Cruise ship run aground in Italy

[MrsSnaplegs]

* Cruise ship runs aground in Italy *
More than 4,000 people are being evacuated after the cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground off Italy, with at least six reported dead.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16558910
Looks horrendous - live photos show it almost horizontal

Just been listening to Sky and the recording of the coastguard shouting at the captain and telling him to get back on board his ship as there were still people needing to be rescued.

It sounds really awful.

I read the transcript. Absolutely dreadful. However I'm still surprised Costa are trying to pin it all on one errant master. They were given legal advice over the weekend not to do this but chose to ignore it.

Hmmm. If the reports of going hard and fast too close for 'show' are true, the whole bridge team are in trouble.

I was watching the news last night and I have to admit the recording was pretty damning.
I also admit to wanting to smack the reporter who said about the missing 5 year old girl that she was somewhere in the cold dark water, I admit the image of that make me cry so God only knows what her mother must be going through and I think it was a shameful thing to say.

The tapescript of the Coastguard man is being played non-stop here, predictably.

The Captain just sounded like he was in shock. The coastguard sounded bloody marvellous though- trying desperately to get the captain to do something while he continued saying he couldn't go back onto the boat because it was dark

Rumour has it that this particular Captain frequently sailed the boat to that position to "salute" the people of the island.

Facebook friends of mine have husbands working on cruiseships and are being perhaps understandably defensive on behalf of the crew of this ship, but all the news reports coming out about the captain, as others have said, are more than damning. The fact that telephone footage of events about an hour after the crash onto the rocks show the crew still telling the passengers not to worry and that it was an "electrical fault" beggar belief as well, although the captain was, by that point moving the boat to the safest place he could reach I think?

Certain training will kick in, trying not to cause mass panic until absolutely necessary sounds sensible, but he doesn't cover himself with glory.

Different countries have different training standards, the UK has pretty much the highest. Italy not so much, though they have a big presence on cruise ships and some very antiquated ideas. My sister is a second officer for Princess, and has been told many times she should be at home having babies, women shouldn't be on ships other than as dancers etc etc.