Mark Rockwell
Government Security News
February 15, 2013
As the struggling Carnival cruise ship Triumph made its weary way to port in Mobile, AL, on Feb. 14, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) mounted a special operation to expedite its exhausted passengers’ customs processing on-board.
A fire in the Carnival Triumph’s engine room on Feb. 10 crippled the ship and set in motion a cascade of events that passengers have said turned the ocean liner into a “floating petri dish” with broken toilets, raw sewage dripping down walls, food shortages and broken air conditioning for the majority of the rooms on board. Some of the 3,000 passengers on board had taken to sleeping on the decks to avoid the odor and heat in their rooms.
As the ship approached the Port of Mobile on Feb. 14, towed by tug boats, passengers were understandably anxious to leave. CBP worked to get them through customs processing them so they could leave as quickly as possible once the ship docked. CBP said it worked closely with Carnival Cruise lines and the U.S. Coast Guard to expedite the safe return and processing of the passengers.
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