which is worse- Carnival Triumph or Thompson Majesty disaster?

[herbanrenewal]

I guess I am asking this because I think the news coverage is so appauling
- while the Triumph's problem caused days of misery and discomfort for thousands of people, the media coverage - and number of posts on these boards - has been detailed and on just about every forum here
-the Thompson Majesty disaster was a snapped cable that sent 5 crew members to their deaths, and 3 others injured. And there is relatively little written about it. I certainly did not see it on every TV news show this week

Why do you think this is ?
Is it in number of people affected - I have to admit i don't even know how many were to sail on the Majesty
but surely a mechanical problem that caused 5 deaths should have been more in our faces than the forced survivalist training camp that Carnival held.
Do we feel more empathy towards the thousands impacted by the horrid conditions on one cruise than to 5 people who lost their lives?
Is this geocentric - more people participating in the boards are American and not as likely to be impacted by the European market dominated Thompson cruise?
Was the news coverage more skewed to Thompson on the other side of the pond?

[GORDONCHICK]

Because Thompson is line operating primarily in Europe/UK, it's not all over the news or these boards. Now, I bet it was across the pond. It's more relevant to them.

They key for news hooks is how it ties or relates to it's audience. If it doesn't people turn it off or change the station.

[John Bull]

As the chick's post, Thomson is a cruiseline marketed almost exclusively to Brits. Cruise Critic is dominated by US cruisers but the fatal accident on Thomson Majesty, during lifeboat training, is covered on the Thomson & UK Cruisers' boards.

I think most folk either side of the pond would prefer to have been on Triumph. Must be a very sad time on Majesty, and in a few years it'll still be sad memories.

JB

[sail7seas]

People DIED on Thomson.
No one died on Triumph.

[Skywench]

Well, what happened on the Thomsom ship was a tragedy, as people died. The Carnival incident was not. Vacations were ruined, but that's not a tragedy.

[davecttr]

I was aboard Majesty last Sunday when the terrible accident happened. i am proud to say everyone behaved with dignity and the crew went on with their jobs. There were no complaints or mention of sueing. We were told monday evening that the cruise was cancelled and we would get full refunds. All passengers had been flown home or onto their hotels etc by Wednesday, after which most of the crew were stood down and could do what they wanted. Safety checks were completed, praise for the flag carrier here Malta who took their responsibilities seriously. The ship is now back in Tenerife and will depart as normal tonight on the next cruise.

There was quite a bit of coverage over here and in countries who had passengers aboard, Denmark for instance.

The Triumph incident was shown on the main bulletins as she arrived in Mobile.

I will have no problem with cruising on Thomson Majesty again and am not bothered about compensation, after all, I am home and those poor souls will never see theirs.

[calliopecruiser]

Gordonchick said it best - news coverage is related to the audience, and most posters here are American, and the news coverage you're seeing is American. Add to that the fact that the American news coverage you're seeing has better access to images from the Carnival ship fire, and you have even more reason for heavy coverage of the Carnival fire and very little coverage of the Thompson tragedy by the US press.

[navybankerteacher]

Aside from the geo-centric reporting, the Thomson event was worse because of the loss of life. Looking at it another way,however, the Triumph was worse because it probably involved poor maintenance, poor staffing and poor training of staff (the fire happened, it burned long enough to do serious damage and ship's company were unable to effect serious remediation), while the Triumph disaster arose from simply a parted cable (which, however, may also prove to be the end result of poor maintenance and training).

Both incidents should not have happened -- and only did happen because the lines involved allowed the triggering conditions to exist. No ship operations can be fool-proof, but both of these expose management attitudes (probably cost-driven) which permitted avoidable problems to occur.

Perhaps the cruising public might have to pay more for their cruises so the lines can spend sufficiently on equipment, staffing and training to reduce the likelihood of such events. Continuing to accept the "ship happens" concept could lead to even further cost controls on the part of the lines which can likely lead to more, and more serious, incidents.

