[Baron]

Dynamite

[Oldmanmatt]

The Guardians choice of picture and headline made me laugh today....

I've spent the day in Italy with a bunch of Maritime professionals, picking apart the skippers every move...
It's rather a hot topic here right now.

[Jaspersharpe]

What's the consensus amongst people who know about this sort of stuff Matt? Must be the captain's fault as per what the company is saying?

[Oldmanmatt]

I'd like to show solidarity with the Guy, but....
After review today, the bloke is a complete and utter Numpty! (that's an industry term, or at least, a polite translation of a more nautical expression).
He simply had no business taking a ship in that close. There are so many things that could go wrong, hitting uncharted rocks is just one.
 Think of it as an airline pilot flying a 747 at treetop level, for a laugh, or a double decker bus driver, playing chicken with low bridges...
Even the Landiest Lubber, would have seen the risks...

[Oldmanmatt]

With great responsibility comes great EGO.

[Jaspersharpe]

Thought that might be the case! He is Italian after all (eh Nibile?)...... 

[Nibile]

I feel ashamed he's Italian.

[Oldmanmatt]

I'm the only non-Itaian in the office, here today and the consensus is with Lore...

[Muenchener]

Heard on the radio here yesterday that he left the ship early in the evacuation too. Shipping industry spokesman was unimpressed.

[Jaspersharpe]

This........

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/jan/17/costa-concordia-captain-phone-call-video

....would appear to confirm that. Pretty damning.

[robertostallioni]

Di Falco was certainly telling him how it is. 

[Nibile]

he's a real piece of shit. not only he abandoned the ship early. he didn't send the sos telling it was a technical problem. later he tried to escape with a taxi - on a fucking micro island, fucking idiot - and then wanted the black box to be given to him personally after it would be recovered. mother fucker.

[lagerstarfish]

But the company admitted the speech bubble from the girl’s shorts was an ‘error’ and it should have been from her mouth.

[Jaspersharpe]

It was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after it was found to link alcohol with sexual success.

Surely a rare case of an advertiser telling the truth. 

[slackline]

Oh the irony


I tripped & fell, honest Guvnor

Still, nice to see the piss being taken out of the piece of shit (although of course the loss of life shouldn't be trivialised).

[Nibile]

life is strange sometimes. I read on the newpapers today that the grandfather of two survivors of the Concordia died on the Titanic.
I have listened to the phone calls many times now and still that phrase "salga a bordo, cazzo" has a great effect on me. the Porth Authority commander, De Falco, recently asked to be left alone, not to be called a hero, and then named all the ones who where there on the ship and at sea, bringing people to safety.
there was also an officer, who helped out many many passengers, and who broke a leg in the process, I think he was searching for people trapped. he got trapped himself and was rescued after spending more than one day in the water.

[galpinos]

Does anyone else not find this witch hunt of the captain a bit unsavoury?

Would the phone conversation between the Captain and De Falco be released by the Italian “Prosecutor” (I’m not sure of the correct translation so am happy to be corrected) to the worlds media to allow them to subject him to the trial by media that’s currently going on?

Yes, the captain fucked up, yes, he’s not exactly covered himself in glory but I’d like to see a full investigation into what happened be carried out by someone who has a bit of knowledge of maritime issues, i.e. not a journalist before I pass judgement on someone.

I also feel that Costa Cruises (or whatever the holding company is called) seems to have avoided blame and turned on the man they employed to captain their ship. I’m not sure I’ve even seen an apology or condolences from them, just a big knife in a man’s back. The boat seems to have sailed a similar course before and they had done nothing to prevent it happening again.

Also, De Falco shouldn’t be called a hero, he did nothing heroic. I’m pretty uncomfortable with his manner of dealing with the captain, the phrase, “I am going to make you pay for this” wasn’t exactly helpful. The “heroes” were the people on the ground/water helping.

