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Nine Convicted Over 2007 Greek Cruise Sinking

MarineLink.com August 1, 2013

Sea Diamond sinking off Santorini, Greece (AP photo / Christos Bekiaris)

Multiple news sources have reported that Greek court has convicted nine officers and shipping company officials of negligence in the sinking of a cruise ship off the resort island of Santorini more than six years ago. Sea Diamond, a Louis Hellenic cruise vessel, was carrying roughly 1,600 people when it hit rocks off Santorini’s cliffs and sank in April 2007. Two French passengers were never found and are presumed drowned. The Piraeus court imposed suspended sentences Wednesday ranging from six months to just over 12 years, and acquitted another four defendants, the Associated Press reported. The court imposed the strictest sentence, 12 years and two months, on the ship’s captain for causing an accident, negligence that led to manslaughter and marine pollution. Sources: AP, staff  

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Flashback in maritime History - Sea Diamond sinking at Santorini 5 April 2007

( www.MaritimeCyprus.com ) The cruise ship, owned by Louis Hellenic Cruises, sank on April 5 2007 after ramming  a reef near the Aegean island of Santorini with 1,195 passengers and 391 crew on board. All onboard were safely evacuated except a French man, Jean Christophe Allain (age 45) and his daughter Maud (age 16), who were never found.

Between 1992 and 2002, the ship's exterior was used to portray the fictional ship MS  Freja  in the Swedish TV soap opera Rederiet.

As built, she had a small car deck, with space for 80 passenger cars and a rampon the port side in the rear.  Like most  cr uiseferries in the Baltic Sea, she was built to ice class 1A.

In 1999 she was extensively refitted at Lloyd Werft in Germany at a cost of approximately US$26 million.  The fore superstructure was extended and streamlined and 62 new passenger cabins were added, including a new deck of cabins above the bridge. In October 2004, when the new MS  Birka Paradise  was delivered, the  Birka Princess  started making two-night cruises from Stockholm to Turku, Helsinki and Tallinn, as well one weekly 24-hour cruise from Stockholm to Mariehamn. The new itineraries proved largely unsuccessful, and on January 2, 2006, the ship was laid up in Mariehamn and put up for sale.

In February 2006 she was sold to the Cyprus-based Louis Cruise Lines for US$35 million (€29.4 million).  As built, the ship only had an indoor pool in the sauna section on deck 2 in the bow of the ship.  A new outdoor swimming pool was installed and the sundeck area increased at Turku Repair Yard, Naantali.  She entered service in the Mediterranean Sea as the second former Birka Line ship in the Louis Cruise Lines fleet, after MS  Princesa Marissa , the former MS  Prinsessan / Finnhansa . After the sale she was registered in Valletta, Malta. She changed flags in late 2006. At the time of her sinking she was owned by Elona Maritime Ltd, a company based in Malta, but registered at Piraeus, Greece.

The large amount of water taken on board led to the ship sinking shortly before 7:00 EEST on April 6, 2007, only a few hundred meters from the shore.  Video footage  shows that, toward the end, the ship completely inverted before settling stern first onto the sea floor. It was later reported that the tip of the bulbous bow was only 62 meters (203 feet) below sea level, but the stern was in water up to 180 meters (590 feet) deep. It is feared that the wreck would soon slide deeper and sink into the submerged caldera of the volcanic island.  It has been speculated that the deep, almost vertical shore of the bathtub-like caldera made it impossible to beach the ship and save her from becoming a total loss.

Two French citizens, Jean Christophe Allain, aged 45, and his daughter Maud, 16, were listed as missing. Allain's wife said her cabin filled with water when the ship struck rocks and that she narrowly escaped. She was not sure whether her husband and daughter made it out because the events happened so suddenly. Her son was on deck at the time and was evacuated safely.  The family were accommodated in cabin 2014 an outside standard cabin on the starboard side of the vessel on deck 2, the lowest passenger deck.

Investigations

On April 7, Greek authorities announced that they were charging the captain and five other officers with negligence. State television reported they were charged with causing a shipwreck through negligence, breaching international shipping safety regulations and polluting the environment. Additional charges could be made depending on the fate of the two missing passengers. All six were released until further notice but if convicted they could face a five-year prison sentence.

DNV, one of the world's leading classification agencies, stated in their press release that "At the time of the accident, DNV had issued class certificate, safety management certificate and ship security certificate. Sea Diamond had no overdue surveys and no condition of class". For the Sea Diamond to have been issued a Class certificate, her water-tight doors would have to have been fully operational.