[caa]

The difference in coverage is also related to the nature of "news". The Thomson disaster was covered on the news here (I'm in the U.S.) but it was reported after the accident was over. The Carnival story was ongoing and changing and more information emerged over the course of several days.

[jocap]

I think most people in the UK would have watched the news about the Thomson tragedy in sadness; it's a well-known company, and non-cruisers will probably have flown in a Thomson aeroplane, or had a package holiday with them. The ship is flagged to Malta, and, as Dave says, that country came out in force to check safety on one of their vessels, in a way that other flagging countries might not have....so Malta, and probably many countries where Thomson flights go, will have been watching.
Majesty is owned by Louis Cruises, an ex-NCL ship, and it already has suffered a tragedy when the bow window was smashed in heavy seas when sailed by Louis.
It appears that praise is due to both the crew and passengers for their sympathetic handling of the time on board, including a service for the dead, and a collection of money.
Well done, Dave and all your fellow cruisers and crew- and Thomsons- for the respectful way you handled this.

[Hlitner]

There is no comparison! The Carnival Triumph incident (it was not a tragedy) was a major inconvenience to 3000 folks, but unlike many inconveniences these days the passengers are being pretty well compensated for their difficult experience. The Thomson incident was a true tragedy which resulted in loss of life. Since the Thomson accident did not involve any passengers it got little news coverage. But these lifeboat disasters (and this was not the first time crew has died during lifeboat drills) cries out for a major industry inquiry. Lifeboats are supposed to save lives....not kill people.

Hank

[sthelder]

Originally Posted by John Bull

As the chick's post, Thomson is a cruiseline marketed almost exclusively to Brits. Cruise Critic is dominated by US cruisers but the fatal accident on Thomson Majesty, during lifeboat training, is covered on the Thomson & UK Cruisers' boards.

I think most folk either side of the pond would prefer to have been on Triumph. Must be a very sad time on Majesty, and in a few years it'll still be sad memories.

JB

Agreed, the part of Tripadvisor I used was dominated with Thomson threads, Carnival Triumph didn't get any mention.

[sthelder]

Originally Posted by navybankerteacher

Aside from the geo-centric reporting, the Thomson event was worse because of the loss of life. Looking at it another way,however, the Triumph was worse because it probably involved poor maintenance, poor staffing and poor training of staff (the fire happened, it burned long enough to do serious damage and ship's company were unable to effect serious remediation), while the Triumph disaster arose from simply a parted cable (which, however, may also prove to be the end result of poor maintenance and training).

Thomson Majesty is a very old second-handed vessel, and some claimed to be in the know said it's in bad shape too...

[Colorado Kat]

No comparison. The Thomson was worse, since human beings died. For the Triumph, people were inconvenienced.

[davecttr]

Originally Posted by sthelder

Thomson Majesty is a very old second-handed vessel, and some claimed to be in the know said it's in bad shape too...

Twenty years is not very old for a ship. It is wise not to speculate on the outcome of the enquiry. As for people who claim to be in the know, yeah, we all know lots of those types of people

[kingoftheicedragons]

The Thomson tragedy was obviously worse, but the US tends to be more Ameri-centric, and OMG thousands of people had their vacations ruined by the big bad Carnival cruise line--gasp!!

[calliopecruiser]

Originally Posted by kingoftheicedragons

The Thomson tragedy was obviously worse, but the US tends to be more Ameri-centric, and OMG thousands of people had their vacations ruined by the big bad Carnival cruise line--gasp!!

LOL! My reaction exactly. On the flip side, the Carnival problem was not handled nearly as well as the Thompson tragedy, IMO.

[kirsty_r]

Thomson tragedy happened and was reported on the day, but the carnival triumph incident lasted several days. Saying that however,, the carnival incident wasn't reported that widely here in the UK... I was monitoring it closely, but relatively few of my colleagues knew about it.