Official Has Cruise Ship Worries

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- More than 600 American college students are crossing the Pacific on a cruise ship whose lack of fire equipment worries a federal safety official. James Hall, Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said he learned this week that the three-month Semester at Sea program set sail Sunday on the 618-foot Universe Explores, a ship with no automatic sprinklers.

The information came to light Tuesday during an NTSB hearing into a July 27, 1996, laundry room fire aboard the ship. Five crew members died of smoke inhalation during a cruise from Juneau to Glacier Bay National Park with 732 passengers. Fifty-five crew members and one passenger were injured, 13 seriously enough to be hospitalized. According to the NTSB's staff investigation, some fire-safety doors had been roped open and a safety bulkhead had been removed. These allowed smoke to spread into passenger compartments and probably contributed to the deaths and injuries, investigators said.

After that accident, the ship underwent an estimated $1.5 million in repairs and was returned to service. Hall suspended the hearing for a month to give the NTSB staff more time to investigate the ship and why the U.S. Coast Guard apparently permitted it to sail. The ship does not have automatic sprinklers.

The Panama-registered vessel is owned by a Florida-based company, New Commodore Cruise Lines Inc., which said in a statement that it meets all safety requirements. It is operated by New York-based International Marine Carriers, which leased it to the University of Pittsburgh for the academic program. "I can't believe the administration at the University of Pittsburgh would permit this if they'd been aware of it," Hall said.

But university spokesman Ken Service acknowledges the ship doesn't have automatic sprinklers but insisted the ship has adequate fire suppression and detection systems that meet toughened federal standards taking effect Oct. 1. "The people on that ship are safe. That's not my opinion; that's the opinion of the Coast Guard and the American Bureau of Shipping," Service said today. "whatever misunderstanding may have occurred between the National Transportation Safety Board and the Coast Guard does not change the fact that the ship has been inspected and has been deemed to meet all safety guidelines," he said. Service said the ship carried 641 students from 205 colleges and universities around the United States and Canada.

Associated Press
9/18/97