All of the above kind of reads as though I believe the captain is blameless. I don’t, but I’d be keen for an impartial investigation to come to that conclusion before I start pointing the finger of blame at one man for this tragedy.

[slackline]

Pretty much  with you, but the fact he was off the ship so quickly when he's been trusted with the safety of the crew & passengers by his employers, the other crew members and the passengers himself suggests, to my mind, that he should have hung around and overseen the evacuation.  That he then showed no willingness to return suggests he shouldn't have had the repsonsibility in the first place.  If he's now claiming to have left the ship by accident then he should have returned.

Sounds like he's not a very considerate or responsible person to me.

[galpinos]

To me, it seems like he panicked. The problem is, you never know how you’ll act in a crisis until it happens. I know he’s paid to do a job, a big part of which is taking responsibility when things go wrong and to stand up and be counted, but all the training in the world does mean that one will cope.

I’d like to think that if I was put in his situation, I’d have stayed until everyone was off and I’d done all I could. In reality, I may find myself hiding in a cupboard shitting myself that it was all my fault and I’d gone into shock.

I’d just prefer the facts to be established by an unbiased authority before we make him a worldwide hate figure.

[Nibile]

Also, De Falco shouldn’t be called a hero, he did nothing heroic. I’m pretty uncomfortable with his manner of dealing with the captain, the phrase, “I am going to make you pay for this” wasn’t exactly helpful. The “heroes” were the people on the ground/water helping.

this is exactly what De Falco said.
yes, the witch hunt is fully on, but everyday the captain says or does something that puts him under even worse light.
one of the chiefs of the Costa Cruises appeared on tv very early after the tragedy and he was truly saddened, to the point of tears. he had very sincere words for the victims' parents and didn't say much about the captain. I think it was well done.
I found out that in the Italian marine law, the captain have to be the last one to leave the ship. it's not a romantic tradition as I thought, it's a precise duty that's imposed by the law.
if it turns out that the captain did his best, well all the better. I seriously doubt so.

the tradition of sailing close to islands is well known, it happens with Giglio, Capri and many other islands. I think it's one of those things that are prohibited but still keep happening because of an ancient tradition.
it's called "inchino".
for thousands that went well this one fucked up big time. he wasn't qualified to take manually control of the ship, as it showed.
there's still a dignity to be kept when everything else is lost: lying and denying doesn't represent that to me. the man lied about everything: the number of passengers still aboard after he abandoned the ship (he said 200, they still were 4000, all of them); why he wasn't aboard (he tripped and fell on a boat???!!!); he tried to escape with a taxi; he tried to get the black box.

[Nibile]

also, and excuse me if I keep talking:
there's a whitch hunt for sure, but captain Schettino represents in this moment, all the stereotypes about Italians come true.
that's why everyone here hates him, because nothing hurts more than a stereotype that's true.

[galpinos]

but captain Schettino represents in this moment, all the stereotypes about Italians come true.

I've not seen him riding around on a scooter in shades looking effortlessly stylish and shouting "Ciao Bella" to lots of pretty girls all whilst drinking an espresso so he's still got a few boxes to tick in my eyes.

[Oldmanmatt]

Finally getting the full tapes in the office this morning, resulted in a large amount of swearing... I believe " pigs" and " son of" featured strongly. The rest was Unrepeatable.
Given that my colleagues are quite used to investigating Marine accidents and not given to such outbursts, I found this telling.

 I should add, we were in no way part of the official investigation, just a bunch of surveyors, pulling the odd string, in the interests of learning something (and really should have been doing other things).

I don't speak enough Italian to judge the tapes accurately, but the fact that so many in the office professed shame by proxy...
Well, what can I say.

[Muenchener]

To me, it seems like he panicked. The problem is, you never know how you’ll act in a crisis until it happens.

Quite. Either he is a complete shit, or he discovered when the crunch came that he isn't who he thought he was. Can any of us say for sure "that couldn't happen to me"?

[tregiffian]

Its not exact but compare and contrast Tevelyan Richards.