Margaritaville Islander accidents and incidents

Margaritaville Islander cruise ship
Rating:

Former names
Margaritaville At Sea Islander, MAS Islander, Costa Atlantica

Length (LOA)
293 m / 961 ft

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CruiseMapper's Margaritaville Islander cruise ship accidents, incidents and law news reports relate to a 2652-passenger vessel owned by Margaritaville at Sea (Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line). Our Margaritaville Islander accidents page contains reports made by using official data from renown online news media sources, US Coast Guard and Wikipedia.

Here are also reported latest updates on cruise law news related to ashore and shipboard crimes still investigated by the police. Among those could be arrests, filed lawsuits against the shipowner / cruise line company, charges and fines, grievances, settled / withdrawn legal actions, lost cases, virus outbreaks, etc.

  • propulsion/power loss - 2008, 2010
  • 2008 - near-collision with Grand Neptune (car carrier ship) in Dover Strait, England UK
  • deaths - overboard (2007, 2009-officer, 2011-crew)
  • injuries/crimes - sexual (2005, 2010)
  • Coronavirus - 2020 (149 crew, while docked in Nagasaki Japan)
  • curious - 2016 (full-charter by a private Chinese company)

April 2020Cruise Illness / Virus Outbreaks

(epidemic Coronavirus outbreak) The cruise ship remained docked at Koyagi Factory (MHI-Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard, Nagasaki City, Japan) for an extensive refit and refurbishment. The drydocking project was conducted in the period February 20 through March 25.

Costa Atlantica was originally planned to be drydocked in China, before starting operations for CSSC (Carnival China Cruise Shipping). However, MHI-Mitsubishi was contracted due to the global Coronavirus pandemic that started in China. The vessel arrived in Japan on January 29. It was passenger-free, carrying only staff-crew (623, 33 nationalities) onboard. It was scheduled to remain at the shipyard until April 30.

On April 14, the ship's physician collected respiratory samples from 4 crew (suspected as COVID-19 / Coronavirus cases) and conducted RT-PCR tests (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction). The tests returned 3 negative and 1 positive (who suffered a fever). In the previous week, 20 other crew developed fevers. A total of 56 staff-crew (who have had regular contacts with him) were immediately quarantined and PCR tests were conducted by Nagasaki Prefecture medical personnel.

On April 22, of the 56 tests, 33 returned positive and 23 tests negative. Nagasaki Prefecture's Governor (Hodo Nakamura) also announced that all the crew will be tested for COVID-19. All who test positive but are asymptomatic will be isolated onboard and monitored, the symptomatic crew will be hospitalized ashore, the uninfected will be repatriated. Following the shipwide testing, on April 23 to the infected were added 14 more cases (totalling to 48). One of them was medevaced and hospitalized after developing severe respiratory distress.

On April 24 were announced 43 more confirmed cases (totalling to 91). On April 25 were announced 58 new cases (totalling to 149 / ~24% of all the 623 shipboard personnel). On May 5th were disembarked 125 crew (Filipino) after testing negative for Coronavirus. On May 31, the liner left Port Nagasaki en route for Manila Philippines. A total of 495 crew are already repatriated. 6 remained hospitalized in Nagasaki until test negative.

27 January 2016Other Incidents

In January 2016, the company “Cheetah Mobile Inc” (NYSE-listed, headquartered in Beijing China) booked privately (chartered) the whole cruise ship as bonus vacation for its over 2200 employees. The 5-night / 6-day itinerary (Jan 27 – Feb 1) was a roundtrip from China to Japan and South Korea (Tianjin to Busan and Fukuoka). According to unconfirmed sources, the price for the full-ship charter was well over USD 5 million. The Chinese company’s business is programming mobile apps, tools, and phone games.

02 January 2011Crew / Passenger Deaths

(overboard) On January 2, 2011, a 25-year-old male crew committed suicide (jumped overboard and drowned) while the ship was docked in homeport Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale) Florida. The young man (of Indian origin) worked on the ship as a waiter. He was found at ~8 pm, unresponsive along the vessel’s portside. A fellow crew told the police he was on Deck 3 when he heard a splashing sound, then saw the man in the water and threw him a life ring. The man seemed unable to put on the device.

