The maritime incident happened 12 miles off the coast of Civitavecchia when the Royal Caribbean cruise ship – the Liberty of the Seas – and an Italian fishing vessel – the Angel II – barely avoided the collision between the vessels by a miracle. An initial reconstruction shows that the Liberty of the Seas has passed just 15 meters from the fishing vessel.
This incident was reported by the fishing vessel to Maritime authorities who started an administrative investigation. The initial administrative investigation could possibly become criminal a one if by cross-checking the radar tracks of the two vessels it shows that the Liberty of the Seas breached the Code by ignoring the warnings of the emergency lights sent out by the fishing vessel, thus not changing course and leading to the incident.
The fishing vessel deployed their fishing nets in the sea when the crew spotted the cruise ship about 3 miles away and activated all signaling devices, but the Liberty of the Seas continued to proceed on the same route disregarding the emergency attempts. The Captain immediately contacted the Coast Guard, but in the meantime, the ship had approached the vessel dangerously. This danger got the two sailors who were aboard the fishing vessel and in panic to the point to consider throwing themselves into the sea. Finally, the captain decided to give up from the fishing nets and performed emergency maneuver that allowed him to avoid the collision. Once docked at the pier, the fishing vessel informed the harbor master who immediately launched a full investigation.
