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Sometimes the job requires heroes. The coast guard captain did not wait for the distress call nor for orders from above. He moved decisively and rapidly to take control of a situation that was endangering many lives and as a result fewer lives were lost. The job required a hero, and he filled those shoes nicely.

Just one man's opinion...

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

Thought of you lot when I saw this... [:D]

Check this out - plotted course (including speed) of "Costa Concordia" - watch using 720p HD option for best detail!


Grounding of the Costa Concordia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5mbKt7rQkQ


If this is genuine (and it looks that way) - this is simply terrible - absolute negligence on the behalf of the captain! [X(][X(][X(]


Leo "Apollo11"

On the news you can see a video with a member of the crew telling the passengers "no problem, go back to your cabins"... I know this is unfair but when I thought about cruiser ships captains... I thought about carnival captains. In this case these guys are beyond parody. A carnival captain and crew.

Authentic captains and crews? Those in charge of fishing boats and merchant marine ships [;)]

An interesting read from the Court of Grosseto. (PDF file)

ORIGINAL: che200

Cohimbra he started S&R before a distress call was sent by the ship if he waited for the distress more people would have died. He took the decision after calling the ship and the officers on deck told the coast guard that every thing is ok and that it was a minor electrical problem. The first call the coast guard received was by a passenger who said the ship hit something and they lost electricity. Imagine if he waited for the distress call from the ship.

It is a good example of some one who is a leader (the coastguard S&R Officer) and some one who had no business being in command (the ship captain). The Coastgaurd S&R officer realized the true extent of the situation and took the appropriate action, the ship's captain proved to be incompetent. Just my humble opinion.

Hi all,

BTW, here is picture derived from the GPS track (of the video that I posted link above) - God only knows whet they tried to accomplish with the maneuvering after collision... [X(]




Leo "Apollo11"

Try to reach Livorno or Genoa (or another bigger harbour than Giglio), before realizing that they couldn't make it ?  25 minutes between shock and U-turn, count several minutes of hesitation, several minutes for the captain to return to the bridge, time to discuss options, to get accurate information from the lower decks...  I'm not that surprised it took this time before admitting the ship was lost.

ORIGINAL: Ambassador
Try to reach Livorno or Genoa (or another bigger harbour than Giglio), before realizing that they couldn't make it ? 

You're right, he say that he try to reach Savona (near Genova).

According to dorjun driver's link to the Court of grosseto: the ship lost engine power after five of the engine rooms began to take on water. Also a blackout throughout the ship. The ship was on "inertia and rudders" so you would expect a slightly expected surprising course at first. The ship would have continued north while the captain was in contact with the company bosses to work out what to do. But after an hour it was obvious the the ship was lost and Schettino decided to beach the ship to make a rescue easier. Thus the 180 turn and headed onto the beach. Schettino had no intention of over seeing the evacuation of his passages and crew and stayed in a launch for more than an hour.

Interesting read from the court. As I've stated in previous post, the ship is most likely a "two compartment ship", so that if 5 compartments were flooding, there was never any hope of saving her. If the damage control reports correctly stated this, and the engine rooms are monitored by video camera as well as in person, as there are usually 12-16 watertight compartments in the engineering spaces, he should have realized immediately, that the only hope was grounding. I will have to search some, to see if I can find the statements of the Chief Engineer, as to why the ship lost power completely. It can happen, and does happen, but with the redundancy aboard cruise ships, I'm a little surprised. However, look at the Carnival ship that lost power for several days off Baja. The video I saw of the crewmember telling the guests to return to their cabins showed all lights on, which would only happen if the main power was on. As all cruise ships are diesel-electric propulsion, if a main generator was on, they should have been able to get at least steerageway on the main motors (or pods), or the thrusters at the very least. They would also have had full emergency bilge pumping cabability. The Chief Engineer, as the head of the technical department, and the Staff Chief Engineer as the "on scene commander" for all emergencies SHOULD have been in the Engine Control Room during a restricted water maneuver like this, and therefore would have been immediately aware of the danger. The Staff Chief can "recommend" abandoning ship to the captain, but the captain is the only one who can legally make that decision. Even if the captain was not on the bridge, he would normally have a pager, push-to-talk phone, or hand-held radio that the bridge watch could have notified him via. Sorry, while the time between striking the reef and the turn is not unreasonable, the guests should have been mustered as soon as there was reports of flooding. Even if they have to stand there several hours with their lifejackets on, at least there is some chance of having accountability for everyone. Very likely, some of the fatalities were from heart attacks caused by fear and stress. Keep the guests at station, and if the crew WERE to be successful and stem the flooding, send the guests back to their cabins with promises of free drinks for the rest of the voyage.

Bill