This captain can give all the excuses and point to all the things that cause the problems, but in the end I don"t think anyone will believe him. He was a scared rat and ran out on those people and his ship.

I hope the court system there will screw his ass to the floor. It seem they have plenty of hard confirmed evidence.

I feel for the families that are waiting for their relatives to be found, but if I was one of those poor departed people I would hope that after a reasonable time they would let things go. I can't see putting divers in grave danger to recover the bodies. the dead will live in the hearts and minds of their families. God bless them and give them peace at this most difficult time.

I am a merchant sailor and I don't have a drinking problem. Most of the people I work with don't have a drinking problem. We are tested for drugs and alcohol on a regular basis, probably more than most people. Yes there are seamen with drinking problems but I would guess that it is no more than in people who work ashore. That perception on the drunken sailor is antiquated. This captain's problem seems to be that he was incompetent.

this entire collison is of course the fault of the ship's captain; many horrible mistakes were made, most after the ship went aground, I am still at a loss, why the watertight doors did not prevent the vessel from filing with water, something may be serious wrong with the design of these top heavy ships.

As bad as this incident is at the present time, especially for those affected families who have lost dear ones, is it a possibility that this wreck could be somehow set up as a monument/museum? (A piece of history, yet in the here and now.)

this entire collison is of course the fault of the ship's captain; many horrible mistakes were made, most after the ship went aground, I am still at a loss, why the watertight doors did not prevent the vessel from filing with water, something may be serious wrong with the design of these top heavy ships.

IIRC the listing started when the ship turned around after the collision to head back to a harbor it just passed. The turn shifted the center of gravity, and the damage / water caused it to start listing. One the list was severe enough that water could start flooding over the side, the ship tipping over was inevitable.

@saxon,

The watertight doors would not have saved this ship. First the captain waited too long to close them, so a great deal of water was actually trapped in the ship by the watertight doors. Even the Titanic"s captain had the good sense to immediately close the watertight doors --- though it failed to help since the watertight compartments were quickly overtopped. But the second reason, just as with the Titanic, was that the gash in the side allowed water to enter too many compartments for the ship to stay afloat. The captain did the right think in turning around, deploying anchors properly and trying to beach the ship. But the mistake that cost lives was that he failed to launch lifeboats in a timely manner.

It is a skeleton in the closet of the cruise line industry that there has been very little improvement in lifeboats since the Titanic. There is still a serious problem with launching lifeboats once most that 7 or 8 degrees of list has developed. On one side the lifeboats can't be launched because they hit the side of the boat and can't be gotten into the water. In the early pictures you can see two such lifeboats. On the other side of the ship the lifeboats swing out too far from the ship and there is no way to get the passengers into them safely. And when there is severe list, the blocks and tackles that lower the lifeboats tend to foul because they were designed to be operated with the ship upright. There have been huge numbers of proposals for self-deploying life rafts, large floating air mattress-like devices and even airplane-like slides to evacuate passengers. But the cruise lines have failed to adopt them because they are esthetically unappealing, or they feel that passengers would be put off by such an emphasis, or just to save a buck.

A possible scenario, had the ship been equipped with an airplane-like slide system, would be that when the list developed, the slide would be deployed. It would be just like an inflatable slide in an airliner except that it would end in a huge inflated air mattress looking platform. Passengers could remain on the platform to be picked up by other ships or inflatable rafts could be deployed from and to the platform. The effect would be similar tothe Airbus that crashed in the Hudson river where many passengers deplaned on a slide into a large life raft.

This was an accident in which there was absolutely no reason for people to die. And it is a type of situation that will only worsen as these ships get larger and larger. Eventually one of the mega-ships will go down with a huge loss of life and changes will be made, but not until them. It is capitalism at work.

Just as a coincidence, my wife and I went on a Mediterranean cruise from Rome to Turkey and back on Holand America Lines which is also owned by Carnival. At Cittavecchia (sp?) the Concordia was tied up just ahead of us and was in several of my pictures. One of our stops was at Santorini. While there I noticed a lot of oil in the water in the caldera. I asked a local about it and it was coming from the wreck of a cruise ship, the Sea Diamond, which sank a couple of years ago. In that incident the captain performed a dangerous maneuver without authorization which put him on the rocks. The captain and crew left the ship quickly and well ahead of the last passengers, and two lives were lost because of a chaotic evacuation. So, it is appearing that this sort of thing is not as uncommon as we would like to think.