Investigations carried out by the defense team of the Master of the Vessel and Louis Cruise Lines, after a lawsuit had been filed against them, have included a new hydrographic survey of the area of the accident in Santorini. This survey was carried out by Akti Engineering, and discovered discrepancies between the actual mapping of the sea area and the official charts used by the  Sea Diamond  (and all other vessels) at the time of the accident. The detailed survey claimed that the reef, which the  Sea Diamond  struck, is in fact lying at 131 meters (429 feet) from shore and not at a distance of 57 meters (187 feet) as is incorrectly marked on the nautical chart. The official chart also shows the depth of the water at the area of impact varying from 18–22 meters, whilst the recent survey shows that it is only 5 meters.

The findings obtained by Akti Engineering have since been passed on to the Hellenic Hydrographic Office of the Hellenic Navy and other responsible authorities, with the aim that the necessary changes to maritime charts should be made and similar accidents to be prevented.  According to a branch reviewing source, the Hellenic Hydrographic Office initially rejected the new mapping,  but a later study confirmed the findings of Akti.

A Greek scuba diver gathering evidence for a judicial investigation of the  Sea Diamond  shipwreck died in October 2007 from decompression sickness after ascending too quickly.

In order to avoid an oil spill, plans were made to recover some 450 tonnes (496 short tons) of fuel from the ship's tanks. As of September 20, 2007, fuel had started to leak into other parts of the ship, but not yet into the surrounding environment.  In June, 2009, the fuel was pumped off the wreck.  On May 14, 2007, it was announced that Louis Cruise Lines had bought M/S  Silja Opera  (renaming it M/S  Cristal ) to replace the  Sea Diamond .

On June 19, 2007, the owners, operator and captain of the  Sea Diamond  cruise ship were fined €1.17 million for causing marine pollution.

On August 21, 2007, a lawsuit was filed in United States federal court on behalf of the passengers who were aboard the ship when she sank.

After six years in the courts, the Sea Diamond captain and an insurance company employee were given 12 and 8 years jail sentences, respectively. The Greek newspaper Eleftherotypia (now defunct) speculated no actual jail time would be served.

The Piraeus appeals court ruled the captain of the Louis Hellenic Cruise Lines vessel, which ran aground near the island’s Athinios port, the first mate and the head of operations ashore were all guilty of negligence. Capt. Yiannis Marinos, 38 at the time, was handed a five-year jail sentence, which he can buy out for €5 a day, some €9,125 ($12,400) in total. At the initial trial he had received a sentence of 12 years and two months. The head of operations was given a three-year term suspended for three years, and the first mate a 26-month suspended sentence.  However, five others, including two representatives of the cruise company, were cleared of any wrongdoing.

After the sinking there was much demand from the residents of Santorini for the wreck be raised and removed. Further questions were posed but never answered as to why the ship was moved to deeper water to be allowed to sink in the first place. In May 2011, the Greek government claimed that removing the  Sea Diamond  would be "too costly" and said that the 150-million-euro cost of raising the ship should be the responsibility of the insurers and company that owned the ship. The latter two have no plans to raise the ship, however, and nothing will be resolved.

In October 2017 the Merchant Marine Ministry of Greece announced the wreck will be raised, out of environmental and navigational concerns.

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Excellent account of a tragedy that could have been much worse

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Nine Convicted Over 2007 Sea Diamond Sinking

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Sea Diamond against the rocks in Santorini.

A Greek court has convicted nine of a total thirteen defendants on trial for their role in the fatal 2007 sinking of the Sea Diamond cruise ship off the coast of Santorini.

The Piraeus court imposed suspended sentences Wednesday ranging from six months to just over 12 years, and acquitted another four defendants, according to a report by the Associated Press.

The strictest sentence -12 years and two months and an €8,000 fine- was handed to the ship’s captain for causing an accident, negligence that led to manslaughter, and marine pollution, the AP report says .

The Sea Diamond, owned by Louis Hellenic Cruises, ran aground along the coast of Santorini on April 5, 2007 with nearly 1,200 passengers and 400 crew. Following an evacuation of everyone onboard, the ship was towed offshore and sank on April 6. It was later reported that two French passengers went missing and were presumed dead.

Also sentenced were a DNV employee (8 years), the navigation officer (two years and 10 months), the chief engineer (two years and four months), the company’s legal representative (two years), an inspector/auditor (15 months) and a security officer (six months and a €600 fine), according to Greece’s Enet English. The first engineer officer, chief officer, chief steward and the cabin manager were all acquitted, the report says .

