Crew trapped on Baltimore ship, seven weeks after bridge collapse

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-69011124

by perihelions • 2 years ago

21 14 2 years ago

"The crew, made up of 20 Indians and a Sri Lankan national, has been unable to disembark because of visa restrictions, a lack of required shore passes and parallel ongoing investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and FBI."

Visa restrictions. <smh>

mikestew• 2 years ago

There is mention of having crew at the ready, so I was willing to give a teensy bit of benefit of doubt. But then I read that they gave them temporary phones with SIMs, but no data. No data? Really? Major accident like this, millions or maybe billions of dollars lost, but $DEITY forbid that we spend $1000/month (20 * what, $50 for unlimited data?) on keeping the crew happy.

netsharc2• 2 years ago

Or even cheaper, a portable WiFi access point with a SIM card on it.

gusgus01• 2 years ago

Not to minimize the experience, but don't the crew regularly "get trapped" on the boat weeks at a time without cellphone data? As in every time they do an ocean crossing.

I was reading an article here recently about the boats that fix the cables on the sea floor, they detailed that very situation and talked about how some ships are opting to add starlink but it's still very ship dependent.

netsharc2• 2 years ago

Yeah, papers and bureaucracy as an excuse for inhumane treatment...

Why not just "detain" them in some nice hotel rooms, rules are made by humans and humans can adjust them. But hey, who wants to bother doing that for some lowly workers from third world countries...

hi-v-rocknroll2• 2 years ago

It's bullshit. If the situation becomes unbearable or unsafe to maintain humans on the ship, they ought to be escorted to controlled access lodging on-shore or elsewhere, and offered transportation back home. Trapping people on a ship is inhumane and tantamount to slavery.[0]

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_transportation#Transport...

killingtime743• 2 years ago

It's a bit more nuanced than that. If I work for an airline and I quit my job while in flight it's definitely not false imprisonment that they don't land immediately and I'm definitely not a slave. It is sad what has happened to these Mariners but if they had been on their normal journey it would have been multiple days or weeks without the ability to go on shore. Likewise if they quit their jobs while enroute it is not slavery to not immediately travel to the nearest port.

Slavery entails loss of many civil rights, not just being restricted in movement.

creativeSlumber• 2 years ago

"the crew has been left largely without communication with the outside world for "a couple of weeks" after their mobile phones were confiscated by the FBI as part of the investigation."

This was a bit surprising that FBI confiscated employees personal devices. Do they have the authority to do that?

killingtime743• 2 years ago

How do we know that they don't have a warrant. Seems pretty straightforward to apply and get a warrant for phones that may have been part of the commissioning of a crime

tedunangst• 2 years ago

What would happen if somebody brought data sims onto the boat and gave them to the crew?

Crew trapped on Baltimore ship, seven weeks after bridge collapse

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