>> okay. admiral, as you know the law requires cruise ships to report crimes committed on ships and the coast guard provides the information through a internet port al i have concerns about te low number of crimes being reported. there were 16 reported in the entire year of 2011, walk me through how a crime is reported and investigated. let's say a sexual assault occurs on the high seas involving a u.s. citizen. who has jurisdiction over this crime? how would the jurisdiction be determined? who is able to make an arrest? >> for a crime of that nature, the process would be the cruise lines would report it. it would go to the fbi, there would be investigation by the fbi, typically in conjunction with coast guard investigators, the fbi would post the result

ares, once the case is final, we would put it on our portal, but we are posting closed cases. so what you see is low numbers, they are closed cases. there are more cases that are still open, still under investigation, not closed out. so that is not representative of the total. >> that is not representative on the portal at all some. >> no. >> a key element of the law was to give the public information on the crime on cruise ships. i hope the coast guard and fbi are doing everything that they can to have complete information. thank you very much. >> thank you. mr. frenthal? >> i apologize for arriving late of course i had a fema haring in another building. i did, i am sure you probably covered this, but reassurances for american citizens on cruise

ships coming out of american ports, i realize that under foreign flagged vessels we do not have nearly as much jurisdiction as we have under u.s. flagged vessels but the economy of the cruise industry result in foreign flagged vessels. would you feel comfortable taking your family on a cruise out of a u.s. port in. >> -- port? >> i would because we have the most rigorous program in the world and have received cooperation with the industry, i have confidence that they are doing the right hinge. >> do you feel there's anything else that we need to be doing to ensure that cruise ship safety, again, obviously we have no jurisdiction outside of ships that call on our port, where are we short? >> well with, -- well, i think

the interest in the concorida investigation is to explore that question, we need to be open to the fact that regulations may need to be strengthened, the international regime needs to be strengthened. those are questions without answers at this point. but i think we with need to be open to the fact that we will have something to learn from this and then we would like to stay connected with the committee as to what the things may be. >> i look forward to working on you and i yield back the rest of my time. >> that you, ms. brown. >> thank you of course i want to thank you all for calling this meeting and the purpose of this meeting is to see what we need to do as -- to strengthen the industry after 100 years since the titanic sink and what policies that we need to implement to make sure that we can protect all of the passen r passenge passengers, we say, u.s. pass eninjue

enger but people come from all over the world to sail on our ships. i went to barcelona, and there's a ship that leaves and goes to barcelona. so it's an international business. i want to commend ms. matsui, for pursuing and making sure that people are safe on the ships when they travel. but my understanding is the cruise industry is one of safest in the world as far as being attacked or you can be attacked in my neighborhood as far as that goes. can you item us a little about that, because i would not want to leave here with the image that traveling on a cruise ship is not safe. i send my mother on a cruise ship, so i know it's safe. >> our numbers, i think speak for themselves. the cruise ships consistently rank you know, among the lowest of the category of ships that have marine casualties.

all the major types of casualties that we count, the numbers are single digit numbers, and in all these different categories, so, yes, comparatively safe. and i think overall, objectively speaking, it is a safe industry. but as mentioned, that doesn't happen by accident. that takes a lot of effort and from a coast guard perspective, we are relentless in aapplying that effort and working with the lines to keep them safe. >> tau -- thank you very much, i would like an opportunity to respond to the record, are we going to have accurate time to make additional comments in the record, is that correct? >> absolutelily. >> all right thank you. >> chairman, i just have a question or two, just to follow-up on what ms. brown just said. mr. chairman, last week, in oversight and government reform, we had a hearing on the chevy

volt and one of the things that came us on of that hearing is that we -- came out of that hearing is that we wanted to make it clear that the volt was a safe car and one of the things that the head of gm said to us was that you know, while it's nicer for you all to have this hearing, the car is safe. but there's going to be some collateral damage, following up on what ms. brown just asked. i want to make sure that we are being fair to our cruise industry. i worked very closely with the cruise industry when we were trying to pull it all together, the reauthorization, and i found them to be very fair, very reasonable, and as they would say to me, over and over again, cummingss this is just as important to us that we have safety on our ships as it is to you. and i thought that they were

very fair. and very balanced, very reasonable. and so i don't want the word to go out that because of these incidents that really, it's not us. see, i want that closer. i know what happens. just like with the chevy volt, when the president of gm said that he was concerned that there would be collateral damage, when we talk about the collateral damage here, we are talking about an industry that hires a lot of people. and an industry that provides families with -- in these difficult economic tyimes with one of the cheapest and most inclusive vacations that they can get. i don't want there to be collateral damage to that industry.