No attempt has ever been made to raise the ship.

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Nine Convicted, No Jail Time in 2007 Greek Ship Sinking

Two died in the 2007 cruise ship accident

A Greek court has convicted nine officers and officials in the 2007 sinking of Louis Hellenic Cruises ' Sea Diamond, in which two people died, but none of them will serve time in jail, according to online news site the Greek Reporter.

The court gave suspended sentences ranging from six to 12 years, with the strictest sentence imposed on the ship's captain for causing an accident, negligence leading to manslaughter, and marine pollution. 

The Sea Diamond ran aground on a volcanic reef in the Aegean Sea off the island of Santorini in April 2007, although the reef was marked with warning lights and indicated on navigation charts, the Associated Press reported at the time.

The court gave suspended sentences ranging from six to 12 years

More than half of the fuel reserves, about 300 metric tonnes (mt) spilled from the ship in the weeks after the spill, and smaller amounts of fuel oil continued to leak from the wreck over the following years, according to a 2010 report .

Lawyer Stelios Papandreopoulos , who represented Santorini authorities said the accident could have led to hundreds of deaths.

The court did not explain what was seen as leniency in the sentencing, while Louis Hellenic Cruises said that it would appeal the decisions to the a higher court.

Ship & Bunker News Team To contact the editor responsible for this story email us at [email protected]

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Sea Diamond Sinking Update

• May 16, 2007

The information from the voyage data recorder (black box) recovered from the Sea Diamond is currently being investigated by a Greek prosecutor from Naxos, Cruise Industry News has learned.

After first being sent to L3 Communications Aviation Recorders in Florida, on April 30, where the information was “evaluated, tested, and downloaded, DVDs were then created and given to a Greek prosecutor,” an L3 spokesperson said, stressing that “L3 did not interpret the information.”

The prosecutor received the information two days later, and is expected to either interpret it himself or with the assistance of the black box’s manufacturer, Consilium Navigation in Stockholm, the spokesperson said, noting that “a typical accident investigation usually occurs over many weeks.”

A Louis spokesperson said that he is “expecting it will provide information regarding all discussions that took place from the grounding onward, and will clarify the cause for the accident.”

The 33,390-ton, 1,600-passenger Diamond hit a reef on April 5, and sank 15 hours later. Reasons for the accident range from the captain’s claim of strong currents, to the Greek authorities attributing the cause to human error.

After chartering two replacement ships for the Diamond – the 1966-built, 28,891 ton, 790-passenger Oceanic II (ex-Sea Princess, Victoria, and Mona Lisa) from April 30 through May 28, and the 884-passenger Ruby, (ex-Ocean Countess), both sailing three- and four-day cruises from Piraeus to the Greek Islands and Turkey – the line will be replacing the Diamond for the summer season (starting in July) with the 1992-built (though refurbished in 2002), 25,611-ton, 1,278- passenger ship, (ex-Leward) which Louis will acquire for $49 million.

The Ruby, which will sail Greek Islands and Turkey cruises until July, will be chartered until October 2007, and operate other cruises when the Opera commences her cruise program, Louis said.

The Opera, according to a statement from Louis, “features an array of amenities, and is a luxury cruise ship of modem design (with) all the comforts of an upscale vessel (including) comfortable public spaces.”

The new ship does not need any refurbishment, the Louis spokesperson said. “What we plan to do is proceed with a re-arrangement of the public areas,” he added.

He also said that the ship will be renamed, and options are currently being examined. “It will be along the lines of our other ships – named after precious and semi-precious stones.”

George Stathopoulus, managing director for Louis Hellenic Cruises, and head of sales and marketing, said that in 2008, things for the company look “promising,” adding that he expects an increase in the flow from North America.

“Additional flights by Continental and US Air will add to the link between the U.S. and Greece and will most certainly contribute to that increase,” Stathopoulus explained.

As for year-round cruising, “We have already started this past winter with the Sapphire sailing in the Red Sea,” he pointed out. “And given the success, we will continue this corning year as well.”

Stathopoulus also noted that the Opera “is a vessel suitable for winter cruising.”

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LONDON, England (CNN) -- More than 150 people have abandoned a sinking cruise liner that collided with an iceberg in Antarctic waters, a Chilean navy captain told CNN.

The ship sent out a distress call at around 10 p.m. ET Thursday.

Passenger ship Explorer reported problems near the South Shetland Islands, south of Argentina. The area is in a sector of Antarctica claimed by the United Kingdom.

Capt. Carlos Munita of the Chilean navy said they received a distress call from the Explorer, saying the vessel had hit an iceberg around 10 p.m. ET Thursday.

