• Coast Guard searching for man missing in water at Carnival Triumph shipyard

    Bill Starling / AP

    The Carnival cruise ship Triumph is damaged after the being dislodged from its mooring at BAE shipyard during high winds Wednesday, April 3, 2013 in Mobile, Ala.

    By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The Coast Guard is searching for a worker who was thrown into the water at an Alabama shipyard where high winds also tore the Carnival Triumph from its moorings Wednesday.

    The missing employee -- identified as a 64-year-old man by NBC affiliate WPMI -- works for the company that runs the shipyard, not the cruise line, and was in a guard shack that was blown off the dock, officials told The Associated Press. A second man who was tossed into the 40-foot-deep water from the shack was rescued.

    The same 70 mph gusts pulled loose the star-crossed Triumph, which was being repaired after a February engine fire that stranded thousands of passengers at sea with backed-up toilets and dwindling food supplies.

    The 900-foot vessel drifted from one bank to another and smacked into a cargo ship before it could be secured. None of the 800 workers aboard were hurt, according to Carnival, though there was a 20-foot gash in its hull.

    Previous coverage: Carnival Triumph breaks loose from dock

    The ship, which was left adrift in the Gulf of Mexico in February with more than 4,000 passengers aboard, sustained additional damage during a storm that caused it to blow into the Mobile River. A guard fell into the water and is still missing. NBC's Kerry Sanders reports.

     

     

  • Coast Guard finds fuel leak caused engine fire on Carnival Triumph

    The Carnival Triumph fire that knocked out power and left more than 4,000 passengers and crew stranded without air conditioning, hot food or working toilets was traced to a flexible fuel oil return line. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

    By Mark Potter and Andrew Rafferty, NBC News

    The cause of the engine fire that left the cruise ship Carnival Triumph without power for five days was a leak in a fuel oil return line that sprayed onto a hot surface, the Coast Guard announced Monday.

    Lt. Cmdr. Teresa Hatfield, head of the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Casualty Investigation Team, said the oil caught fire when it made contact with the hot surface. She said the suppression system kicked on immediately and that the ship’s crew “did a very good job” in responding.

     The fire is not suspected to have been caused intentionally.

    During a teleconference with reporters Monday, Hatfield said the damage was contained to a relatively small area of the engine room. But because the oil burned at such a high temperature, crew members had to close off the room and could not immediately put out the blaze.

    Hatfield deferred questions about when the fuel oil return lines were last inspected or why the damage had been so severe, saying only that the investigation is ongoing.

    The Coast Guard has been with the vessel since it docked in Mobile, Ala., on Thursday and is conducting interviews with both passengers and crew. The service expects to complete the onsite investigation by the end of the week.

    The Bahamas Maritime Agency is leading the investigation, but the Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board are leading the U.S. efforts.

    The ship left from Galveston, Texas, on Feb. 7 for a four-day cruise that was to take passengers to Mexico. On the third day, the fire broke out, leaving the 4,200 passengers and crew with no power, a scarcity of food and only a few working bathrooms.

    The final report on the incident could be six months away. Investigators are trying to determine why the fire disabled the ship.

  • First suit filed after Carnival Triumph mishap

    The lawsuit, which was filed in Miami by a passenger from Texas, accuses Carnival Cruise Lines of negligence and fraud. She claims she was "injured by unsafe, unsanitary and generally despicable conditions" while onboard. NBC's Mark Potter reports.

    By Berenice Garcia, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A Texas woman was the first passenger to file suit, hours after the Carnival Triumph cruise that left about 3,200 passengers adrift was towed into Mobile, Ala.

    Cassie Terry sought unspecified damages against Carnival Corp. in Miami federal court on Friday claiming she was "injured as a result of the unseaworthy, unsafe, unsanitary, and generally despicable conditions."

    Terry also claimed a "breach of maritime contract, negligence, negligent misrepresentation, and fraud."

    The cruise line has yet to issue a response. "We haven't yet seen the suit and are not in a position to comment," said Jennifer De La Cruz, a spokesperson for Carnival Cruise Lines.

    The cruiser was hobbled after an engine fire broke out on the ship, leaving the passengers without power or working bathrooms for five days.

    Mark Mazan, another passenger aboard the stricken ship, said he was less than satisfied with the crew.

    "It was mistake after mistake after mistake, incompetence to a point I've never seen," Mazan told NBC's TODAY.

    Not all agreed. Passenger Martha Vielhabe praised the cruise ship staff’s response to the crisis, calling them "absolutely fabulous and fantastic."

    Passengers spoke of their five-day floating nightmare after filing ashore on Friday. Some said that that the corridors of the Triumph began to reek of sewage, and said they stood on long lines to get food. Others said they sought refuge from the ship’s overheated interior by sleeping on the deck.

    Carnival Cruise Lines CEO Gerry Cahill apologized for the ordeal as passengers came ashore Friday. “We pride ourselves on providing our guests with a great vacation experience, and clearly we failed in this particular case,” he said.

    Because the ship is registered in the Bahamas and the fire occurred in international waters, the official investigation is being conducted by the Bahamian Maritime Authority with assistance from the United States Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board.