‘Poop cruise’ Carnival Triumph was preventable

Problems that led to the fire aboard the Carnival Triumph, now known as the “poop cruise” were known at least a year before the cruise reported CNN on December 17, 2013.

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More than year before the ‘poop cruise’ set sail from Galveston, Texas on February 7, 2013, maintenance records, inspections and internal reports from Carnival Cruise Line indicated problems with the ship.

After a generator fire left the Carnival Triumph without power, 4,000 passengers and crew members endured almost a week without power, lights, water, food, working toilets, and air conditioning, drifting at sea until the ship was towed into Mobile, Alabama.

The ship had departed Galveston with only four of the six generators working.

A fuel leak started a fire in diesel generator No. 6 which was a year overdue for maintenance and was not up to safety codes.

Frank Spagnoletti, a Houston attorney representing several passengers who filed a law suit against the cruise line issued a statement.

“That ship never should have set sail in February,” Spagnoletti said. “It was unseaworthy at the commencement of the voyage. These documents tell you that the company — and I’m saying to you the corporation back in Miami — had knowledge of the fact that this vessel had a propensity for fires; that there were things that could have been, should have been, and weren’t done in order to make sure that fires didn’t take place.”

Documents revealed that other Carnival ships had similar fuel leaks and problems before the fateful voyage of the Carnival Triumph. A year before the Carnival Triumph fire, Carnival’s Costa Allegra also caught fire, rendering the ship powerless for three days.

Mark Jackson, Carnival Cruise Lines vice president of technical operations, defending the cruise line’s actions.

“We were totally in compliance … with all the rules and regulations,” Jackson said. “We had … our regulating bodies on board the ship less than two weeks prior that had certified the ship to sail. Obviously, you learn things on a situation, on an incident such as the Triumph.”

Carnival agreed that passengers had already received remedy for suffering through the “poop cruise.”

“And in fact, we agree that our guests did not receive what they paid for, and that is why we already provided compensation — a full refund, a voucher for a new cruise and $500.”

“We already compensated everyone on the Triumph cruise because we did not meet our requirements,” the company added. “These 30 customers in the lawsuit are asking for major damages beyond what has been paid already for pain and suffering.”