He added a Norwegian rescue ship had arrived at the scene.

Tour companies describe the Explorer as a passenger ship which runs tours between South America and Antarctica.

Some 154 people are reported to be on board ship, which carries a Liberian flag, including 100 passengers. However the nationalities of those on board is not yet known.

Passengers and crew have been evacuated onto lifeboats, but the captain and the first officer are reported to have stayed on board.

"The great majority of people, including all the passengers, have been safely taken off the Explorer and are now being recovered by the first of the vessels to arrive on scene in response to the distress call," Dave Jardine-Smith, head of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's (MCA) search and rescue team in England said.

• Antarctica: March of the tourists

"The passengers and crew from the Explorer have not been in lifeboats very long," Jardine-Smith said. "They should be, hopefully, in good condition. We are told that there are no injuries."

Earlier, Mark Clark, a spokesman for the MCA told the Press Association five ships were on their way to help the sinking vessel.

"She hit something and is taking on a serious amount of water, that is all we know."

The temperature in the area is said to be at around minus 5C, with a sea temperature at around minus 1C, forecasters told the Press Association.

Stephen Davenport, senior forecaster with MeteoGroup, said:"It wouldn't take long for hypothermia to set in at that kind of temperature in the sea.

"They do get very bad storms down that way, and gale force winds especially, because there is no land in the way," he told PA.

Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Why did an Antarctic cruise ship sink?

Big ice chunks, misjudgment, and faulty doors doomed the MS Explorer. New limits are set on tourists and cruise ships to the region.

• By Colin Woodard Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

April 20, 2009

The MS Explorer was purpose-built for the Antarctic, a nimble expedition cruise ship with an ice-reinforced hull that pioneered the polar tourism trade in the early 1970s.

But on Nov. 23, 2007, she sank in what appeared to be the most routine of Antarctic circumstances: cruising through young pack ice in mild weather.

The 154 passengers and crewmen aboard were plucked unharmed from open lifeboats by other cruise ships the following day, just two hours before gale-force winds struck the area.

Until now, the causes of the ship's sinking have remained a mystery, with her owners, Toronto -based G.A.P Adventures, refusing to comment beyond initial reports that she struck submerged ice and succumbed to uncontrollable flooding.

But last week the results of an official investigation became public. It places blame on the captain having misjudged ice conditions and the failure of one of the ships' watertight doors.

The report by the Liberian Bureau of Maritime Affairs , through which the Explorer was flagged, described how the ship was damaged after the captain attempted to plow through what one passenger described as "a long wall of solid ice," presumably a ridge of broken ice forced up by pressure.

The report – which vividly illustrated how a single misjudgment can lead to disaster in the harsh, poorly charted waters of Antarctica – made a series of recommendations to improve safety on polar cruises. Among them: that these ships carry at least partially-enclosed lifeboats and enough immersion suits for everyone aboard, and that training requirements for ice navigation be better spelled out. Currently, the International Maritime Organization doesn't have formal competency training requirements for ice navigators.

Mind the glacial ice chunks

A Chilean naval icebreaker that reached the scene shortly after the Explorer's passengers were rescued, concluded that the ship had not been traveling through a thin ice field, as her captain had thought, but rather an older, thicker field containing a mix of dangerous glacial ice chunks, some reportedly as large as 15 feet high with underwater rams as long as 45 feet.

The Explorer "sustained puncture and slice wounds" that extended for more than eleven feet along her hull and sank because flooding could not be contained within the affected watertight compartment, the report said. Crew members told investigators that a hatch between engine rooms turned out to have faulty seals, allowing other parts of the ship to flood.

The report concluded that Bengt Wiman , on his first Antarctic cruise as captain, "transited the ice field with an overconfident attitude regarding the capabilities of the Explorer and, in all likelihood, struck the 'wall of ice' at a rate of speed that was excessive."

Tighter rules for Antarctic ships

The report was released as representatives of the 45 signatory nations to the Antarctica Treaty were attending their annual meeting in Baltimore where they tightened some regulations on cruise ships. The Explorer report caused "a big shock" at the meeting, says James Barnes , executive director of the Washington -based Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition .

"There was great surprise at the realities revealed by the report compared to the information that had been available before from G.A.P., Chile , or Argentina ," Mr. Barnes says. "Everybody is congratulating Liberia for what is a most thorough report, but if the ship's owners had released this information right away, we could have gotten to work on addressing this 18 months ago."