so, i want ee eto make it vercl it's a safe industry. and that leads to my question, are there things that you want to see us do more than what we are doing to make it even safer? nothing is perfect. it's not a pride, it's a project, we learn every day from our mistakes. so, the question is, are there anything things that we should be doing that we -- that we -- is there anything that we should be doing that we are not doing, and i'm just curious, because i don't want the word to go out that we have not fulfilled our responsibility. i believe the industry is doing the best they can, but i don't want them to be caught blind sided by you know, a hearing that paints them in a light that is just not accurate. that's all.

>> and thank you, congressman cummings, it is not intention to paint -- >> you have done a good job. i just want to make sure we are clear. you know how people are, they get a tid bit of information and particularly with these incidents that having nothing to do with us, next thing you know, that industry suffers when it should not suffer. >> we look at the casualty statistics closely and it bares out it's a safe industry. so they have a good record. we obviously want to work with the industry to maintain that record. with but it is objectively speaking, a safe industry. >> and how do we protect our progressing? >> we continue from a federal perspective, stay engaged with the industry, we will watch the casualty and see what un -- see what unfolds on it and stay connect to make sure there are

not other things that we need to do. we do not have the answers to that yet, but we feed to be open to what -- but we need to be open to what we learned from the investigation. >> i yield to the lady. >> mr. chairman -- pardon, you said cheap, and i just want you to know that cruise is comprehensive, affordable travel having been a travel agent prior to coming to congress. >> i'm reclaiming my time, i take back my word cheap and substitute it with affordable. i yield back, thank you for correcting me ms. brouchblt -- ms. brown, i yield back. >> i ask unanimous consent to have entered into the record, testimony. >> without objection, so ordered. ms. brown, mr. cummings?

anything else? well, thank you very much, this was i think helpful and as we proceed, i would like to state a few things while mr. mica request that we have this hearing over the tragedy of the c concorid concorida, that we use this opportunity that the u.s. cruise industries that been very proactive with the coast guard, which we are going look forward to following up on and highlight the reality as ms. brown and mr. cummings amply d but to make sure that we do not have collateral damage with u.s. citizens, with the cruise industry because of our safety record is being so incredible, and that is due to the proactive nature of the coast guard and

would sheing -- and working with the industry, we will look forward to the results of the investigation, which as you said, admiral will give us more, but at thpoint -- at this pointi feel comfortable in saying, and not being a lawyer and having tall qualifiers that need to go with this, ever indication is that it was incredibly poor judgment on one individual mariner at best. and at worst, it's much more damning and there's, when you have somebody that exercises extremely poor judgment and lack of judgment, it's a difficult problem to deal with. admiral, we thank you for being here. we will have a brief adjournment to set up for the next panel. >> thank you mr. chairman. >>

>> the committee will return to order. for a second panel, we have mr. and mrs. shamire of medford massachusetts. their survivors of the concorida and are here today to give us their first hand account of what happened. we welcome you both. we thank you for taking the time to share with us and you are now recognized for whatever statement you would like to make. >> thank you mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. are chairman. thank you for giving us the opportunity to come in here and present what we had to say. i would just start off saying that this was our fifth year wedding anniversary trip. first trip to europe.

we were very excited. ands as ms. brown said earlier, it's affordable way on travel. we had cruised before, so, that kind of like helped us to make up our time and our mind to take another cruise. we boarded on friday january the 13th, 2012, from italy. between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m., the first impression was the ship was huge and very beautiful. the boarding process was fairly easy, since we had one of the noneuropean passports we had to surrender our passports to the crew members. after that we went to our room that was on the ninth deck. at this point we had no communication regarding the emergency safety drill or any instructions from anyone from the crew telling us where to go in case of emergency. we were in full spirit of our vacation. and were very happy to be on board. soon after getting situated, we

started to unpack and started to get ready for dinner reservation at 9:0 p.m. on the third deck. at 9:15 we were at our dinner table on deck three and were just ordering our food. that the moment, there was a shaking of the ship followed by loud crash noises as the plates and the glasses broke due to the lifting of the ship. light went out immediately. it was pitch dark with no visibility. everyone nearby started to scream and a few minutes into the ordeal, the emergency lights came on and we observed that the ship is now on the port-side. this is when the first announcement came on telling us it was nothing but an electric failure and everything is under control. crew members urged the pass ksh passengers to remain seated. the crew art estarted to bring the food as if nothing happened.

