Coast Guard issues safety alert on CO2 systems following cruise ship casualty

A recent cruise ship casualty due to CO2 system failure prompted the Coast Guard to issue a Safety Alert.

Though the vessel in question is not named in the alert, numerous reports have identified it as the Carnival Splendor, the ship that drifted for several days off the coast of Mexico in November after an engine room fire disabled electrical systems.

When the master ordered the CO2 release, it failed to activate. Crewmembers subsequently tried and failed manual activation into the machinery space.

Among the findings in the safety alert are:

-Procedures in the Firefighting Instruction Manual (FIM) differ from the test procedures commissioned in the shipyard.

-The Control Panel images of the FIM and the actual one on the vessel vary greatly.

-The CO2 release station is on the vessel’s port side though the FIM states it is on the starboard.

-The FIM says to “Pull” valves instead of to “Turn” them.

-Despite numerous references in the FIM to elements of an Emergency Shut Down graphic, they could not be found on the ship.

-FIM pictures of sections of the CO2 stations look different than the actual stations.

-The shipyard drawings and schematics vary from the actual installation.

Source: U.S. Coast Guard