Steve Wellmeier , executive director of the International Association of Antarctic Tourism Operators describes the report as "very sobering reading" which "represents a wake-up call for all of our members."

Ship owners dispute findings

But the founder and CEO of G.A.P. Adventures, Bruce Poon Tip, expresses dissatisfaction with the investigation. "We dispute pretty much everything in the report," he says, but declines to offer his own version of events or to respond point by point to the report's findings. "They are entitled to their opinions, but I am not interested in getting into an argument with a flag state."

Mr. Poon Tip says that Liberia's investigators had "come to these outrageous conclusions" without ever speaking with anyone in his company. On further questioning he concedes – and the report indicates – they had corresponded with G.A.P's attorneys and conducted telephone or e-mail interviews with some of the Explorer's officers and crew who no longer work for the company, including Captain Wiman.

Poon Tip does not directly answer questions about the causes of the Explorer's sinking, confining his answers to the quality of the company's rescue effort.

"We're very proud and happy about how it went," he says. "We got everyone out of there safely and everyone in the world has been nothing but complimentary about how the company handled the situation."

Praise for the captain and crew

The report also praised the captain for his decision to evacuate the passengers to lifeboats early in the incident, before the crippled ship drifted back into the ice field, where lifeboats would have been difficult or impossible to deploy. The chief engineer was commended for jury-rigging a fuel supply for an auxiliary generator, which allowed the captain to maneuver the ship into a position where the lifeboats could be deployed.

Crew members told investigators they called Argentine authorities three times for help, but were told each time "to call back." Fortunately, they were able to make contact with nearby cruise ships themselves.

There have been several serious incidents involving Antarctic cruise ships in recent years. In January 2007, all 371 people were evacuated from the MS Nordkapp after it ran aground. That December the MS Fram lost power and smashed into a glacier, forcing an abrupt return to South America . This past December, 122 passengers and crew were rescued from the MV Ushuaia after it struck a rock in Antarctica's Gerlache Strait. And on Feb 19, 105 people had to be rescued when the US -operated Ocean Nova ran aground in heavy winds.

Delegates to the Antarctica Treaty meeting approved a resolution that bans vessels carrying more than 500 passengers from conducting landings in Antarctica. In recent years, Princess Cruise Lines has sent its 109,000-ton megaships Golden Princess and Star Princess to the Antarctic, even though neither is ice-reinforced. Each carries more than 3,500 passengers and crew.

"If the Golden Princess struck ice and got in trouble, everyone knows that there isn't the capacity in Antarctica to deal with an emergency like that," says Barnes. "Those vessels should not come into ice infested waters at all."

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Fire breaks out on world's largest cruise ship

Crew on board the world's largest cruise ship, the Icon of the Seas, were called on to tackle a fire this week as the gigantic vessel was berthed in a port in Mexico.

The "small fire" was "quickly extinguished" after it broke out on Tuesday, the ship's operator Royal Caribbean spokesperson confirmed to CNN Travel. The cruise line said there were no injuries and the overall on board impact was "minimal."

The video featured is from a previous report.

The record-breaking Icon of the Seas - which is nearly 1,200-foot-long and 250,800 gross tons - was docked in Costa Maya, Mexico when the incident occurred. The vessel briefly lost power, but back-up power was activated right away.

The Royal Caribbean spokesperson confirmed crew members controlled the blaze, explaining all crew are trained to handle such situations.

During the incident, on-board announcements alerted passengers about what was happening, according to the cruise line. Social media users on an Icon of the Seas Facebook group spoke of minor disruption to their day, but proceedings were quickly back to normal.

The $2-billion Icon of the Seas made headlines when the vessel launched earlier this year, with its seven swimming pools - including a record-breaking 17,000-square-foot water park. The vessel's current itinerary hasn't been impacted by the fire and the ship is now en route to the Mexican island of Cozumel.

In March, a fire broke out on a Carnival Cruise Lines ship, with footage captured by a passenger of the ship's tail ablaze.

Speaking to CNN Travel, a Royal Caribbean spokesperson said minor fires are "not common, but also not uncommon" on cruise ships, but are usually handled swiftly and with minimal disruption to passengers.

(The-CNN-Wire & 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.)

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Analysis: Chain of Negligence caused the loss of the Moskva cruiser

The shock of the sinking of the slava-class cruiser moskva, the flagship of the russian black sea fleet, continues. in the absence of a satisfactory evidence-based explanation for the event, there has been much speculation. although the actual cause of the ship's sinking is not known with 100 percent certainty, it is clear that the flagship sank as a result of a chain of negligence, half of the crew died, and russia's pride was broken..

