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The safety of large cruise liners is in question after the Costa Concordia sank off the coast of Italy.

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The UK’s Passenger Shipping Association (PSA) has reassured holidaymakers that a cruise is one of the safest forms of travel, after a union chief accused the industry of “putting profits before safety”.

The clash comes after Italian cruise liner Costa Concordia sank off the coast of Italy two weeks ago. At least 11 people have been confirmed dead and over 20 remain missing. There were several South African passengers on board, who all survived.

The PSA’s Penny Guy said: “Our thoughts go out to the passengers and crew involved in the Italian incident.

“We can’t speculate on what happened. Any lessons to be learnt will be addressed by the cruise industry. We will need to wait for the inquiry to ascertain exactly what happened.

“People must remember that a cruise is one of the safest forms of holiday that can be taken. Incidents of this nature are isolated and very rare. Ships’ crews undertake rigorous training, drills and scenarios for emergency situations, including the evacuation of a vessel.

“The ships themselves comply with stringent regulations and procedures from the governing maritime authorities covering every aspect of their build and operation.”

PSA director Bill Gibbons said Costa and the wider cruise industry would fully co-operate in a thorough investigation into the causes of the event.

“During the past two decades, cruise lines have maintained the best safety record in the travel industry while transporting more than 90 million people throughout the world.”

However,

Allan Graveson, senior national secretary of the Nautilus union, claimed that operators of such ships were loading them with too many decks.

“These ships are inherently unstable. Some have keeled over. Designers are going for the maximum height they can and putting on as many decks as they can because that’s what the customers want and it’s a way of maximising revenues. If you take a couple of decks out, then you lose revenue. These companies are putting profits before safety.”

He said a vessel like the stricken Costa Concordia would be unable to cope with the rough seas of the North Atlantic.

He said that the ship was different in design to Cunard vessels – also operated by Carnival Cruises, which owns Costa – such as the Queen Mary 2 and the recently launched Queen Elizabeth.

Graveson added: “These Cunard ships can sail anywhere, but it’s not right to claim that some other ships can sail worldwide.”

Robert Ashdown, the European Cruise Council’s technical, environment and operations director, said Graveson’s view was “just not right” and big ships were “more stable than they have ever been”.

“They can stand up to anything the weather can throw at them. They are designed to strict international standards.”

Ever since the Titanic disaster of 1912, the Solas (Safety of Lives at Sea) convention has governed ship safety and has kept the number of ocean tragedies to a minimum.

Ashdown said: “There have been improvements to Solas over the years, the most recent in 2006.

“Amendments were made to take account of the ultra-large ships that were being built. These amendments came into force in July 2010. Under the new arrangements, a ship should be able to proceed to the nearest port of call after sustaining damage.

“If the damage is severe, the ship should be able to stay afloat for three hours so that an orderly evacuation could take place.”

Costa Cruises chairman and chief executive Pier Luigi Foschi apologised for the tragedy. – Daily Mail

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