MOBILE, Ala. (WPMI) - A U.S. Coast Guard official said the investigation into the Carnival Triumph mishap could take anywhere from 8 to 12 months, according to a published report by CNN.
In an email Sunday afternoon, Carnival Spokesperson Vance Gulliksen said the company had no comment on the first lawsuit filed against Carnival because officials had not yet read the entire brief.
Even as the lawsuit was filed over the weekend, legal experts said it would be hard to win a case against the company because of what's in the fine print when a person signs up for a trip.
"These tickets, on the back of the tickets, say that you're not allowed to ask us, no matter how bad your injury or death is on our cruise ship, you're not allowed to ask us for any type of emotional distress or mental anguish damage," civil trial lawyer Joe ZarZaur told Local 15 Sunday night.
One woman who was a passenger on the Triumph before the latest voyage said the company knew about issues with the ship. She believed it should never have been back out on the water.
"They sent us an email the night before we were supposed to get on telling us that the previous cruise was having propulsion issues and that they would arrive late, " Carrie Meza said by phone Sunday night, "We had heard on our cruise that they had canceled the next cruise after ours, I guess to fix the ship and I apparently they didn't do it."
In a statement released last week, Carnival officials said the previous issues with the Triumph were not related to the February 10 incident.
An engine room fire disabled the ship forcing rescue teams to guide the powerless vessel to the Alabama Cruise terminal late Thursday night.