Tayfun Ozberk 17 Apr 2022

After coming under deadly fire on the evening of April 13, one of the Russian Navy’s most important ships, the ex- Moskva, was reportedly sunk in the Black Sea on April 14 while being towed to the nearest port, Sevastopol. Before Russian media announced the fire and the evacuation of the ship’s crew, Ukrainian forces claimed they engaged the cruiser with homegrown Neptune anti-ship missiles.

Russian media announced the sinking of the mighty cruiser, after fighting the fire and damage for more than a day. On April 17, the Russian Defence Ministry posted on social media a video of the ceremony for the cruiser Moskva, showing that some 240 people survived, or about half the crew.

There are numerous contradicting sides to this occurrence. For example, what caused the fire and explosion, why the Moskva was unable to detect the incoming missile, how only two anti-ship missiles could sink a 12.000-tonne cruiser, and how the Neptune missiles, which were not operational at the start of the war, were fired.

What caused the fire? Ammo explosion or Neptune strike?

Russia claimed an explosion of munitions caused the fire, while the Ukrainians say they hit the Moskva with two Neptune anti-ship missiles. Russia hasn’t commented on a missile attack and continues to claim the ship caught fire due to an explosion on board and sank due to stormy weather while it was being towed.

In this case, Russia’s statements and claims appear to be inconsistent. Because, while a massive ship like the Moskva is sailing, it is unprecedented for ammunition inside the ship to burst, engulfing the entire ship in flames with no exterior shelling. Furthermore, there was no bad weather in the Black Sea while Moskva was being towed, as Russia stated. The wave height at the time was about 1 meter, and the wind speed was around 14 knots, indicating mild weather and sea conditions.

The report of the fire aboard the Moskva by Russian state media platforms came just hours after Ukraine’s claims that the ships had been fired upon by anti-ship missiles. The conflicting reports by the Russians and the timing of the incident reinforce the view that Ukraine’s claims are accurate.

Ukraine’s assault with Neptune missiles is another curious matter. Because, according to the December 2021 announcement of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence, the delivery of Neptune anti-ship missiles was scheduled for April 2022. However, the war fully broke out in February, so it was unclear whether Ukraine has these missiles in its arsenal. The Black Sea Fleet’s unlimited operations near Ukrainian territorial waters reinforced the view that the delivery had failed due to wartime conditions. This was because many believed that if Ukraine had these missiles on the coast, it would establish an A2/ AD (anti-access/area denial) zone, making Russian forces reluctant to approach the Ukrainian coast to avoid a missile attack.

The fact that the Neptune missiles had not been used for 45 days since the beginning of the war strengthens the opinion that the missile was prepared to gain the initial operational capability in the process and that the initial attack on the Black Sea Fleet flagship was made to take advantage of the surprise effect in the fog of war.

A claim: TB2 drone distracted, Neptune missile struck

In the absence of clear statements from the official side, some speculations are circulating on social media that the cruiser Moskva was busy tracking the TB2 Bayraktar unmanned aerial vehicle, which has inflicted many casualties on the Russian forces since the beginning of the war, and that the Ukrainian forces caught the ship at this vulnerable moment to strike.

There’s also some other speculation suggesting that “ Moskva has/had a single main air defence radar (3P41 Volna) for guiding S300 missiles, which has only a 180 degree field of view. Therefore, 360-degree coverage is provided by the 3-D long-range air search radars MR -800 Voshkod/Top Pair for short-range missiles SA -8. ” The claim reveals that the Top Pair radar couldn’t distinguish the Neptunes flying over the sea from the crests of the waves due to the stormy weather.

These claims lack a solid basis, as the ship in question is a cruiser with good air defense capabilities. Although TB2 drones are very useful in naval warfare, cruiser-type ships are designed to track and repel multiple air contacts. As a result, paralyzing a Slava-class cruiser with one or more drones is unrealistic.

On the other hand, it is not reasonable to compare a search radar (MR -800 Voshkod/Top Pair) with a tracking radar (3P41 Volna). Prior to the introduction of fixed face AESA radar technology, warships use search radars to detect air contacts. If the air operator believes the contact is a threat, he/she forwards the contact to the tracking radar to illuminate the target for surface-to-air missiles. Tracking radars are not there to “detect” a target, but to illuminate the contact that has already been detected by the search radar. These two types of radars are pieces of a puzzle that serve the same purpose.