Another 1

These articles are better digested and understood if you actually 'read' the article.

"Environment Minister Corrado Clini has warned there is a risk that with sea conditions expected to worsen, the ship could slip down 165 to 295 feet from the reef it is resting on, further damaging the vessel and creating a major hazard to the environment in one of Europe's largest natural marine parks."

So how do you feel about setting up as a monument/museum now?

Hello tombones... I did read the entire article, so perhaps you should not assume that I did not.

When I suggested a monument/museum as a memorial, I did not infer that the wreck should be left on site. This could be done somewhere near by in an appropriate setting. Have a great day!

Captain's 'complete inertia'
Schettino, blamed for causing the accident by steering too close to shore and then abandoning the vessel before the evacuation was complete, is under house arrest.

For a second, I though man he could just end this by commiting suicide in his home.... then again, he's too coward to do so.

It's just a flesh wound!

Monty Python http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4

That would be like downplaying a failed mars probe, that burns and disperses 11,000 tonnes of extremely toxic fuel and radioactive material into our atmosphere. Causing serious health problems for millions of people.

@Saxon - You keep posting this same ill informed comment or some variation, so once again I will explain. In the event of a power failure, the watertight doors are designed to close automatically. Also, most commercial ships are only designed for what is called two compartment damaged stability, so three compartments being breached would be expected to cause the ship to roll over and/or sink. I spent half my career as a marine engineer and have a degree in marine engineering with a minor in naval architecture, so I know a little about ship design. The main reason the ship rolled was that it was moved into shallow water. As the ship settled from the flooding it rested on the bottom and, without some kind of blocking to hold it upright, it would naturally roll on it's side.

@Chris - There have actually been major advances in lifeboats since the Titanic. The International Convention on the Safety of Life at Sea (called SOLAS) and the International Life-Saving Appliance Code (LSA) instituted many new requirements for lifeboats and life saving equipment on ships. Lifeboats on modern ships are required to be able to be launched with the ship listing up to 20 degrees and a fore/aft trim of up to 10 degrees. The problem is that the captain waited far too long to take start evacuation procedures and according to reports, never actually issued an evacuation order over the public address system. Crew members took it on themselves to start launching lifeboats when the situation began to deteriorate. Had the captain taken more prompt action to evacuate the people from the ship he may have been able to prevent any casualties from occurring.

"We are checking the conditions on board."

"It'll be alright!!!"

I like my cruise ships like I like my bourbon. "On the rocks".

They keep talking about the fuel spilling. Why can't they have a tanker get the fuel off the ship the same way they get it on? I don't understand why that would be so hard to do. I am upset about the captain leaving the ship before all passengers were off. I think he is a coward for leaving before all were off. He ran like a scared chicken.... They need to figure a way to get the fuel off the ship before it spills, that should be one of the priorities along with finding the missing passengers.

JSINSD: i am not questioning your expertise, with the back ground you state your information is important; this is my question; we have a vessel over 1000 feet long, and the below water line water tight compartments are no good if 3 compartments are breached; then i say something is very wrong with the design of a vessel of this size with 4000 souls aboard, that it can not stay afloat if three compartments are beached; look at our aircraft carriers of the same size; their design is such that eight breaches could occur, and they can still keep in action.

Saxon - No aircraft carrier would stay afloat with 8 watertight compartments breached. When you are talking about watertight compartments you are not talking about individual rooms, you are talking about major section of the ship. Off the top of my head, I do not recall the average longitudinal length of a watertight zone on a carrier, but there is no way that a carrier would stay afloat, let alone be able to operate with 8 zones breached.

in 1942 the Lexington stayed a float after 6 torpedo hits, U.S. destroyers had to sink her with 4 more torpedoes, to prevent the Japanese from knowing that they sank her, over 400 sailors were trapped below decks due to the fires, they knew where they were, so they concentrated the torpedoes in that area, I had a autograph copy of the captains book, written about the Lady Lex, he never got over what he had to do.

today's super carriers can stay afloat with 8 compartments breached, I never got around to counting the amount of water tight below decks, but they do run the length of the ship; I do realize that cruise ships have only about 8 compartments.

That's exactly what I was thinking, the "translation" job is just a cover up to bring on board his mistress.

+1, ha ha ha!

There is still an American couple missing...

Beyond that, Americans stick their nose into everyones business... It's what we do.

Maybe because millions of Americans take cruises and one of the cruise boats is laying on it's side!

