All couple of years now such a big fire-accident with a big ferry with many people dead or/and injured - this can not be the solution ! Also with DFDS LISCO GLORIA 2010 it was the same... .
It is clear - to much water fast inside the ship can be a stability-problem - but maybe it is possible to construct a water-system so that on the 1 - 2 top car/truck-decks the water can be brought fast - and then the water is running fast again overboard (and not down to the lower truck-deck) - similar system as with dishes-cleaning-machines - just much bigger and in a lot of parts separated. The same with the cabin-decks, bridge etc. . So in the actually case - maybe there is no easy solution for the lower truck-deck - but i thing it must be possible to stop burning trucks, cabins etc. on the upper decks very fast. It is totally crazy that because of a - at the beginning very small - fire the complete ferry is burning some days always !
And then - if there is no fire anymore on the upper decks the rescue-teams (firemen) can go fast on the ship and try to go to the lower truck-deck also. But if the complete ship is burning in all parts and on all decks there is no chance to reach the lower decks.
LISCO GLORIA 2010, NORMAN ATLANTIC 2014, EUROFERRY OLYMPIA 2022, all 4, 6, 8 years happens the same ! Maybe more other ferry-fire-accidents - just i remember these only.
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LIFEBOATS:
In the most accidents there was to less liveboats. F.ex. i have seen a very big documentation in TV about COSTA CONCORDIA, there was the same problem as often - only on 1 ship-side it was possible to use the liveboats, then there was some problems with the Davits / liveboats / crew - so only some of the liveboats was possible to used, some boats also not 100% full - many other people was waiting for helicopters or other ships still onboard. If it would be happen on the open sea and not nearby an island it would be much more dead people. Here now with EUROFERRY OLYMPIA it was also very lucky that there was a bigger Coast-guard ship very close nearby when the accident happens.
Maybe freefall-boats are not the 100% perfect solution also - but i think that there are in generally much better chances in big accidents to get much more people rescued as with "old-style" boats which must send slowly down to the sea on the board wall. At the last accidents there was some lucky circumstances (nearby the coast, no storm etc.) - but what happens in a big storm with high waves on the open sea ?
I think that this "old" liveboat-system is totally crazy - cruise-ships / ferries with 4000, 5000, 6000 (mostly old) people onboard - if there is a big accident in a stormy night on the open sea far away from the coast it will be a very high number of dead people.
My proposal is so many big free-fall-boats as possible on the lowest possible decks (just above the truck-decks on ferries, if the truck-decks are the decks 3 + 4 the life-boats must be on 5 and 6) so that the fall-hight down to the sea is so low as possible. Then the boats can be constructed as double-deckers so that from 2 decks the people can go fast inside.
Is possible to construct it so, that the doors are at the head-side of the boats and the place on the ship is so, that is easy to come inside.
Then with helmets, good seats with head-protection and good strong seatbelts it must be possible to rescue 99% or more of the people.
The same with "Überlebensanzüge" - why not on ferries and cruise-ships also as normal standard ?
● Es bien conocido que el uso de un traje de inmersión multiplica las posibilidades de sobrevivir en el agua. El traje de inmersion Neptune de Lalizas le mantendrá seco, conservando su calor corporal y reduciendo el peligro de hipotermia. ●
www.francobordo.com
Produced in very high numbers in the cheapest asian countries a price of only ca. 100/150,- Euro would be realistic.
So my summary-proposal:
- Construction of a new better / bigger water extinguishing system onboard
- Under each bed onboard 1 life-jacket, 1 ski-helmet + 1 "Überlebensanzug"
- free-fall-liveboats, f.ex. a 1000 Pax-ferry = 10 boats on each side for 100 Pax each (maybe double-deck constructed, 60+40)
- very good smooth seats inside the liveboats with belts and head-protection
Yes - all this costs some extra-money for each new ship but it is pocket-money in compare with the totally-costs of a new big ship - and produced in many 100.000 pieces directly from the fabric in Bangladesh etc. the prices per piece are much lower possible than today. And what is the alternative ? Also the next 100 years all ca. 5 years an ferry-accident with many dead people ? And also a very big accident in similar way as ESTONIA 1994 (852 dead) or SEWOL 2014 (304 dead of 476) can not be locked out for the future.