Wooops! That was a rock!

atferrari

Joined Jan 6, 2004
4,764
After spending my time at sea I still wonder why things like that keep occurring.

The techincal improvements / adavances in navigation systems suggest that we could consider this traffic safe but still...

Pity is the so many lost. Even if one day we manage to know the truth, they will be not back.

Here is (for me) where the glamour of those vessel, vanish.
 

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
After spending my time at sea I still wonder why things like that keep occurring.

The techincal improvements / adavances in navigation systems suggest that we could consider this traffic safe but still...

Pity is the so many lost. Even if one day we manage to know the truth, they will be not back.

Here is (for me) where the glamour of those vessel, vanish.
That is what my comment was going to be. Vessels like this have backup systems on backup systems. Then the backup system on that is good old fashioned dead reckoning. The first rule of navigating a vessel in shallow water is always knowing where you are. The second rule is if you made a mistake then you better know which direction to turn when things turn bad.

It all comes down to someone not doing his job.


I don't know if the culture is the same aboard ship but I saw a documentary a while back on commercial airline accidents and how a big cause of accidents was the captain trying to be a pilot as opposed to a flight deck manager as he should.

I do know a big problem on these cruise ships is language. They don't speak a common one and there is great difficulty in communication.

I understand that this ship was very close to shore. Maybe a couple hundred meters or so. That is way too close unless you are in an anchorage.
 

Thread Starter

thatoneguy

Joined Feb 19, 2009
6,359
After spending my time at sea I still wonder why things like that keep occurring.

The techincal improvements / adavances in navigation systems suggest that we could consider this traffic safe but still...
They were 7 miles off course or something like that. Anybody watching on the Internet could have told them that.

Now, the data is a bit sparse.


It's not like they don't have enough information, that could be the problem, they assume the ship will steer itself?

This is NOT the Costa Concordia, but a ship of the same class and from about the same build date. This is what the bridge looks like, radar, sonar, satellite links, GPS, etc.

 

jimkeith

Joined Oct 26, 2011
540
What was the captain smoking?

What was the cost of the ship?

Non-banker cause of inflation--cruise ship insurance increase...
 

bertus

Joined Apr 5, 2008
22,270
Hello,

Now there are 6 dead people and still 15 missing.
They stopped the searchin due to bad wheater.
There is a dutch company over there to get the oil from the ship.
I have heard that the ship did cost 500 million euro.
They where expecting to get 60 million a year on the criuses.

Bertus
 

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
What was the captain smoking?

What was the cost of the ship?

Non-banker cause of inflation--cruise ship insurance increase...

What was the rest of the crew smoking? They should all know the region and know the captains decision could but the ship in danger.
 

THE_RB

Joined Feb 11, 2008
5,438
A agree, that's criminal! :eek:

They have GPS systems with multiple backups and marine map services they probably pay big $$$ per year for that chart every known coastal issue, not to mention good radar systems with warnings. That port has big radar targets (concrete lighthouses).

They have multiple crew members and always 2 or more on the bridge (in case one has a heart attack etc). They should have been aware how close they were to that coast from many miles back, 20? 30?, before they even got close enough to crash.

You have to wonder if it was some type of deliberate act!
 

Thread Starter

thatoneguy

Joined Feb 19, 2009
6,359
The hard part is salvage.

It is sunk, right there, it's on the floor of the Med, which isn't very deep at that spot, obviously.

Water is too shallow to get any sort of dry dock close enough to haul it, I'm interested in the engineering marvel that will be created to move the ship from where it is out to where it can be put on a floating drydock for salvage.

Estimated cost of that operation is already at $150 million Euros, plus another 50 million Euros for (hopefully) spill free petrochemicals removal.

New world record for largest cruise ship to ever sink as well. The sheer size of it is amazing when you look at the other boats going around it, and the tiny port it was headed for.
 

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
I was amazed how close it was to shore.


Things could have been far worse had the ship made it part way into the harbor entrance before it sunk.
 

Thread Starter

thatoneguy

Joined Feb 19, 2009
6,359
What was the captain smoking?

What was the cost of the ship?
The captain had some good stuff to "fall" into a rescue boat.

Build cost for the ship was a bit over 500 million Euro in 2006, probably in the 700 million Euro range today since the value of the Euro has gone down a bit.
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Some of the stories I've been hearing about the Captain are unbelievable. It will be an interesting case to follow.
 

THE_RB

Joined Feb 11, 2008
5,438
I'm still thinking it was deliberate.

Just imagine, a competing ocean liner company offers "person X" a couple million to crash the boat...

Their competition now loses a 500 million Euro boat and 60 million Euro per year income. And cops a heap of really damaging publicity.

Sounds like big business to me.
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Mafia style maybe. If it could be proven I think a decent government (oxymoron?) would have to basically put a company like that out of business as a criminal enterprise. There is some precident.
 

bertus

Joined Apr 5, 2008
22,270
Hello,

I have heard that the captain was doing a crewmember a favour by going close along the island.
The leave of this crewmember was suspended.
He said to the crewmember, "look that is your island".

Translated with google:

The crew came from the island. When the ship near the island, would captain Francesco Schettino against the crew member said: "Come, Antonello, see your island," says the newspaper Corriere della Sera on the authority of witnesses.

Tievoli would leave one week earlier, but had to remain aboard, because no replacement could be found. The captain would have liked him 'reward' by close to "his" island sail.

Bertus
 
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