USCG rescuers arrived soon to find the body face down in the water. At Broward General Medical Center he was pronounced dead. The man was subject of internal investigation for alleged sexual harassment incident.

04 November 2010Propulsion / Power Loss

On November 4, 2010, at ~1 pm, the vessel experienced steering problems, just a few minutes after leaving call port Naval Dockyard (Bermuda). The assisting onboard pilot stopped the cruise ship and called 2 tugboats to come for assistance. The ship was tugged away to an area with less shipping traffic, where its engineers fixed the problem allowing it to continue to Port Canaveral FL.

13 May 2010Crew / Passenger Crimes

(sexual) On May 13, 2010, a 23-year-old male crew (working on the ship as a waiter) was arrested as he was disembarking the ship in Halifax (NS Canada). The man pleaded guilty after being charged for possession and import of child pornography. The police found in his cabin 2 videos (1 on a computer, 1 on a USB flash drive). The man was sentenced to 8 months in jail. He had worked with Costa Cruises for 3 years.

17 September 2009Crew / Passenger Deaths

(overboard) On September 17, 2009, a 28-year-old male crew (working on the ship as the second engineer) fell overboard while the ship was en-route from Civitavecchia-Rome to Barcelona. The body was found on the following day. The man’s death was a mystery as he was happy (just promoted) so his family ruled out suicide.

17 June 2008Propulsion / Power Loss

On June 17, 2008, soon after leaving call port Tromso Norway, the vessel reduced speed as one of its propellers was entangled in a fishing net. The ship was on 11-day Norwegian Fjords cruise (itinerary June 12 – 23) roundtrip from homeport Amsterdam to Geiranger, Gravdal, Tromso, Honningsvag, Åndalsnes, Bergen.

15 May 2008Ship Collision / Allision

On November 18, 2008, the UK’s MAIB agency (Marine Accident Investigation Bureau) issued a report regarding a near-collision incident between Costa Atlantica and the car carrier (Ro-Ro ship) Grand Neptune.

The incident occurred on May 15, 2008, in the waters of Dover Strait (aka Dover Narrows, English Channel's narrowest part). MAIB investigation identified several factors related to the actions taken by the cruise ship’s bridge team which contributed to the situation.

The Grand Neptune vessel was on a passage in Dover Strait when it maneuvered hard to starboard (making a complete 360-degree turn) to avoid collision with the cruise ship. Atlantica was on passage from Le Havre (port for Paris) to Harwich England, carrying 1697 passengers and 859 crew, and moving at cruising speed 16 knots (18 mph / 30 kph).

Atlantica crossed the separation shipping traffic scheme between MSC Serena (containership) and Grand Neptune, both of which were transiting the Straight’s southwest traffic lane at speeds of, respectively, 18 knots (21 mph / 33 kph) and 17 knots (20 mph / 31 kph). The distance between the southwest-bound cargo ships was less than 3 nautical miles (3,5 miles / 5,6 km). According to the MIAB’s investigation report, the situation was caused by the following factors:

  1. Inaccurate radar information on which the cruise ship’s Captain based his decision to cross the
    southwest shipping traffic lane.
  2. Atlantica’s maneuvering during the crossing of the lane was potentially confusing, and the Captain’s intentions were not readily apparent to the cargo vessels.
  3. Atlantica’s Navigation Bridge team was slow to evaluate the risk of collision with the car carrier ship Grand Neptune.
  4. Atlantica’s Navigation Bridge team didn’t appreciate the possible inaccuracy of the ARPA radar data when maneuvering.
  5. Following the near-collision incident, the Costa Crociere company conducted an internal investigation identifying similar to the MIAB’s safety issues.

31 October 2007Crew / Passenger Deaths

(overboard) On October 31, 2007, a 40-year-old female passenger was reported missing by her husband. The woman fell overboard in the Eastern Mediterranean, somewhere between Santorini Island and mainland Greece (Katakolon / Olympia).

March 2005Crew / Passenger Crimes

(sexual / law news) On February 13, 2006, a lawsuit against Costa Cruises was filed for an alleged sexual assault of a minor. A 13-year-old boy (with learning disabilities) was allegedly sexually assaulted by a male crew during a 7-day Caribbean cruise roundtrip from Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale). The incident occurred in March 2005, and the boy’s father learned about it from one of his teachers.

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