Daryl

We'll see about that, I suspect that might have been his second error of judgement.

Daryl

The ship didn't sink, it was deliberately steered onto the shore after the initial grounding, presumably suffering further damage. My prediction is that, had the ship steered into deeper water after the initial grounding, it would still be afloat.

Trout

iTrader: (1)

The plot thickens.


Remarkably - after Captain Coward (as he is dubbed in the Italian press) fell into the lifeboat by accident - the ship's second and third officers also fell into the same lifeboat.


And even more remarkably - given Captain Coward's account that he was trapped in the lifeboat - he was seen onshore, totally dry, by the islands police chief 10-15 mins after announcing abandon ship.


He is getting a massive pasting in the Italian media (there will never be a fair trial) and there are even T-Shirts emblazoned with 'Get the **** back on board'!!!!

hodgy0_2

The whole shipping industry is at it -- with the habit of sailing under flags of convenience, to avoid any safety regulations etc

The amount of commercial shipping that just goes missing each year is a scandal

But generally Filipino crew, so no fuss is raised

hodgy0_2

prob be promoted to head the Italian Navy

Trout

iTrader: (1)

In the details of the story what is not getting great coverage is the bravery of the ordinary staff on the ship.

Rose Metcalfe - English dancer - stayed on board helping passengers until they had all gone before she swam ashore. Thought that she only had a 50:50 chance of survival as she would have to go in the water but still did her duty.

Russell - barman - stayed on board to help passengers until they had all gone. Then had to swim to shore. Drowned.

I am sure there will be many other stories like this of selflessness from lowly paid staff or passengers.


It is this that makes the captains behaviour too disgusting to countenance.

Tidgy

Leslie

He is the man in overall command and with full responsibility for the passengers. He should be on the ship coordinating the evacuation of the ship until all others are as safe as is in his power.

Would you have walked away and left the situation in his place?

Les

Leslie

Well we may well not know the full story yet of course. The company might have authorised the ship to sail closer to the island for all we know and they are doing a bit of "wriggling".

In the end however, the captain is still responsible for the safety of the boat and passengers while at sea and he would be at fault for following a company directive if it put the boat in danger. In such a case his authority would exceed that of the company.

If the captain took his own decision to sail on the route that he did, then he is entirely at fault and it is not the fault of the company in such a case. The company can only employ a qualified captain for the job and it is not their fault if he screws up without their knowledge.

Its the same with employing anyone to operate such a form of transport on their behalf.

Les

speedking

No. But he had already left the ship, showing his attitude towards those he left behind.

The coastguard was shouting and swearing at him, I don't see what he could practically have achieved by going back aboard.

Tidgy

the damage looks pretty bad, the gash along the side is pratty huge, not only is it long, its also pretty deep into the hull itself.

i expect it will be looked at eventualy anyway, but i have a feeling it would have gone down without stopping on the rocks.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

It would have sunk in deeper water, no doubt. How quickly though, only one could guess.

I think it did probably capsize due to being beached, or the action of doing a sharp turn with a load of water sloshing around in the hull.

dpb

might had time/ability to launch the boats

Funkii Munkii

+1

And with a great big fookin rock lodged in the hull.

Where did he hit that rock, close to where he beached or away from the island ? if further away from the island then it does give credence to the rumour that he headed for the island after hitting said rock.

It must have been some contact to open the hull up like a tin can and then snap the top of the rock clean off.

Rob_Impreza99

iTrader: (3)

Just one question.

Will they try and save this ship by doing a temporary weld on the hull so that they can refloat it or will they just leave it to rot away as a diving reck like you see with some other ships around the world that have gone down, i'd guess at the cost it was to build the ship they would try and do some sort of salvage.

dpb

Itll polish out

Leslie

At the very least he could have indicated some contrition for his actions and maye even have re-taken the command he had been invested in originally and did something in an effort to organise the escape and also provide the coastguard with the facts that he personally needed to do his part of the job.

Allow me to underline the fact that he was the overall commander of the vessel.

The real question is, why did he leave the ship why so many people were trying to escape still? Do you believe he "fell" into a lifeboat in company with some of his officers by accident? How did he accidentally fall into a lifeboat when he should have been in a position of authority on the ship?

Les

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

They will try and salvage it , fix the hole, paint over it and then change the name so noone will be the wiser ...I hear that berlusconi has already put a bid in for his floating bunga bunga parties

urban

iTrader: (1)

Because he was afraid and didn't want to die

Nope, I reckon they were in one of the first available boats like frightened wee dogs.

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

albob

latest new reports are saying that the captain was indeed entertaining a LADY (not on the passenger list..) on the bridge

14N-FR

iTrader: (3)

On the cruise ship I work on, we can flood 3 watertight compartments out of the 7 we have and still stay afloat long enough to evacuate the ship.

Looking at where the gash is on Concordia's side, their engine rooms would have been completely flooded so their bilge system would have been probably rendered useless hence reason the ship blacked out.

With regards to flags, ships may change their flag states so the workers on board and the company can claim their tax back. I have been on ships that have changed flags due to this. There is absolutely no way to avoid safety regulations by changing your flag, so get your facts right.

As soon as a ship goes in a port, the port authorities or classification society can board the vessel to check anything they want, whether it be safety equipment or check that a vessel is burning the right type of fuel in environmentally protected areas for example.

With regards to Filipino crew of which I work with about 60 of them, they are not the problem. Its the Russians and Indians. Again get your facts right.

rbaz

iTrader: (1)

I heard one on the BBC saying he was in a life boat and off before the general alarm was given to the rest of the passengers
Will be all sorts flying about in the media.

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

How many compartments do you think actually flooded from the initial damage. You would think there would be some sort of damage control system on the ship that can detect flooding, shut water tight doors, and then actually know if you are going to sink or not based on how many compartments are compromised.

hodgy0_2

can you tell me where in my post I say Filipino crews are a problem

Thanks

14N-FR

iTrader: (3)

Looking at where the gash is both engine room compartments look to be flooded. I would hazard a guess and say two are flooded from the pics I have seen. The Concordia is a similar sized ship to the one I work on and basically all cruise ships are built around the same simple plan. Engine room aft, storage tanks forward.

All ships have bilges and float switches to detect flooding and these spaces can be pumped out via bilge pumps and emergency bilge/ballast pumps. For example with all our bilge and emergency bilge pumps running we can pump overboard around 2000m^3/h. I bet that 30ft gash was letting more than that in!

These pumps are all located in the engine room and as soon as the water level is at the height of the pumps motor's (around 5ft from the bottom of the bilge) they will short out rendering them useless.

14N-FR

iTrader: (3)

Apologies, misread your post.

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Thanks for the insight. From what you have said it sounds as if it may have been better not to beach the ship and have an orderly evacuation....hindsight is a great thing!

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

My mistake; it was Crossair

Been bugging me this, so I found it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossai...#Investigation


The captain, was proven to be incompetent, yet his employer allowed him to continue to fly planes without addressing previous concerns. Bearing in mind this was a captain that retracted the landing gear on a plane whilst still on the ground (writing it off) and also getting lost in the Alps and ending up in Italy!

Sadly despite the gross failings in company managment allowing this man to carry on in his job and kill himself along with his passengers, it looks like the bosses that employed him got away with it when it came to the verdicts:

http://www.ainonline.com/?q=aviation...homicide-trial

Daryl

Even with both engine room compartments completely flooded, I would still expect the ship to stay afloat, probably indefinitely. Do you think that is the case?