as the dining room was tilted we started to see the crew members break down and panic. we looked outside and saw crew members wearing life jackets but still the announcements said remain calm and seated and the electrical issue is being worked on and under control. we are still in our dining room when my husband decided it's time for us to go, and to least kbet -- get our life jackets from or room, we have no idea, if we cannot go back to our room, where else can we get the life jackets from. we had no knowledge where to get them otherwise. i had spotted them in the closets of the room. as we went out of the dining room, we are unbalanced due to the tilt and there was water and wine and broken glass on the floor. it was hard to walk and maintain balance. once outside, we were

immediately unable to locate the stairs as we had taken the elevators to get on deck three. there were dim emergency lights indicating the stairs and we claimed six floors to our room on deck nine to get to our room without guiding us in the dark. somehow we did manage to get to the room holding the guard rails very much exhausted and now panicked as we were getting to our room, there were constant announcements of the same message. ladies and gentlemen, everything is under control at this point and it seems to be a generating failure, stay calm and wait for further instructions. what caught our attention was that all of the announcements were made on behalf of the appear captain and never once did we hear the captain speak. however there was a sense of panic in the announcer's voice that was making the announcement. finally we managed to get the door unlocked using the card key after several failed attempts. the room had no light and it was dark. i stumbled on a few things that

had fall own the floor. that the time, my husband decided to stay in the middle of the door and keep it open and pushing the furniture back to make room to get our life jackets. the rooms furniture had shifted significantly. i knew where the life jackets were because i just unpacked the luggage. we got out of the room with our life jackets and spotted our state room attendant nearby i asked him, where are we supposed to go? and she replied in a irritated tone, saying madam, at this point, there's no emergency, you do not need to go anywhere. please stay here and wait for further instructions and for the emergency alarm to sound, which we had no idea how it would sound like. as she started to walk away, and we asked her, in an emergency, where do we meet, she replied the master stations are on deck four. we were not aware of the root

cause of the ordeal. there were no emergency alarm goesing off and the same announcement kept going off. while we are going to the deck four, we saw the crew members among us running around panicked and frustrated and clueless. no one had an idea of where they were supposed to send us or what to do. people seemed to direct themselves on deck four, as we made our way to deck four, we saw a lot of people sitting outside of their rooms waiting. people were sitting on the stairs closer to deck four, but we went and stood closer to a life boat. at this point, there were three or four crew members per life boat and they were trying to keep the crowd away from the boats. still no communication from their side as to when they would let us on the life boat or what we are supposed to do. the time now is 10:30 and one of

the crew members and came and practically gave us the same instructions this time, urging us all to go back to our rooms and wait for further instructions and everything is under control. a few people did what was being asked for but we decided to stand near the exit door near the life boat. by now it was difficult to stand straight as the ship was lifting to the port. we decided among ourselves and located a rock where we could swim to in case they kept us waiting for any longer to get into the life boats. we tried asking a coupe of crew members to tell us what had happened and they simply shrugged and went on. the life boat crew kept waiting for instructions from the captain that never came. people started to panic and getting frustrated as the ship is tilting more by the minutes. we were getting frustrated, aggravated and the crowd was pushing shoving against each

other no sign of evacuation instructions from the captain. final it will life boat crew let us on, as they saw the crowd gettingen raged and out of control. there were no orders in boreding, everyone was shoving and kicking and pushing to get o at this point i would like to close and approximapass the mic husband, mr. chairman. >> so once on the life boat, people stand, stood, whatever they could do within a one-minute, the boat was full with all the people. and now the life boat was over crowded, and while the crew members were trying to disengage the boat from the ship it would not happen. and at this point, the crew members are asking people to get off the life boat because it is over crowded. however, we didn't see anybody

who was going to -- at this point who was going to go to another life boat and risk the ones finally when they got on the life boat. once we are in there, in the life boat, that was the most scary part of all the tragedy for us. when the life boat was still stuck and followed by the banging noise of the hammer equipment that they were trying to use to break off the ropes and once the ropes broke off, ripping noise came like something had ripped from the boat and now we landed right into the water from the fourth floor. we thought that now that he we are on the water, at the point, we will be able to at least get out if we have to because now we can see rock nearby.