It's what we do because of recent world history. People expect us to solve their problems.

No one asked to you to solve their problem, since Usa can barely solve their own's. Italians are doing a great work rescuing those people. In a bunch of minutes from the alarm, motorboats from 3 different national agencies were all over the ship. Divers are risking their lives handling explosive charges to enter the ship. So stick your self-importance up your ass.

@double "People expect us to solve their problems." - wow...remember don't get high on your own supply

Whos asking for minute by minute details? I do not see one post of anyone asking for more info. But hey, nice to see your prejudice towards others. Must really bother you people are interested in Cruise ships that sink killing people when Americans take more cruises than any others. Lastly, America, unknown to you apparently, is comprised of more nationalities than any other country in the world by a very large margin. Fourtunately nature has proven the diversity rules and that is why the US and all its diversity is top. We merely allow other countries to profit from us since of course a lot of us come from those very countries.

Actually, to be honest, we justy like to bash stupid cowardly Italians. LOL

To answer your question ray, Americans are focused on the triumph of the human spirit. Just some recent events we were fascinated with are: Deep Horizon, Nuclear Meltdown in Japan, Fuel supply tanker reaching Nome Alaska, Chilean Miners... I could go on and on. We value the triumph of the human spirit above all else. While there is probably not much hope the missing will be found alive, that is what we are holding out for. The risks the divers are being subjective to interests us, and we will celebrate their triumph in the end.

We don't care to solve anyones problems. Doubletap's comment was flippant.

@Ray

Sounds like you're trying to "downplay" the situation

I didn't see anyone asking for minute-by-minute details either, American or otherwise. You are obviously anti-American so you're trying to insert your own politics where they don't belong (like a lot of Americans do).

@go-hawks,

The reason that they don't try to attach the ship to land with heavy chains or cables is that this would impose new stresses on the ship and would most likely cause it to break apart as a result. The term "capsize" only means that the ship has turned over from its normal upright position. Any list above 15 degrees is generally considered a capsize.

These ships were designed only to sail upright and the whole structure of the ship is designed around that and handling the stresses involved with such things as heavy weather, but always in the normal upright position. These ships are very, very "tender" which means that they are top-heavy and susceptible to capsize.

But once on its side on the rocks, the ship is subjected to a whole new set of stresses for which it was never designed. Just the effect of the tides and choppy waters involved with normal weather systems will very quickly tear the ship apart because the ship has such a huge moment of inertia and the forces of water will always prevail. But if you tied it down further, at every attachment point there would be a new set of stresses and the ship would actually break up even sooner as a result.

Even pumping fuel and lube oil from the chip will change its bouyancy (fuel is lighter than water) and will cause it to shift and change the stress points. That's why they can't put scuba teams in while this is going on and immediately after the fuel has been removed.

The ship is actually lying on a rocky shelf that quickly drops off to around 103 meters (about 320 feet) just about 300 feet offshore. If the ship starts to slide into deeper water, and it was anchored to shore, either the cables or chains would snap under the weight or the ship would break up and the parts would sink individually.

After one keelhauling there's nothing left to jail and little to bury.

Nice way to work "keelhauling" into an on-line post with an applicable use and reason. ;-) And I second your second question. It has been nearly a week. Couldn't a reasonably skilled contractor driven deep enough pilings to create temporary tie-backs?

Thanks Chris749391, sounds like you know your stuff. AND @ J-DOGGIN, yeah, I only thought there could be some sort of temporary anchor system? Oh, I forgot...they're Italian! you will NEVER meet a more self absorbed, arrogant, egotistical ethnic group of people, they think they are God's gift to humanity!! I know...my EX-wife was 100% Italian.

The captain actually did the proper thing with the anchors. It involves dropping your stern anchors, then allowing your momentum to carry you forward. You then drop your bow anchors. With both sets of anchors you can then use the ship's winches with the stern anchors to pull you to a point where you are roughly centered between the anchors and about as stable as you can get under the circumstances. Despite all the justified criticism of the captain, he apparently did this part properly, anchoring the ship near shore near a port facility and getting it as close to the shore as possible.

And I love Italians and Italy and especially Rome. I find them to be warm and very hospitable. I guess that you often see in cultures what you expect to see.

@go-hawks -- way to go with your stereotyping! Just because your ex-wife is Italian doesn't mean you have a lock on how all Italians think/behave, any more than people can get a lock on all Americans just because of your ignorant post.

