Passenger Ship Safety High on Upcoming MSC Meeting Agenda

IMO's Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) meets at its London Headquarters for its 92nd session from 12 to 21 June 2013.

Amongst other matters of moment the meeting will have a focus on passenger ship safety provisions, as set out in a preview of the meeting:

The MSC is expected to adopt amendments to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) relating to passenger drills; discuss preliminary recommendations arising from the Costa Concordia incident.

Passenger drill amendments to be adopted
The MSC is expected to adopt draft amendments SOLAS regulation III/19 to require musters of newly embarked passengers prior to or immediately upon departure, instead of “within 24 hours”, as stated in the current regulations.

The MSC is also expected to establish a working group on passenger ship safety to consider relevant issues, including the action plan drawn up at the last session following the Costa Concordia incident in January 2012.

The MSC will have for its consideration the Costa Concordia casualty investigation conducted by the Italian authorities*  with an extensive range of recommendations addressing stability issues, electronic equipment, emergency power generation, evacuation analysis, and search and rescue, in addition to operational and management issues.

Also on the agenda are matters related to piracy and armed robbery against ships and other items submitted by the IMO sub-committees.