Carnival Sues BAE Systems Over Recent Triumph Mishap

Carnival Corporation has reportedly filed a lawsuit asking for more than $12 million in damages that the Carnival Triumph suffered in an April incident.

The Carnival Triumph broke free of its mooring during a windstorm, resulting in the drowning of one worker. Carnival now claims that the mooring equipment being used by BAE Systems was “defective”.

BAE Systems Support Solutions is the company that owns the private dock where the luxury liner was undergoing repairs after an engine room fire left it adrift for days at sea with thousands of passengers on board.

In the lawsuit, Carnival states that their vessel was reliant on shore power and other services that were being provided by BAE Systems because the ship's main and emergency generators were not functioning when the storm hit.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the complaint also says four bollards that the Triumph's mooring lines were tied to failed and broke free from the pier where the repairs were taking place. Officials say three of the rear lines broke and one of the lines at the front of the ship failed. The Carnival complaint alleges that this left a disproportionate amount of strain on the ship's mooring arrangement, and caused the ship to tear away from the dock.

During this incident, the Triumph crashed into another vessel and the impact left a large gash in its hull.

The widow of the BAE systems employee who fell into the bay and drowned during the windstorm has already filed a suit against Carnival.