The Costa Concordia tragedy has brought forward the timing of the offshore mass rescue operation exercise (MRO) to April 2013. The aim of the exercise, code-named Black Swan, is to validate the offshore rescue preparedness, safety processes and ability of the stakeholders to activate and coordinate an offshore mass rescue operation.
Paul Culver, exercise director and coordinator, United States Coast Guard (USCG), explains: “We had talked about doing this in 2015 but due to the incident in Italy we felt now would be a better time. We wanted to do it sooner rather than later to show the world that we have these rescue processes in place.”
The USCG and the cruise industry have been discussing the possibility of doing a joint exercise since the USCG conducted its own rescue exercise off Bar Harbor, Maine, in 2009 using Holland America Line’s Maasdam. An agreement was made to conduct a safety exercise every two years, whether it be something small along the lines of a tabletop exercise – for example, coordinating the family assistance centre with the landing side – or a major exercise such as an MRO. “We thought by making this into a series it would help us with continuous improvement and also bring connectivity between the exercises,” says Culver.
The first of the Black Swan series will take place 1 nautical mile off Freeport in the Bahamas in April 2013. According to the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), which is coordinating the cruise industry’s involvement and participation, “the goal of the exercise is to demonstrate that strong protocols and systems are in place to respond to a major cruise ship emergency while striving for continuous improvement in those processes.” The exercise will be a full-scale scenario based on the processes in existence today for an MRO, whether in the US or anywhere in the world. “We are taking the primary elements of normal operations in the cruise industry, the Coast Guard and rescue services and coordinating them.”
Beginning this May, joint training sessions have been held with the USCG, the cruise lines and stakeholders such as airlines, hotels, shipping agents and rescue services. In addition, Seventh USCG District, Miami – the search and rescue mission coordinator (SMC) which is part of the Rescue Coordination Center for the region – has begun inviting cruise line emergency management teams to visit and view their functionality and vice versa. “This will help our coordination if we have an incident,” explains Culver.
In the past the USCG and the lines have liaised on exercises but they have never done a full-scale exercise before, according to Culver. For example, in 2007 a rescue and accountability exercise took place using a Norwegian Cruise Line ship off St Thomas. The lessons learned were shared with the industry, the USCG and partners.
Setting up a suitable scenario is no easy matter for an industry that has moveable revenue-earning assets. “We have been working on getting a cruise ship for 18 months now,” says Culver. With Royal Caribbean International transferring Monarch of the Seas to Pullmantur next year, the opportunity arose to make use of the ship and the crew when not in a revenue status. On 1 April 2013 she leaves Port Canaveral for Freeport, where she will undergo refurbishment.
While in transit on 2 April , the ship will activate digital selective calling via the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS). The first to be notified of any problems will be Jacksonville and Miami in Florida, which will receive a call on VHF Channel 70. As the ship leaves the region, it will be passed on to District Seven SMC, which will coordinate with the Bahamas rescue centre.
When 1 nautical mile off Freeport, the master will go through an abandon-ship exercise. Using up to 300 actors as passengers as well as the ship’s crew, mustering will take place, followed by the static embarkation of two lifeboats and one liferaft. “This is more of aligning the process and flow rather than an inspection,” explains Culver. “We will be conducting a risk analysis process for every element of the exercise to ensure personnel safety and the maximum mitigation strategies are taken to safely conduct any of these processes in the exercise.” The ship’s safety officer and one from the USCG will be in attendance during the entire exercise.
Weather conditions will be assessed prior to the crew lowering the craft. When the master gives the order to abandon ship, a test EPIRB will be turned on which will activate the land stations and VHF Channel 70, communicating to the USCG that the call has been made to abandon ship. This will also alert the Royal Bahamian Defence Patrol Boat, Bahamas Air & Sea Rescue, a USCG cutter and USCG helicopters (and possibly a fixed-wing plane) to set out to the scene.
Bahamas Celebration, a RoPax vessel operating between West Palm Beach and Freeport, will launch its fast rescue boats to support the rescue. Bahamas Express, an Incat fast ferry travelling between Fort Lauderdale and Freeport, will also provide assistance to the rescue.
In addition, the position of any commercial vessel that participates in the automated mutual-assistance vessel rescue system (AMVER) can be plotted, which may result in the USCG making contact and asking the vessel to divert to the scene of the rescue.
An incident command post will be set up in Freeport, made up of people from Carnival Cruise Lines, the USCG, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean International. The Bahamas has been asked to put someone forward to join the command also. There will also be a collaborative website where, for example, cruise lines will be invited to monitor and offer support to what SMC is doing to mitigate the situation. This could be anything from coordinating flight schedules to hiring in extra flight capacity.
In port on the same day will be Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Sky, which will participate in assembling, accounting and triage for the passengers and crew as they come in to a reception centre.
Thereafter they will go the Family Assistance Centre which will be run by Carnival Cruise Lines (and possibly other cruise lines) together with the Family Assistance Foundation. Here they will be provided with, for example, care, counselling, food and lodging support. All passengers and crew will be asked when and where they embarked the ship and then given the necessary mental and physical support en route back home.
In a full evacuation situation the medical capability in Freeport would be exceeded and hence extra medical support, such as the Florida Advanced Surgical Transport Team, will be coordinated by the Bahamas and the USCG. The United States Air Force Reserve Aeronautical Evacuation Squadron has also asked to participate in the exercise.
By now it will be dusk so the exercise will be put on hold overnight and picked up in the morning. This will be a ‘medical day’, when symptoms will be assessed, passengers (actors dressed up with injuries) will be sent to hospital and the evacuation team will fly those that the hospital cannot cope with to the US.
This is the first in a series of exercises under the Black Swan code name. “One of our goals is to build on the exercise for future exercises every two years,” says Culver. “We will be showcasing existing processes and validating that they are still functioning and working within the industry and regulatory safety framework. Where we see room for improvement, we will make recommendations.”
The next exercise will be in 2015. “We will basically look at the lessons learnt from this exercise,” says Culver, pointing out that the USCG is trying to improve safety preparedness, not only for the cruise and airline industries, but for rescue services around the world.