MV Explorer - The Questions Begin

Passengers are transferred between lifeboats and rescue craft from other ships
after the Explorer was holed in a collision with subsea ice or rocks in the Antarctic Ocean.
Pictures: Getty Images

Alastair Dalton, Transport Correspondent of Scotsman.com is reporting that questions about the safety of MV Explorer are not new.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Dr Claude Daley, a polar-ship expert at Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada, said: "The ship should not have listed so much with such a small hole, which looks like it may have been made by rock rather than ice. There may have been deficiencies with the watertight doors."

Five faults, some involving the watertight doors, which should have contained the water flooding in, were found in an inspection of the Explorer in Greenock in May. Toronto-based Gap Adventures, which operates the vessel, said that they had been repaired.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency inspection found five faults, missing search-and-rescue plans and lifeboat maintenance problems. Watertight doors were described as "not as required", and fire-safety measures also attracted criticism. The agency said the faults had been fixed before the vessel sailed.

It is understood that Chilean inspectors found six deficiencies during an inspection in Puerto Natales in March. These included two related to safety of navigation. However, a passenger safety certificate was issued for the vessel last month.

The full article is here.