Carnival Won’t Pay Taxpayers Back For Triumph Rescue, 90 Others


Carnival won’t pay the government back for more than $4 million in costs to rescue services spent in dozens upon dozens of events over the past five years, the company confirmed.

Carnival’s Triumph disaster was both costly and drawn out, but the services rendered by the Coast Guard were one incident of more than 90 “serious events” taxpayers subsidized for the cruise company — and Carnival says it has no intention of paying back the government for the instances in which its fleet went awry.

Senator Jay Rockefeller wrote to Carnival about the cost on-board incidents has posed to taxpayers over the last half-decade, noting that the cruise ship company pays “little or nothing in federal taxes,” and urging them to reimburse the Navy and Coast Guard for the $4.2 million spent on Carnival Cruise incidents alone during that timeframe.

Carnival’s response? Thanks, but no thanks. NBC reports that James Hunn, Carnival’s senior vice president of corporate maritime policy, wrote back to Rockefeller:

“Carnival’s policy is to honor maritime tradition that holds that the duty to render assistance at sea to those in need is a universal obligation of the entire maritime community.”

If you think honoring something by draining its taxpayer-supplied funding is a dubious thing, you’re not alone — Rockefeller commented on Carnival’s refusal to pay the government back for bailing it out:

“Carnival’s response to my detailed inquiry is shameful … It is indisputable that Carnival passengers deserve better emergency response measures than they experienced on the Triumph. I am considering all options to hold the industry to higher passenger safety standards.”

Do you think Carnival should be held responsible for the cost of rescues like the one mounted for the Carnival Triumph this year?

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