Also, these radars may have some blind sectors due to the structure of the ship, but there are other radars to cover the blind sectors, just like the Slava class cruisers have more than one radar (Top Dome, 2xPop Group, 3xBass Tilt, Kite Screech fire control radar). So this ship can continuously track the air contacts, even if the contact moves into the blind sector of the radar, the operator can forward the contact to another tracker and keep following.

Many people liked and shared but I am sorry to say that this is a wrong analysis. You cannot compare a "tracking" radar with a search radar. Even if the 3P41 (Top Dome) radar was dealing with drone threats, this is a tracking radar, you cannot detect an air threat with it. 1/8 https://t.co/JPSbAwJAsK — Tayfun Ozberk (@TayfunOzberk) April 15, 2022

As mentioned above, the sea state was not tough to hide the sea-skimming missile from radar. Even if there was a tough sea, the search radar would detect it, but it might have some difficulties in maintaining the contact due to the sea clutter. When the sea state is high, the missile’s flying altitude gets higher because the missile’s altimeter adjusts the altitude from the wavetop.

Slava-class cruisers are equipped with the 4xRum Tub electronic support system, which can detect Neptune anti-ship missiles’ radar seekers. After detecting the radar seeker, the ship would have about 2 minutes to defend against the missile. In addition, the Moskva was armed with 6x30mm/AK630 close-in weapon systems that have their own radar and are capable of detecting and engaging the incoming missiles themselves.

Chain of Negligence

The cruiser Moskva had enough sensors and weapons to deal with anti-ship missiles and was expected to perform better against airborne threats . Of course, this is a paper opinion, since the operational readiness and performance of the sensors and weapons were not publicly known. But it did provide air defense in the area of operation, which means that it protected not only itself but also other units in the Black Sea from air threats.

Contrary to what many people think, anti-ship missile defence (ASMD) is much more than just pushing the fire button.

First of all, military intelligence must provide very accurate information about the missiles in the hands of the enemy. In addition, the weapons and sensors used for ASMD on the ship must be operational, perform well, and be fully maintained. Besides, the training of personnel must be at a very good level. Since the ships have only a few minutes to react after the detection of an incoming missile (and there is no time to think here), the measures must be activated automatically, which can be done only by well-trained personnel.

Poor intelligence

Russia’s first and most serious mistake in this situation is a lack of intelligence. Considering the size of the missiles, it is not a device that can be easily camouflaged, so it would have to be detected by Russian intelligence. For a month and a half, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet operated irresponsibly within the range of this weapon, believing that Ukraine did not have a weapon that could endanger its ships. Had these missiles been operational from the beginning of the war, they would have been launched on a ship in the last month and a half. During that time, Ukraine received the missiles and prepared them for launch, and Russian intelligence could not detect them.

Inadequate Sensor and Weapon systems

As mentioned above, the cruiser Moskva cruiser was expected to perform better against the Neptune missiles. There is no record of the cruiser Moskva defending itself against the Neptune missiles in this incident. There is no record of what happened on the ship at the time, but at the very least the ship should have detected the missile, albeit late, and countered with the CIWS, even if it did not have time to defend itself with an anti-air missile.

In this situation, the first possibility is that the missile cannot be detected and that it cannot be countered even if it is detected. Specifically, this means that either the ship’s ESM system did not provide the required early warning, the weather radar did not detect the threat, or the guns were not ready to fire even though the sensors tracked the threat.

Poor training level

On a warship, crew training is the most critical concern. Continuous training should be offered because people operating in various stations of the ship during ASMD must respond quickly without waiting for commands. What happens during ASMD on NATO ships is known as ZIPPO responses, and it is commonly practiced.

The failure of the Moskva to respond to the missile demonstrates that not only do the personnel lack intelligence, but they are also not mentally and physically prepared for this occurrence. There are no records of the CHAFF or decoys being launched, of electronic jamming, of the ship maneuvering, and of the necessary reactions with weapons after the missile is launched, but the fact that such a capable ship is so helpless against an attack far below its capacity shows that the personnel are not well trained.

Another issue related to Russian sailors’ insufficient training is fire fighting and damage control. A 12,000-tonne cruiser is not normally expected to be sunk with only two missiles. Even if it is hit, the cruiser will most likely be rendered inoperable. Of course, where the Neptune missiles strike is also a factor. If it hit near the torpedo arsenal or missile launchers, the force of the blast may have been amplified. Such a vast and powerful ship, however, must be prepared for such scenarios. The crew was evacuated barely a few hours after the accident, and the ship sank the next day. In this situation, the ship’s personnel were insufficient to fight the fire and save the ship. Furthermore, at the time of the explosion, the cruiser Moskva was not far from the base in Sevastopol , allowing for outside aid.

