A critical review of the evacuation process due to fire or flooding from cruise vessels and large ropax vessels and the future challenges and developments

Ship evacuation in response to fire or flooding hazards involves two phases: mustering, that is the reallocation of passengers from a designated area to a safer area or to the muster stations and abandoning the ship (embarkation and launching lifeboats). Evacuating a dynamic and complex environment such as a cruise vessel is a safety-critical and strictly time-bound task, which typically involves thousands of people moving within parts of the ship, assisted by a significant number of crew personnel, and a complicated decision-making process based on the evolving situation on-board and the information available to the decision makers. Timely and safe mustering and abandonment require accurate evaluation of ship’s conditions as well as estimation of remaining time. A critical review of the evacuation process due to fire or flooding from Cruise Vessels and large RoPax Vessels in terms of the existing regulatory framework, the installed life-saving appliances and the smart environment elements are presented. This paper is concluded with the future challenges and developments concerning the evacuation process.