft part of the vessel by Coast Guard divers.Navy divers have used explosive charges to open two doors in the ship to enable divers to access previously inaccessible areas. ...

Lewis S. "Mike" Eidson, partner in South Florida trial law firm Colson Hicks Eidson and former president of the American Association for Justice, the world's largest association of trial lawyers,  believes "punitive damages will be appropriate for the Costa Concordia accident." He says such damages "could be in the millions of dollars."Mr. Eidson says the cruise ship is op ...

Costa Concordia captain Francesco Schettino was detained on Saturday for questioning by prosecutors, along with First Officer Ciro Ambrosio. Prosecutors reportedly are considering charges that could include manslaughter, abandoning ship before all others, and causing a shipwreck. Italian news agency ANSA says the officers will be detained until a judge decides w ...

The grounding of a cruise ship Costa Concordia should serve as a wake-up call to the shipping industry, says maritime professional union Nautilus International. ...

Three people are confirmed dead after the cruise ship Costa Concordia grounded off Italy Friday evening. Up to 70 were reported missing as of Saturday morning, though a cabin search of the ship was continuing.The ANSA news agency quotes the prefect's office in the province of Grosseto as saying that authorities have accounted for 4,165 of the 4,234 passe ...

At first light on January 2012, Somali pirates opened fire on the Spanish Navy combat replenishment ship Patino, which is serving as the current flagship of EU  Navfor.Patino had just completed the escort of a World Food Program ship carrying food-aid into Somalia and was operating close to the Somali port of Mogadishu. It was approached by one sk ...