There was no evidence that the fire aboard the 'Yaf Horizon' at the Port of Haifa on June 10 came under attack from Hezbollah and was hit by a drone or gunfire. The ship has a history of inspection violations, including issues with engine room cleanliness, fire damper operations and nonworking fire alarms. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVUdSWi-AjQ&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.polygraph.info%2F&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&feature=emb_title
News
QUEEN VICTORIA
On June 214, 2024, the 'Queen Victoria' sailing 100 nautical miles wast of Barcelona, en route from La Seyne sur Mer to Palma de Mallorca, requested the medical evacuation of a 32-year-old woman due to premature birth. The CCS Palma and CCS Barcelona of Salvamento Marítimo coordinated the response and mobilized the SAR helicopter Helimer 206, which hoisted the woman and transported her to the Son Espases hospital in Mallorca. The cruise ship arrived in the port on June 15 at 7 a.m.
VENTA MAERSK
The 'Venta Maersk' was hit by GPS jamming on the night of April 27, 2024, north-east of Bornholm heading for Klapeida. Other ships in the area also lost the GPS signal as a result of Russian harassment. The sihp, however, has processes and equipment to navigate without connection to GPS. The Russians possess the necessary technology and have previously demonstrated the equipment in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. GPS jamming is being experienced more and more frequently in the Baltic Sea area, and André Ken Jakobsson, who researches hybrid warfare at the University of Southern Denmark, links the development to Western support for Ukraine, where Denmark is among the largest contributors.
GODDESS OF THE NIGHT
The 'Goddess of the Night' was seized on June 12 due to severe sanitary issues, including unusable toilets, water leaks, and broken air conditioning. Many cabins were deemed uninhabitable, forcing officers to relocate to hotels and another nearby ship. Officers encountered flooding, torn mattresses, moldy food, and waste materials scattered throughout the ship. A letter dated on June 10 to the Director General of Public Security Prefect Vittorio Pisani from the Secretary General Domenico Pianese said, “This is a gruesome housing condition that the Administration has reserved for thousands of our colleagues. The colleagues, rightly bezzled by how they were treated, will clearly do their best to make our country that has the honor of hosting the G7 well, but we believe that your urgent intervention is a must to ensure minimum conditions of livability to those who have been sent from all over Italy to guarantee the security of the important summit.” Initial investigations confirmed “significant hygienic-sanitary criticalities and serious accommodation deficiencies.” Following an order from prosecutors in Brindisi, the ship was seized to facilitate further investigations. The ship was moored at the port of Brindisi on June 9 to begin housing officers ahead of the summit. The Ministry of the Interior had inspected the ship in April 2024, documenting severe deficiencies not addressed before the event. In response to the seizure, 1,800 officers were moved to nearby hotels, while another 600 were transferred to the 'GNV Azzurra'. Although the ship has undergone two renovations, the last was in 2003. It was also facing scrutiny for inadequate conditions. The police union said the new ship, which can accommodate 2,180 passengers in 570 cabins, presented “a situation already critical in itself to an even more inadequate solution.” The situation testifies to “a total failure and an unacceptable inadequacy on the part of those who had to take care of it.” The case has been brought to parliamentarians as a possible case of fraud against the ship’s owner. The government had paid nearly 6 million euros to rent the ship. Report with photos: https://www.cruisehive.com/cruise-ship-seized-in-italy-over-poor-conditions/137114
ARKLOW WIND
The chief of police on Svalbard has issued a fine of one million Norwegian crowns to the Irish shipping company which is behind the 'Arklow Wind' and called at Longyearbyen on June 6, 2024, to load a cargo of coal, carrying heavy bunker oil in the tanks. Since 2022, it has been prohibited to call at Svalbard with heavy bunker oil on board, due to the environmentally sensitive and difficult-to-access nature of the islands, in the event of a spill. It is the first time that the ban, which appears in section 82a of the Svalbard Environment Act, has been applied. In addition to the fine to the shipping company, the captain was fined 300,000 NOK. The Norwegian authorities had received a tip that the 'Arklow Wind' had heavy bulk oil in some of the ship's tanks, and therefore made an inspection on board the ship upon its arrival in Longyearbyen. Both the shipping company and the captain have refused to accept the fines, and the case is therefore now in court. The case is scheduled for the start of October at the Nord-Troms District Court in Tromsø.