On Friday, March 22,, 2024, an explosion within the engine room of Holland America Line’s (HAL) Nieuw Amsterdam cruise ship resulted within the launch of steam which led to the demise of two crew members. The catastrophic explosion, mixed with a sequence of errors in responding to the accident, precipitated the deaths of HAL staff Joseph Terrado and Wawan Gusnawan.
The accident came about round 9:00 a.m. on Friday whereas the HAL cruise ship was moored on the cruise line’s non-public Bahamian vacation spot of Half Moon Cay. Mr. Terrado, employed as a 3rd engineer, and Mr. Gusnawan, employed as a wiper, have been reportedly putting in filters when a steam compensator, unrelated to their duties, exploded. The half which failed is known as a “steam bellow.” The official identify of the faulty gear is a “thermal enlargement joint” (picture instantly beneath).
The explosion launched steam into the engine room. The bridge reportedly ordered an alarm, closed the water tight doorways, and shut down the air flow to the area earlier than it was evacuated. The 2 crew members, who weren’t outfitted with Emergency Escape Respiratory Units (EEBD), have been unable to manually open the closed, heavy hydraulic doorways. They have been trapped within the area. They apparently suffocated because of the lack of oxygen and scorching steam (180 levels Celsius) which overwhelmed them. Their our bodies have been situated close to the closed water tight doorways.
A HAL fan web page contained a picture of steam being vented from the engine room of the HAL cruise ship
This preliminary info, the picture of the steam bellow (above), and of the situation of the accident (beneath) have been supplied by cruise staff who needs to stay nameless. (We are going to put up a video of the engine room the place the accident occurred shortly).
Apart from issuing a press assertion which provided “ideas and prayers” and providing counseling to crew members affected by the tragedy, HAL didn’t launch any particulars or present the names of the 2 crew members or their job positions. Nor did HAL provide any clarification into how the accident occurred. As a substitute, the cruise line referred to the lethal engine room accident as merely an “incident in an engineering area.” HAL says that it notified “the suitable authorities” and is at the moment investigating the incident. HAL didn’t establish the investigating company nor state whether or not it’ll launch further info.
Cruise strains which carry out investigations following accidents of this kind maintain their discovering and conclusions secret. HAL will subsequently declare that its investigation is privileged and shielded from disclosure to the general public. HAL won’t ever volunteer any details about what occurred two days in the past ensuing within the deaths of Mr. Terrado and Mr. Gusnawan.
As a result of these crew members are residents of the Philippines, HAL will declare that their surviving members of the family are topic to the provisions of the Philippines Abroad Employment Settlement (POEA) which applies to all Filipino seafarers and their households. The POEA gives very restricted damages of solely $60,000, and solely $7,500 per baby, when Filipino seafarers die whereas employed on cruise ships. Cruise strains like HAL have inserted arbitration clauses of their crew members’ employment contracts which prohibit ship staff and their households from submitting lawsuits within the U.S. earlier than a choose and jury. HAL will ultimately provide to pay a pittance to the households of those two harmless, laborious working crew members, even if they died because of the apparent defective situation of the HAL cruise ship, the dearth of security gear, and the negligence of bridge officers. In the meantime, HAL will proceed to maintain the circumstances of the accident secret and its substantial wrongdoing away from public scrutiny.
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Picture Credit score: Engine room and failed steam bellow- nameless; Nieuw Ansterdam – Jonathan Palombo CC BY 2.0 commons / wikimedia.