This accident was caused while the ship was under the command of one stupid man who happens to be Italian. But right now, there are also many Italians risking their own lives trying to find any survivors or recover the bodies of those lost. I don't think self-absorbed, arrogant, or egotistical describes Cmdr DeFalco who has denied that he is a hero for his conversation with Schettino, instead saying that he was just doing his job when he demanded Schettino go back aboard the ship.

Way to go, go-hawk -- why don't you give all of us a bad name while you're at it?

It's "go-hawks" ya dumb BITCH!!!

go-hawk(S), you're lame dude.

@go-hawkS -- excuse me! BTW -- that's Ms. Dumb BITCH, to you.

No, that's where the Concordia was SUPPOSED to be

He'll end up killing himself..... it's a just a matter of time.

Nah I doubt it, he's too chicken sh*t to commit suicide.

Have you ever seen an ugly cruise ship captain? Since part of his responsibility is to entertain having a good looking captain seems to trump a competent captain.

xvet

There is no 'of course'.

Exxon hired and maintained a drunk as a Captain. He drove the Valdez up on the rocks. BP and company had egotist Execs running Deep Water Horizon. Engineers and Techies told them what they were doing is wrong. The Execs threatened the engineers and techies. They pressed on until they killed 11 of their crew and dumped millions of barrells of oil in the Gulf and lost a mega-hundred million dolar rig. Airlines put untrained pilts in planes - the NY icing-stall crash. The Concordia incident reads like a sereotypycal satire of Italians. And the hysterical mannerisms aside, Americans, Brits and others have done some hellishly consequencial dumb stuff too ! I believe some Americans recently started a dadgummed war killing hundreds of thousands and costing a trillion bucks ! So grown American men wrecking a country, or an Italian idiot wrecking a huge ship or a teenager wrecking a car - I wish we could prevent it all.

Oh yeah, add this one. A few years ago in NY a Ferry Captain, drinking on the job, ran his ferry into the dock at speed and killed a few people and maimed for life a few more.

That's a system I would vote for here in the States for all crimes involving someone's death!

I can hear her at the trial now: "I said to him, 'Captain, get off the rocks', and, well, he must have misunderstood."

The First Officer was arrested as well.

There are no Maritime laws or rules that Say a Captain has to stay on the ship and be the last off.

Wrong.

There's an Italian maritime law that says any commanding officer who deserts a ship in danger while passengers are still on board can face up to 12 years in prison.

Astute observation there, mikees: "I personnally (sic) beleive (sic) the only infraction this Captain is guilty of is coming to (sic) close to shore." Hmmm, what happens when you come too close to shore ..... oh yeah, your boat hits a rock. If I'm ever indicted for murder, I want you on my jury. "Yes, ladies and gentleman, the victim's head was blown off by a shotgun, but the only infraction my client is guilty of is pulling a trigger."

As Captain he is responsible for the ship, crew, & the passengers. He did not follow the safety procedures, investigate or follow common sense. His ship ran aground, steps should have been taken immediately to ensure the safety of its passengers, he has to give the orders to abandon ship and make the proper announcements. He has to be on the ship directing the crew and giving the orders, not them. He must be held accountable from operating unsafely, running aground, leaving the ship, not investigating the situation & ordering the crew to follow the safety procedures in place accurately and timely. He will never captain again, anywhere. He went closer to shore than a approved course was allowed, he has a dept gauge or did he choose to ignore the dept gauge & charts/GPS. LOL

Ok, genious.....So the 12 year sentence that comes with leaving crew and passengers onboard your ship is just fiction? When "abandon ship is called" the rescuing ship's captain is in charge and that captain ordered him to re-board which he did not do. He lied saying he was on board the life boat because he called "abandon ship" later to say he was on the life boat because he "fell overboard and landed in the lifeboat" AMAZINGLY in the same boat as ALL his officers and right next to his second in command. he tries to appear concerned about passengers later by saying "I gave my life jacket to a passenger" but it really says he sees it as it was his life jacket and such a stupid simple obvious jesture should appear brave and loyal to everyone...but it doesn't. He was incompetent and cowardly and you can here that in the recording. "Its Dark" he says...yes, how do you think the passengers feel who are trying to get off the ship? Thats just a stupid excuse for not get aboard. How about get next to the boat and find people or search for people? He said another time he was organizing the rescue operation from the life boat....doesnt fall in line with falling over board though. Then again he said he was in the boat because he was with another life boat with passengers and was helping them. Which is it?

