Cruise ship Costa Allegra adrift off Seychelles

[Chippiewill]

An Italian cruise ship with more than 1,000 people on board is without power in the Indian Ocean following a fire.

The Costa Allegra is adrift more than 200 miles southwest of the Seychelles, near Alphonse Island.

The ship is from the same fleet as the Costa Concordia, which capsized off the Italian coast in January, killing 32.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17183134

Yet more brilliant Italian boat handling.

[Jordy]

When quoting the article it wouldn't of done any harm to add on the bit saying...

Tugs and "other naval and aerial units" will reach the ship, which has sent out a distress signal, Costa Cruises says.Commander Cosimo Nicastro of the Italian coast guard told the BBC that it took the crew a few hours to extinguish the fire.
Although the ship is in the middle of the Indian Ocean, there are no problems for the passengers, he said

Because let's face it, that's the bit we're all interested in.

Not really a travesty either. Costa Concordia sunk due to a very bad captain and lack of discipline amongst staff, many died. This has had engine problems and will be towed back to port and all will be okay, all the passengers are fine.

Absolutely awful publicity for Costa never the less (and the growing cruise industry in general), their image couldn't be much worse right now.

[Chippiewill]

It was "Breaking news" when I posted it, they only recently added the extra information.

[Jazz]

its good to know that no-one was hurt, butdefinitely bad publicity for costa

[SackRace]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17183134

Yet more brilliant Italian boat handling.

my granny is on that ship!!! thank god shes ok

[Lee]

^ Was she honestly?

Glad nobody was hurt

[Cheryl]

Costa is owned by Carnival who are the largest cruise company in the world. Carnival own 11 cruise brands with over 100 ships. This includes the Carnival Line, the Cunard Line, the Holland America Line, The P&O lines in both the UK and Australia and the Princess Line.
The fact that the Costa Line have had the most recent (well publicised) scenarios is a huge dent to cruising in general and especially the Carnival Company.
In the next few years I predict that the Costa Line will have to be re-branded by Carnival as this is denting their reputation as a whole, including all the other virtually unlinked cruise lines. At a time when the cruising industry needs to brand itself as a safe and relatively cheap way of holidaying Costa appear to be jeopardising this, whether it's down to outdated procedures which were designed for much smaller ships, or whether it's generally down to poor management by the Costa executives I'm sure Carnival will be doing as much as they can to overcome these issues that appear to the general public to be restricted to the Costa ships.
In essence, I believe that it's not an issue with Carnival, but within Costa. There should be no threat at this time for the rest of the company or indeed cruising in general, especially in light of the videos and scare stories that emerged from the Concordia when it capsized.

[Ajthedragon]

Terrible publicity for both the company concerned and the industry as a whole. Glad everyone on board were fine.

It'll blow over, airlines managed to after 9/11.

[Metric1]

I went on a Carnival Cruise a few years ago. I think the ship was Freedom or some ****. It was by far the worst trip I've ever been on. I hate boats, like don't want to get on, don't want to go near the water just not my idea of fun. We hit rough seas about the 3rd night in, I threw up the entire time and for about the following day.

I won't be sailing after this.

[beth]

gonna be honest i was never really a boat person before but all these horror stories of recent times are making me want to avoid boats forever.