Maritime Injury Lawyer Blog

Police in St. Maarten say a cruise ship crew member has been shot in an attempted robbery. Police spokesman Ricardo Henson says the victim works on board the Aurora. His wounds are not life threatening. The attack occurred on Wednesday near two brothels in the former Dutch Caribbean colony.

Violent crime is relatively rare in St. Maarten especially against foreigners.

Gahadhar Pradhan told reporters at the hospital that he was walking from one brothel to another to look for a friend when an armed man approached him and demanded his money.

He said he told the robber to take his money when the man suddenly shot him and fled with nothing. Henson said a search was on for the suspect.

Two helicopters were used to rescue an 80-year-old man from a cruise ship in the Tasman Sea yesterday.

The helicopters were sent from Te Anau to carry out the medical evacuation from the cruise liner Silver Shadow after the man suffered "a medical event", Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand spokeswoman Sophie Hazelhurst said.

He was flown to Dunedin Hospital for treatment. His condition was not known this morning.
The Silver Shadow was heading from Australia to Milford Sound and was 232km west of Milford Sound.

Ms Hazelhurst said it was usual to use two helicopters for long distance evacuations.

An investigation into the failure of the blowout preventer (BOP) from the Gulf Oil Spill in 2010 may have been compromised due to a conflict of interest between the investigating firm and employees of companies involved in the incident.

Doubt is being raised because a Transocean Ltd. employee was allowed to manipulate some of the equipment on the BOP during the investigation. Transocean is the owner of the Deepwater Horizon, the oil rig involved in the disastrous Gulf coast oil spill which is under investigation. British Petroleum (BP) was leasing the oil rig from Transocean at the time of the disaster.

Continue reading "Blowout Investigation Compromised " »

Coast Guard medically evacuated a man after receiving a call for assistance from a cruise ship near the entrance to the Cape Fear River, N.C., Sunday.

At approximately 12:30 p.m. watchstanders at the Coast Guard's 5th District command center in Portsmouth received a call from a crewmember aboard the Norwegian Gem stating that there was a 77 year-old male apparently suffering from acute pulmonary edema.

A rescue boat crew from Coast Guard Station Oak Island, N.C., was dispatched at approximately 5:30 p.m. and arrived on scene at approximately 6:30 p.m.

The man, along with his son, were transferred from the cruise ship to the rescue boat then transported to awaiting Emergency Medical Services at Coast Guard Station Oak Island. From there, the two men were transported to New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, N.C.

A British tourist is feared dead after falling overboard on a Caribbean cruise, according to reports.

An unnamed 50 year old woman fell from the balcony of her cabin on the Sea Princess, sailing between Curacao and Grand Turk islands. CCTV images showed her falling into the sea.

The ship combed the area and a search plane was launched but the woman was not found.

She was reported missing by her husband on the fifth day of their two week Christmas holiday.

A Florida man had just purchased a boat that sank off the southern New Jersey coast, killing him and leaving a second man hospitalized.

New Jersey State Police Sgt. Steve Jones says 62-year-old Gregory Arlotta, of Fort Myers, Fla. is missing and presumed dead after his boat sank early Thursday about seven miles off Cape May.

Officials say Arlotta bought the 63-foot vessel in New York a few days earlier and was transporting it to New Orleans when it sank.

Continue reading "Man dies in boating accident" »

Anadarko was recently named a defendant by the US Department of Justice in the lawsuit filed pertaining to the Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill.

Anadarko has a 25% stake in the failed Macondo well that led to the Gulf oil spill in April 2010. The suit also names BP which was the primary operator of the Macondo well, in addition to Mitsui & Co., Triton Asset Leasing, and Transocean, as well as BP's insurer, QBE Underwriting Ltd.

The suit alleges that the companies violated safety procedures and failed to use the best available and safest drilling technology to monitor the well's conditions leading up to the crisis.

The 30-foot fishing vessel ELLA ANN sank at the mouth of Willapa Bay on Sunday while fishing for dungeness crab. One of two crewmen, 34 year old Luis Perez was tragically lost. The caused of the capsize and sinking is unknown, but will be investigated by the Coast Guard. The captain of the vessel, Eric Petit, was revived with CPR by a helicopter crew after he was rescued.