Geez and fools like Mikee are allowed to vote, drive cars, and own weapons! Hurry along now Mikee...Mom's got supper on the table, then it's back to the basement to play GTA.

From what I could find out, Mikees is both, right and wrong. Being that the captain has to be the last man to leave the ship is not written so. According to the leatest change to maritime law, it is not written, per se, that he has to be the last person off the ship. Here is what I found: "The current version, passed in 1974, does not specify that the captain should stay with his ship." "but states that the captain, or master, has the ultimate authority aboard his ship." To interpret the law, many jurisprudence experts believe, not only on the act itself and the possible consequences of one's action, captain or not, and those actions, although not written, become costumary. The same source that talks about not being written that the captain stays with the ship, also stipulates that:"In the popular tradition of the sea, a ship's captain is expected to stay until all the passengers have been safely evacuated." But, supposedly and under Italian law, he is guilty, ergo, Mikees is wrong on this one. Here what it says:"Edward Phillips, principal lecturer in the department of law and criminology at the University of Greenwich, says a captain who fails in his duty in Italian waters could in theory be prosecuted under either international or national law."

Maybe he is not guilty, maybe he is, let's remember that justice as with beauty, it's in the eyes of the beholder. I do know he is morally guilty, law or no law. The world sets, hypocritically as usual I might add, a set of rules that expects those in charge of others peoples' lives to conduct themselves in a proper and lawful matter. He is a coward that saw, clearly, that no matter the money, no matter the possition, humans always choose to follow, in most cases, their self preservation interests and most likely think that no money in the world is enough if losing one's life is what we are talking about. That said and considering the possibilites, the outrage and lives lost and millions lost is peanuts compared to what the retard pervert from Texas did to, not only the Constitution, but also international law. He killed a million plus of innocent civilians, mostly women and children, invaded a sovereing country that had nothing to do with Al Qaeda and yet, the same people that want this coward captain's head on a silver platter, remained silent, tombly silent while he not only allowed 9/11 to happened, but also REFUSED to stop it and yet, no one in the whole world demanded accountability. If you excuse war crimes, corruption galore and impeachment is off the table, that means that justice is, was killed forever when this "Christian and democratic" nation allowed that to happen. If the law, national and international, is not applied when two sets of jurisprudence demand punishment for those crimes, then all other crimes that come after that and if justive is what we are talking about, should be set free. America, Italy, the world can't have their cake and eat it too. The world destroyed true justice forever, ergo, the captain should be allowed to go free or house arrest. You can'ty kill someone for a minor infraction and allow war criminals to go free and later rip their togas asking for justice. The world, America, Italy killed justice in 9/11, ergo, all other criminals should be let go. The problem with cowards is that they have no remorse whatsoever and that in itself should be reason enough to send them to jail for life. Of course, the retard pervert should be executed.

You've never heard of the Captain going down with the ship? I kind of thought it was a written (or unwritten) oath.

@Mikees . Man, you are an idiot ... you Know NOTHING of Maritime Law, The Captain is responsible for the ship , it's crew and it's passengers.. If it was any other way , we all would be living in Europe and afraid to go near the water. Also about the consequences of taking a cruise ... if that was the case there would not BE a cruise industry. .. Oh ? Thats right ! we're afraid of the water ..... watch out for that minnow , it'll bite you !!

Yeah, the 'I slipped and fell into a lifeboat' thing is a little like "the dog at my homework," isn't it?

You read FOX and CNN?

Could it be you came from there and thats why your comment sounds like you think your better than others?

I see some sarcasm, some of the wall comments, but nothing bad. I guess you lack experience in reading blogs. You will encounter odd-balls, the fact you get offended by reading them is the pathetic part. Go back to FOX and CNN

Good Day.

K-MANN, a buffoon (not to be confused with a bafoon) is a ridiculous but amusing character, such as a clown or a court jester. You almost qualify. As soon as you become amusing, you'll be there.

I heard he didnt inhale and she had cigar breath.

:)

They did give them drug and alcohol tests, but I'm thinking it's just plain stupidity at work here.

I'd love to know which crane could hold a [flooded] 114,500-ton ship.

I heard that some cranes migrate south near that area. Think maybe its the wrong time of year?

It was a MEER-EEE_KULL_A. ...PRAISE GAWD_A!

#2.He told the hostess he wanted a white russian on the rocks...

Instead, he got Captain on the rocks with a splash.

if i didn't have.... these buck teeth... i'd fit thru...