ANSWER THE QUESTIONS:

1.What's the cause of grounding of the Saint Malo?
2.What was the scope of damage?
3.What height did passengers have to jump into liferafts at?
4.Who met the claims of passengers?
5.What factors were taken into account for the compensation?
6.Was the landing into the liferafts safe?
7. What did passengers criticize the ship authority for?

Catamaran Grounding-Error Of Navigation
An error of navigation appears to have been the cause of serious damage to the French catamaran ferry Saint Malo.
Preliminary investigations have largely confirmed suggestions that the vessel, which has an eight foot long gash in her portside hull, scraped rock rather than hit logs or other floating objects at high speed.
Eyewitnesses suggested the catamaran, operated by French company Chanmland, was damaged after taking a short-cut through a difficult channel near Corbiere Lighthouse while on passage from Jersey to Sark.
The master of another Chanmland ferry, captain Michel Leroy, however, said the Saint Malo had been following a normal route when she was holed a mile offshore.
About 30 passengers are reported to have sustained fractures after jumping about 15 ft from the listing catamaran into inflatable liferafts, one passenger suffered a heart attack and others sustained less serious injuries.
Passengers criticized safety procedures as inadequate with no lifesaving demonstration before departure, no public evacuation order and claimed that alarms were not sounded until 10 minutes after the accident.
Passengers reported smelling oil shortly after the incident.
The liabilities of the Saint Malo are entered in the West of England Ship Owners Mutual Insurance Association which wiJl be responsible for meeting injury claims, any pollution and the cost of representing the shipowner at the inquiries that will result.
The official investigations will be conducted by both the French authorities and the UK's Marine Accident Investigation Branch.
Neither France nor the UK is a signatory to the Athens Convention that covers passenger liabilities, so compensation will be determined by ticket conditions, the laws of France and those applicable to the Channel Islands plus possibly the nationality of the passengers.