Most of our mass transit systems today have multiple layers of safety, except for the human in charge. He/she can ignore or overide the systems and this is what you get. The ship probably could practically sail itself using GPS but somehow the human Captain made a fatal error. I can't help but ask why some subordinate didn't speak up, maybe they did, we will never know. I'll bet this hurts the cruise ship industry for a while. We would be better off with a cruise missle navigation system running the ship, they seem to be pretty accurate at hitting (and missing) objects. We can learn a lesson, when designing a project, making it "foolproof" is practically impossible, unless we learn to think like complete fools ourselves and rule out every possible foolish move. Good luck on that one.

 

I feel that there has been a very basic breakdown in the sort of discipline that should have applied to anyone responsible for so many people's safety, particularly at sea. Perhaps some important traditions of duty have been lost along the years: certainly that captain did not look like a man to inspire my confidence.

This whole episode just leaves me feeling sad. Lives have been lost for no good reason.

 

We can learn a lesson, when designing a project, making it "foolproof" is practically impossible, unless we learn to think like complete fools ourselves and rule out every possible foolish move. Good luck on that one.

One man can be totally blinded by his twisted thought process but two persons of equal responsibility and accountability could have prevented this. The second in command on the bridge could have stopped this madness but the traditional absolute power of a ships "Captain" makes it a loser even if you're right to overrule him. So I guess he tripped into the lifeboat also.

“I had no intention of running away. I was helping some passengers get one of the lifeboats in the sea and at a certain point the lowering mechanism got blocked and we had to force it. Unexpectedly, the system reactivated and I, having been knocked over, found myself inside the lifeboat together with a number of passengers.”
​

And that is how it happened.
And by fluke and accident also in that lifeboat were Dimitri Christidis, the ship’s second officer, and Silvia Coronia, the No 3.
Accidents really do come in threes..

The second in command walks.
http://eu.greekreporter.com/2012/01/19/greek-second-officer-of-costa-concordia-ship-set-free/

 

Why is it I feel ex-military would be much more competent?

 

This is what happens when people become greedy..

 

Why is it I feel ex-military would be much more competent?

It would depend on the former position in the military, if it is anything like the problems found in the airline industry probably less.

There was a study done some time back that discovered fighter jocks make poor airline captains. This is because they are used to being in total command of their plane. An airline or cruise ship captain is needs to know how to be a good manager.

As to why the crew did nothing it probably goes to the culture of command. No one wants to question authority, another cause found in the study of airline disasters.

 

I suspect that a decent ex-Navy captain might have taken the view that ships' masters should obey orders, rather than going off on unauthorised joy-rides.

If the captain had simply kept to the intended course for the voyage, there would have been no need to argue over priorities for boarding the lifeboats.

 

That and a honorably discharged Navy captain understands Honor and Duty. His duty to the ship, his duty towards the passengers. I don't think the guy they had in charge had even a passing concept of either.

 

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.

No it's not "Mafia style" it's normal big business behaviour (as immoral and ugly as it may be). It's exactly how billion dollar corporations become (and stay) billion dollar corporations.

And as for governments prosecuting there are also precedents of big international shipping businesses being untouchable by governments, one notable historical example was Aristotle Onassis vs the US government, where Onassis won hands down.

There's no way we can know (at this point) but I suspect dirty business, there are hundreds of millions of dollars motive. Consider where the wreck happened, inside a mile of a harbour full of rescue boats. This was no Titanic.

 

Occam's razor says. "The guy was a moron."

Never underestimate stupidity as the root cause of disaster.

 

A lot like one of my philosophy's, Never attibute to malice where stupidity will suffice.

 

Boy ...that sure was a big rock...

 

Boy ...that sure was a big rock...

That's what I was thinking, I'm also amazed it somehow wedged in so hard that it stuck with the ship moving another few miles.

 

A lot like one of my philosophy's, Never attibute to malice where stupidity will suffice.

Nice!

My philosophy is to utilise wisdom and experience and attribute the cause by likely probability. And sometimes malice appears to be the likeliest probability.

But then that's just my opinion and my opinions can get me into trouble from time to time.

 

The company is offering to refund the money for the cruise to the passengers PLUS a 30% discount on their next cruise.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/Crui...+Costa+Concordia+survivors/6038971/story.html

Wow that is an offer too good to turn down!

Maybe those that lost loved ones will get upwards of a 50% discount.

 

The company is offering to refund the money for the cruise to the passengers PLUS a 30% discount on their next cruise.
...

That refund's a bit of a joke! And more bad press for the company.

How many of those passengers are going to sue for big $$$ for mental anguish and physical injuries etc?

I wonder what the share price of the comany is doing, and how close they are to bankruptcy...

 

Cruise ship captain begins new job as bus driver...

 

I think "that captain" and "new job" make an oxymoron.

 

Kids, phone for help! The bus driver is leaving this bus!

 

Turns out the captain of the Concordia was ministering to a 24-year-old part-time topless dancer on the bridge at the time of the rock collision, and there was also a report that the captain left the safety of deep water so he could wave at a drinking buddy standing along the shoreline of that island.

While it is not certain whether both of those activities occurred simultaneously, one would imagine that either scenario could have accounted for the disaster, and the captain's hurried departure from the full ship as it keeled over. I see some serious pokey time in that man's future.