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Italian cruise ship captain blames company pressure

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The company has recently offered a 30% discount to passengers on future cruises. Is the offer available to the survivors of the deceased? Nobody deserve more insults. If anyone is interested in a cruise on ANY company's ship, read the FINE print. Basically, the company is not responsible, however, private insurance companies do offer trip delay, etc. coverage. This story is the saddest story since the Titanic "accident," which,coincidentally, happened ???

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Were these women hiding in their cabins for fear of discovery? Lots of cover stories getting blown. Too many unregistered women on board (?), drugs, (?) high jinks, false identities discovered. This ship seems to have been a slice of modern life, a sort of modern-day Pompeii, frozen in mid-act.

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This story is the saddest story since the Titanic "accident," which,coincidentally, happened ???

I don't see any coincidence in the dates.

This disaster does not compare well to the Titanic with only 15 dead. It does not even compare to the airline crash in Gunma. Its not even the saddest story since 9/11.

A more interesting comparison would be with the Greek MTS Oceanos in 1991. No one died, but after taking on a lot of water in a storm, the captain and crew set to leave the ship without bothering to alert passengers. By the time the passengers figured out for themselves what was happening, the captain was already leaving and left before them. Entertainment staff stayed behind to help the passengers. The captain went to shore, but did come back with a helicopter to direct rescue efforts.

He got a lot of flak too. Aside from not alerting passengers and sailing in a storm, he may have done everything right in the rescue. Everybody lived. This captain going down with the ship business is a bit silly. But there needs to be some clear proceedures for a captain leaving to direct rescue efforts from off the ship.

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Rescuers found the bodies of two women in the wreck of an Italian ship on Monday bringing the death toll to 15

OK, so...

The mayor of Corato, a town in southern Italy, later said one of the two was 30-year-old local Maria D’Introno, whose relatives had been informed. He said the woman jumped into the sea wearing a life jacket but could not swim.

Umm... WHAT?! So this woman "jumped into the sea", then climbed back onto the ship and went below-decks and proceded to drown inside the ship? What's wrong with this picture?

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What upper management?? Was a cruise line majority stake holder on board standing beside the captain?! What garbage is that... Captain Narcissist is his new name.

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Fadamor, I think the boat hadnt listed yet. So after the boat listed, she probably panicked and went in the wrong direction. She must have been absolutely terrifyied, enough to decide against the terror of drowning in the open sea and escaping back and ending up trapped in a cabin only to die there.

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Francesco Schettino told a friend he was following the advice of a manager about what route to take, saying “pass through there, pass through there,”

Yes, yes and pilots should take the advice of passengers and fly close to Mount Fuji so I can get a better picture!

What an ass clown, you are responsible for every aspect of your ship and to show off is not one of those duties.

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Let blame game begin!! Get ready, on your marks, start!!!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

The Titanic? Laughable and a little too dramatic. You do get that hundreds often die in developing nations when ferries capsize, right?

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Poor Captain Codardo! First forced by the company to run too close to rocks, then knocked into a lifeboat as he was heroically trying to save passengers. When will this mans luck change.

I've long held the theory that modern corporate structure too often promotes sociopaths over the sane. Merely because sociopaths tend to be the loudest and most devious in deflecting blame.

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Ferries....you're right tmarie. The ferries are a lot scarier. I bet if we could suck the oceans dry we'd find the ocean floor littered with ferries and god only knows what else. We are really destroying this planet.

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Pressure, hey Captain, if you cant handle the heat, you should have stayed out of the kitchen. You chose the course that navigated your ship onto the rocks, you abandoned ship, There is no excuse

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He's no Captain Stubing from the " Love Boat "

What an evil man !!!!

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“In my place, another would not have been so ready to pass there, but they got to me with their ‘Pass through there, pass through there,’” Schettino said.

The whole 'I didn't want to, I was just following orders!' shtick... where have we heard that before?

“So, here we are and it’s me who’s paying for everything,” he said.

Wow, such self-absorption! People have DIED because of your negligence and yet you're feeling sorry for yourself?

Contrary to witness reports that he had appeared unable to make a decision after the accident occurred, and was late giving the order to abandon ship, Schettino said that he had “acted with the maximum professionalism.” He added that he deserved credit for the fact that “I managed to save everyone, except them (the victims).”

Very, very arrogant, this self-congratualtion, without any evidence to justify it. Have you bought a Porsche yet?

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Update: Costa company denies that it made an offerfor a discounton future trips to Concordia victims. If it did, it is wrong, if it does, it is wrong. Now the question is: Did the crew accept bribes from the wealthy to get the life boats before the commoners?

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Anyone on a cruise needs to know that when something happens that threatens life, do not have confidence in the "controllers." Exactly what people should have done when the government started its propaganda that everything is fine in Fukushima.

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The excuse of the day is in! This guy needs his own section on news sites.

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This geezer seems like a pathological liar as well as a raging coward. Francesco, pauverino.....

Gaol will toughen him up a little.

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“I managed to save everyone, except them (the victims).”

Another way to look at it is that his performance was perfect except for the mistakes, and his record is unblemished, except for the blemishes! This guy is a mountain of denial!

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This Schettino guy just looks worse with every "explanation" he comes up with.

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This dumbass should just shut up, otherwise there won't be a lawyer on earth who'll want to represent him, unless his defense is going to be that he is just so profoundly stupid that he shouldn't be held responsible. What company manager is going to "pressure" him to risk damaging the ship...I mean, why? To get a better view of the rocks?

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The captain is, ultimately, responsible for the safety of the ship. But, as allegedly happened on the Titanic, which sank 100 years ago, a manager (Ismay for the White Start Line) goaded the captain into doing something against his better judgement. So captain coward is now saying that a manager told him to put his ship at risk while the company is saying that the captain deviated from the normal course for a "sail past" of the island. It sounds like the captain is trying a CYA here. But, in the end, he's the one who sailed his ship to a disaster.

On a side note, just before (1904, not 1912) the Titanic disaster there was a ship disaster in New York harbor where an excursion ferry the "General Slocum" caught fire and sank during a charter for a church outing. Over 1000 people died. But we remember the Titanic today, not the ferrys. Interesting point.

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The captain is, ultimately, responsible for the safety of the ship.

You should have stopped right there. There is no "but". If ANYTHING happens to the ship that was preventable, the captain is at fault. It's one of the responsibilities that comes with acquiring the title of "Captain". The cruise line office can suggest and even ORDER until they're blue in the face, but the Captain has the final word on ANY maneuvers the ship makes. It's the same with aircraft. Just because Air Traffic Control tells you to make a 30 degree left turn doesn't mean you HAVE to do it. If there's a thunderhead at that bearing you have to notfiy ATC that you cannot comply.

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Gelendestrasse:

Interesting mention of the General Slocum disaster. Here is from one report about it:

"With fire raging completely out of control and decks already collapsing on terror-struck women and children, Captain Van Schaick, his own clothes on fire, stayed at the wheel and ran the Slocum up on the shore of the hospital island beyond the Hell Gate"

.... quite a different attitude by the captain, I would say. I wonder how long Captaion Schettino would have stayed on board. Or not.

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