Offshore helicopters in the North Sea will now be tracked at every stage of their journey to improve safety, reducing the risk of offshore helicopter crashes and enhance the chances of survival after a crash.

Oil and Gas UK and the National Air Traffic Services, say the tracking system is part of a new surveillance system that will track offshore helicopters transporting oil rig crews between shores and platforms, from the moment they lift off to the time they reach their destination. The tracking system uses receivers and transmitters fitted to offshore platforms that allow air traffic controllers to monitor the helicopters at a much greater range than they currently do.

Continue reading "Helicopter Tracking Improved" »

Two men are being treated for injuries after their airboat ejected them near the Brevard-Volusia county line early today.

The men had been riding the airboat over mostly dry ground about 7:54 a.m. near Hatbill Road and Baxter Point in Mims when the boat overturned and ejected them, according to Brevard County Fire Rescue.

Continue reading "Airboat flips; two hospitalized" »

The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in New Orleans against BP and eight other companies involved in the Gulf oil spill that followed the blowout of the Deepwater Horizon Macondo well on April 20, 2010. The lawsuit was announced by the Justice Department on Wednesday, December 15, 2010.

Nine companies were named in the lawsuit which the government has filed in order for the defendants to pay for the environmental and economic damage incurred from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The complaint filed Wednesday alleges violations of federal safety regulations leading to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico after the explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig.

Continue reading "Justice Sues BP and 8 Others" »

The Justice Department sued BP and several other companies involved in the Gulf oil spill Wednesday, an opening salvo in the government's effort to get billions of dollars for untold economic and environmental damage.

The government accuses the companies of disregarding federal safety regulations in drilling the well that blew out April 20 and triggered a deadly explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig.

The lawsuit makes it possible for the federal government to seek billions of dollars in penalties for polluting the Gulf of Mexico, beaches and wetlands, and reimbursement for its cleanup costs. More than 300 lawsuits filed previously by individuals and businesses, and now consolidated in the New Orleans federal court, include claims for financial losses and compensation for the families of 11 workers killed in the blast.

Continue reading "Feds sue BP" »

A wave slammed into an Antarctic cruise ship with 88 American passengers and 77 crew members aboard. The crew overcame the damage and was heading back to its scheduled port on Wednesday, the vessel's operator said.

The Clelia II declared an emergency on Tuesday, reporting it had suffered engine damage amid heavy seas and 55 mph (90 kph) winds when it was northeast of the South Shetland Islands and about 500 miles (845 kilometers) from Ushuaia, the Argentine Navy said in a statement.

Continue reading "Cruise Ship Damaged" »

Maritime safety analysts are concerned about the decision to give Chevron permission to begin drilling activities in September off the coast of Scotland. The company has admitted that its contractor's spill protection software is unstable, has frequently crashed and cannot be taken as a reliable predictor of the extent of an oil spill should one occur.

BP seriously consider data from its own software that indicated that the well was unstable contributing to the Gulf of Mexico explosion earlier this year. Chevron has admitted that it has serious computing software problems. These concerns were outlined in confidential documents that were sent to the Department Of Energy and Climate Change. In spite of this, the company was given the go-ahead to begin drilling.

Continue reading "Drilling Plans Raise Concerns" »

Three oil rig workers were injured when a fire broke out aboard a rig off the coast of Louisiana last week. The explosion occurred in the Bayou Perot . According to news reports, the three rig workers were welding on the oil rig when it caught fire.

The oil operator Louisiana Delta Oil Company was able to contact the Coast Guard in time. The fire left the three workers with burn injuries. They were taken to the town of Jean Lafitte, which located about 3 miles from the rig and were admitted to hospital for treatment. At least one of the workers has suffered severe burns, while two of the workers are reported to have suffered minor burns.

The rig was a work over rig, which is typically used to conduct repair work on another well. The Coast Guard has initiated an investigation into the fire.