These omissions might take several forms. As more information on the Moskva incident becomes available, it will be possible to develop more accurate interpretations and learn lessons. The truth is that the loss of the Russian flagship to a state without a navy will go down in naval history, and Russians will mourn the Moskva cruiser for many years.

Update: The first picture showing the damage sustained by Moskva following the missiles strikes has surfaced:

***BREAKING*** -> https://t.co/JfGRiqMVf6 #Moskva Sinking: Images Reveal Once Powerful Russian Navy Ship On Fire First analysis shows fire aft of Vulkan missiles and ahead of S-300 missiles, Possibly this is before a larger explosion First analysis, caveats apply, OSINT pic.twitter.com/b4FbBHsxLo — H I Sutton (@CovertShores) April 17, 2022

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Cruise ship rescues 68 migrants and finds 5 bodies in boat adrift in Atlantic Ocean

Spanish rescuers say that a cruise ship has rescued 68 migrants and found five bodies in a wooden dinghy that was drifting off the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean

MADRID -- A cruise ship rescued 68 migrants and found five bodies in a wooden dinghy that was drifting off the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, Spain's maritime rescue agency said Thursday.

It said an oil tanker traveling from northwestern Spain to Brazil spotted the drifting boat on Wednesday afternoon about 815 kilometers (506 miles) south of Tenerife, one of the seven islands in the Canaries archipelago.

Spanish authorities diverted the Insignia, a cruise ship, to rescue the migrants. The Insignia crew also recovered three of the five bodies on the dinghy. The remains of two people were left at sea because of bad weather hampering their recovery.

It is unusual for cruise ships to make rescues of migrants on the Atlantic route, but the dinghy “was a long way out and they could be in danger,” said a maritime rescue’s spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity under departmental rules.

One of the passengers on the cruise ship, Steve Dilbeck from Huntington Beach, California, said they were not told about the dead.

“They did say the boat had been at sea for 20 days," Dilbeck told The Associated Press in a text message. “We were diverted in the evening and took us two hours to reach them. They were brought on board and placed in the Insignia Lounge, which is where they have all their shows.”

“The area has been closed off to passengers. Told they had them remove their clothes and put on jumpsuits. Then they asked passengers if they had shoes and clothes they could donate, particularly for men. Their announcement said 62 were men, with the rest women and children,” he added.

The Marshall Islands-flagged Insignia had left Mindelo, a port city in Cape Verde, on Tuesday. Its operator, Miami-based Oceania Cruises, did not immediately comment on the rescue.

The Spanish rescue agency emailed a statement saying the Insignia is expected to arrive on Friday at the port of Santa Cruz, Tenerife.

The Canary Islands is a destination for boats packed with migrants departing from northwestern Africa on a perilous Atlantic route in search of a better life in Europe.

Spain's Interior Ministry says a record 55,618 migrants arrived by boat — most of them in the Canary Islands — last year, almost double the number of the previous year. More than 23,000 have landed so far this year, the ministry said.

The Spanish nonprofit organization Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders) says more than 5,000 migrants have died so far this year through May while trying to reach Spanish coasts, most of them on the Atlantic route. The figure for all 2023 was 6,600, more than double the number for 2022.

Associated Press writer Beth Harris in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of migration issues at https://apnews.com/hub/migration

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Old cruise ship with Hollywood past sinking into Delta now refloated

By Cecilio Padilla

June 19, 2024 / 2:53 PM PDT / CBS Sacramento

SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY – The decommissioned cruise ship that was sinking into the Delta near Stockton has now been refloated, officials say.

Work to refloat the Aurora got underway over the weekend, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's Spill Prevention & Response. CDFW announced on Wednesday that the refloating had been completed.

Last week , crews had installed dewatering pumps onto the Aurora . The old ship – notable for its historic Hollywood connections – had been docked in Potato Slough when it started taking on water in late May.

Crews have recovered about 14,900 gallons of water that had been mixed with oil from the sinking ship, CDFW says. Other debris and hazardous waste has also been removed.

More spill mitigation work will be ongoing, officials say. Crews will also continue to stabilize the vessel and the safety zone around the Aurora remains in place.

Before being moored near Stockton, the Aurora had a storied past that included an appearance in a James Bond film. The Aurora was also the inspiration for the 1970s TV show "The Love Boat." 

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Cecilio Padilla is a digital producer for CBS Sacramento and a Sacramento-area native who has been covering Northern California for more than a decade.

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