Oceania Insignia – A Fire, Three Lives Lost, Quick Action By Oceania…and An Ambulance Chaser

I have not yet commented on the fire last week aboard the Oceania Insignia which left two contractors and a crew member dead and two other injured, but all of passengers and other crew and staff safe.  Why?  Because I didn’t really know enough to comment or give opinion that was anything more than repeating what you already know.

But then this morning, I saw an article by a rather infamous maritime attorney, Jim Walker, Esquire entitled:

Insignia Fire Reveals Cruise Industry Remains Unprepared for Disaster

I read the article…pretty much knowing it would be another one of his ambulance-chasing-like articles not so subtly fishing for clients to attempt a suit against Oceania…and found something rather curious that Mr. Walker just couldn’t seem to bring himself to overtly admit:  Oceania has done a pretty outstanding job dealing with a serious fire which disabled its ship on a very small Caribbean island.

His complaints:  

• Oceania Cruises didn’t tell the passengers what the cause of the fire was.  Huh?  I don’t even know if Oceania has that fully figured out and that is not really something any business is going to be putting as a top priority.
• The St. Lucia fire department didn’t seem to know what it was doing? Huh?  What does that have to do with Oceania Cruises and, more importantly, why did Walker not mention that the fire was quickly extinguished and that all of the passengers where safely disembarked without any reports of that being mishandled.
• All of the passengers and crew were relocated to a warehouse with either limited food and water or no food.  Huh?  What was Oceania supposed to do?  Finding them shelter and a centralized place to address things in a few short hours on a small island with limited infrastructure is not good enough, I guess.  Quickly organizing charter flights home is not enough, either. In fact, Walker, why not also ignore the praised most all of the Oceania passengers have been giving?  Oh, that’s right, you did!
• Oceania gave a 100% refund and a 50% discount on a future cruise as “a calculated and inexpensive way to hook [the affected passengers] into another cruise”  Huh? So Oceania immediately providing cash compensation and significant non-cash compensation is a bad thing?  Further, if the passengers were so disgruntled with Oceania (and they are not), giving a discount on a future cruise would be worthless to them and they would complain…and there is not a single report of that happening!
• Oceania hasn’t given enough information about the crew member that died so it doesn’t care. Huh?  How about that crew member has a family and they are entitled to know what is going on first and are entitled to privacy?  How about the vast majority of the passengers (if not all of them) never met that particular crew member and, while many have expressed sadness over his death, rightfully none of them have complained they needed or wanted more information about this soul.  

Further, the fact is that the passengers are, from the front end of the business, unquestionably Oceania’s number one priority.  But another fact is that that crew member…and all of the crew members are, from the inside of the business, unquestionably Oceania’s priority as well.  Getting passengers home, housing the crew, dealing with the death and injuries of those 5 people, figuring out what can be done to address the cause of the fire and the repairs…with thousands of more people waiting for their upcoming cruises (including a world cruise), regulatory requirements, securing repair facilities, and the list goes on.