once we were on the water, it was not immediate, the boat started to move because of the over weight of the boat, we started seeing the blue smoke coming out of the boat and it was not moving at all. it was making a, almost like a circle as there was a current nearby that was caused by the ship,boat is not moving at all. now we see a building leaning on top of the boat. that the point i ask my wife who does not know how to swim. we have a life jacket i'm going to try to take this tarp off and we are going to jump now because we are about ten minutes into the boat that has not moved an inch and ship is moving on top of us every single second. at this point, as time trying to

lift the tarp to jump out of the life boat, i am unable to do that as instruction by the crew member was to keep the tarp on while we were on the water and a lot of people were working against and with me to pick up the tarp but i was unable to do it. and soon after, inch by inch the boat started to move and finally we were able to get a way from the cruise ship and that is when we spotted there was a light house and we were able to get out. one of the things i noticed while we were on the boat, the coast guard from italy were also nearby and that is what was giving us assureance if we had to jump out, somebody would come and get us. so we do thank the coast guard

that were there which we now learned that it was -- by the people passengers who had called the coast guard and not any member from the crew who had gone to the police or to the coast guard for help. and once on the shore, confusion and chaos continued, it was not ended. and how we were keep -- while we were on the ground, we were thinking that we were being assured by the crew member all the time, the how and under control electrical issue can cause this ship to sink. while on the ship, there was not one instance where crew member or anybody had mentioned that there was anything wrong other than the electrical issue, so we felt betrayed and and is very much lied to at that point, which we have, i and my wife who were celebrating our fifth year

wedding anniversary, trusted these people with our lives and they took that for grantsed and did not, were not honest with us at any given point. >> thank you. >> well, that is a pretty compelling account of your experience. i had a number of questions but your statement, you've cover today questions that i had. mr. larson? >> thank you for your statement and testimony, and sorry about your experience. i am having nothing to do with it, i'm embarrassed by what happened. it's shocking what happened. were you at any time informed by anyone that a vessel had struck

and was severely damaged any time? >> no, never. when we learned that we were in the u.s. embassy the next day, that is when we saw the picture of the ship completely submerged in water. >> a full 24 hours later, about? >> yes. >> at any time were you given any concise guidance about how to evacuate the ship, at any time? >> no. there was no time at all as long a as we were on the ship or on to the life boat that what to do, whatever, it was all a waste of time. the crucial time that they had on their hands. not one person from the crew or anybody had mentioned that what had happened and what to do in emergency. >> not even anni -- not even wh

you were sitting at dinner or anything? >> not at all. >> you noted in your testimony that you spotted life jackets. you leave me with the interpretation that you were not told where they were, but you happened to see them in your closet? >> no, it was only because i was hanging one of his suits and that was the only closet that did not have any shelves, it was easy for me to hang in. that is when i understaended upg them. they did not tell us where they were, i opened the closet and saw the orange jackets there. >> i had no idea where they were. only she knew where they were. >> yeah. on the side, the italian coast guard, sounds like, from your perspective, a good response from the italian coast guard, once they knew about it? >> yes. >> yes.

well, again, i'm -- i'm glad you are here to give us a first hand experience, i'm sorry for your experience. thank you very much for coming. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. >> thank you very much, mr. are chairman. and thank you for being here to account to what occurred and again, i'm sorry that both of you had to go through this as well as every member on that ship. a couple of quick questions that i have, was this your first cruise ship or did you have experiences in other cruises? >> this was our second cruise but our first transatlantic cruise. >> were there differences in terms of safety procedure is this. >> the one we took before we were explained, we went through the security drill, they told us in case of emergency, do not go back to your room. showed us where the life jackets were on the master station. they made usgo