AGIP Abruzzo, Italy, 1991

Agip Abruzzo was an oil tanker that belonged to the naval fleet of the company SNAM, which
is a subsidiary of the ENI group. The AGIP Abruzzo oil spill disaster is the worst disaster in the
Italian merchant since the World War II. It has also been considered as one of the two worst
environmental disasters in Italian history. The oil spill was caused by the collision of a ferry,
called the Moby Prince, with the oil tanker, Agip Abruzzo on April 10, 1991. As a result of the
collision, there was an extensive fire that devastated the oil tanker. Moby Prince was a ferry
owned by the Navigazione Arcipelago Maddalenino (NAVARMA) Lines. There were 65 crew
members and 75 passengers aboard the Moby Prince at the time of the disaster. Agip Abruzzo
was carrying around 80,000 tonnes of Iranian light crude oil at the time. All the people aboard
the ferry died, with the exception of one. As a consequence of the collision, 2000 tonnes of
crude oil got released into the sea in the Italian port of Livorno.

According to me, the factors that led to the disaster were:

1. There was a huge fog in the waters of Livorno, at the time of the disaster, which
reduced visibility to a great extent. Reports confirmed that a natural phenomenon
called advection fogging was experienced, due to which thick fog had developed in
the region. The captain of the Moby Prince, was unable to direct the ship in the right
direction, because of ultra-low visibility.
2. Rescuers were alerted by repeated calls from Agip Abruzzo, but the Mayday calls from
the Moby Prince, were not responded to.
3. The biggest cause of the high death toll, was the sluggish action of the rescue team.
They took too long to reach at the site of the accident. They took nearly two hours,
after the accident took place.
4. An amateur video footage from the port indicates, that the fire took long to spread on
the decks of the Moby Prince. Had the rescuers been on time, many lives could have
been saved.
5. Post mortem reports suggest that the main cause of death of the people aboard the
Moby Prince was carbon mono oxide poisoning, and not because of coming in contact
with fire. This clearly suggests, the delay in rescue operations.
6. After the collision took place and the Moby Prince got stuck into the tank number 7 of
Agip Abruzzo, the captain of the oil tanker, attempted to separate the two ships, by
accelerating the engines of the oil tanker to their maximum, and eventually separated
the two ships. This was the main reason, that the oil found enough space to enter the
sea. Had the ships not separated, the oil would have remained on the oil tanker, and
not escaped into the sea.
7. When the flames of fire hit the command deck of the fire, the crew escaped without
turning off the ferry’s air conditioning system. As a result, the fans were still operating,
and according to reports, this helped in circulating toxic gases like carbon mono oxide
into those rooms, where fire had not yet reached. This was also an important cause
for the disaster.
8. It can also be inferred from the reports, that there was a gap of communication
between the oil tanker Commander and the rescue operators. The Commander
informed the rescue team that the ship had struck with a small service boat, hence he
 misreported the accident. As a result, the rescuers approached the oil tanker first,
while help was provided to the ferry, several hours later.
9. Some evidences point out that Agip Abruzzo was anchored in a no anchor zone, which
possibly lied in the path of Moby Prince. Some evidences also suggest the presence of
unusual traffic in the region, due to unnecessary ships.
10. However, there were some mistakes made by the crew of Moby Prince as well, which
include, them not using radar and other location tracking equipment and for not
following the proper procedures required for harbor maneuvering and speeding.

Based, upon all of the causes that led to the disaster, the solutions or future measures,
which I think should be adopted to prevent such a disaster from repeating are:

1. The first and the foremost recommendation, would be to increase the efficiency
of rescue operations, in case of a disaster. As is evident, had the rescue team been
on time, and interpreted the situation correctly, many lives could have been saved
and even oil spill could have been prevented to a certain extent.
2. One of the important recommendations would be to avoid ships from anchoring
at a potential hazardous location. There must be definite boundaries, within which
a ship can be anchored safely. This must be coordinated by the port safety
management.
3. There should be such a system, to warn ships, ahead of a severe fog, so that they
can refrain the ship from moving. Although, this could waste a lot of time and lead
to lesser efficiency, but it will be a huge step towards marine safety.
4. All the crew and passengers of a ship, must be given proper training to handle
critical situations. The training must be given at least one month prior to their
travel. Mock drills must also be conducted, so that the crew and passengers get a
hands on experience for tackling emergencies.
5. The rescue team should give equal priorities to every ship involved in a collision.
As is seen in the Agip Abruzzo disaster, the rescue team gave more importance to
the crew of Agip Abruzzo, while they were too sluggish to provide help to the crew
and the passengers of Moby Prince.
6. There must be oxygen masks installed in every room or compartment of ships, so
that passengers or crew, could use them in any critical situation. There should be
some life-saving equipment on ferry ships including life boats, tug boats so that
they could be used at the time of emergency.
7. According to me, there should be some equipment present on oil tankers, to
control oil spills. For instance, there should be booms present on oil ships, so that
they can prevent the oil from spreading further in water. Booms, should be spread
upon the water surface, across the area, in which oil has been spread, to restrict
its further movement.
8. There is one suggestion, that I think should be implemented throughout the
industry. The oil barrels must be stored in a fire proof compartment within the oil
tankers. Once, all the crew or passengers have been rescued, there should be
attempts to control the fire and then attempts should be made to recover the oil,
and prevent it from spilling.