Facts + Statistics: Marine Accidents

Marine accidents killed 1,596 people and caused $2.5 billion in insured losses in 2016. In 2016, three maritime disasters made the top ten disasters of 2016 in terms of victims. In March, two boats carrying migrants capsized, one in Greece (Mediterranean Sea) resulting in 358 deaths and one in Libyan Arab Jamahiriya causing 240 deaths. In addition, in September a boat carrying migrants capsized in Egypt, killing  178 people. In 2012, 30 people were killed when the Costa Concordia cruise ship carrying 4,200 passengers went aground off the coast of Italy. The Costa Concordia incident was the costliest man-made disaster in 2012, causing $515 million in insured damages losses when it occurred. By mid-2014, insured losses for the disaster had risen to about $2 billion. The greatest maritime disaster in peacetime happened in December 1987, when the Philippine ferry, the Doa Paz, collided with the Vector, a small coastal oil tanker, according to the National Maritime Museum in the United Kingdom. Only 24 of the 4,317 Doa passengers survived. By contrast, 1,500 perished in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.