Costa Concordia cruise tragedy in photos

I work with merchant vessels everyday though not cruisers, The Captain must have ignored the ships charts, the sea bed and rocks would have shown on the charts !! - both him and his chief officer to blame entirely : ( - I feel for them only slightly. Those poor folk still dying with their life jackets on - terrible!
Jan in Southampton

I hadn't appreciated how big it was vs how close it was to the land. Wow. He really was playing with fire.

There is no sane reason for a large ship ever to go so close to a non-engineered shore.

What a sad co-incidence similar to the Titanic 100 years almost to the day and on Friday 13th God bless all who are still missing and god bless the 4000 who escaped

cant beleave some peoples comments......, 1.....he got paid to do a captains job. which means you save others on board before your self, a captains should make sure his passengers are off and all accounted for, before leaving the ship..... 2........ he refused to go back on the ship, even when coast guards told him to, knowing passengers and crew were still missing and on board,..... and....... 3...... he left these people on the ship to die.... it was, due to, his own stupidity what caused the accident,......... if thats not murder......., o i forgot he just happened to fall into the lifeboat !!!!!!!!!!!!, leaving a of duty captain to do his job, his a coward and a murderer. how do you think the familys of the dead and missing are feeling, and he hasnt even got the guts to be honest, at least admit what a coward he is.

Strange how when something as tragic as this happens it makes you recall events and what if's. Back in 2008 I travelled on the Aurora to the East coast of America, we were caught up in a force 12. Fortunately the ship was quite stable considering. But analyzing that cruise, although not being a spring chicken myself (61) a large number of the passengers, some 1900 odd not including crew, were in their 80's and either wheelchair bound or had problems with mobility. One asks oneself how on earth would you evacuate that number in the case of a disaster. Whilst i have every faith in P&O and her captains it does make you wonder. The mad chase for bigger and bigger ships was going on at the time of the Titanic, is history repeating itself ? We now have ships carrying 6,000 passenger. This means that if a ship had only 1 to 1 1/2 hrs before it sank every lifeboat would have to be launched within 2 to 3 minutes. The 6,000 also doesn't include the crew, which normally amounts to about 50% less than the number of passengers.

I thought that the ship hit the rocks where it sits now but have just seen that the ship hit something further out and the captain brought her closer to the shore, maybe he is not all that daft and we should wait to see what really happened with the black box etc

whatever has happened, let us comment on the bravery of the rescue operaters, who are risking tteir lives to find the missing, give some thought and hope to their families.

Firstly it is reported that the ship was 4 miles off course.
Secondly the ship came 350 yards closer to the shore than on previous occasions.

The legal wording is that 'the Master stood his vessel into danger' when he did NOT have to.

He IS therefore guilty of gross negligence where 'the safety of the ship' is concerned.

Merchant navy officers are referred to as Mr. Schettino, Master of the Costa Concordia.

He is supposed to be a Master Mariner having mastered the art of navigation.

The title Captain is a Naval Forces title.

These rocks should have a buoy placed on them.

End of argument.

ANY other navigation officer on the bridge at the time could have ordered a change of course when the danger became apparent.

Sad loss and - totally - unnecessary.

So sorry for people that have lost there lives and for the families who are waiting to see if there loved ones are safe.I was not there but looking at the film clips the crew seem to be
badly trained for an emergency, I am sure the judge in charge will look at every angel

those poor people that lost they lives because of that stupid idiot of a captain

well thats what happens when you show off

OK so the captain turned back closer to the shore. Can't get much closer than onto rocks, and that was bad seamanship. And lifeboats should have been lowered earlier.
These big Cruise Ships are NOT unsinkable, but are designed to settle slowly and he should have attempted to anchor slightly offshore, away from rocks. The lifeboats should have been lowered and crew and passengers prepared before it turned. In turning, possibly too fast, it would have made it unstable with water inside.
The original problem was that HE decided to deviate from course, and to do that the warnings and computer would have been tampered with or switched off, and could not warn to any rocks or being too close to shore.
It is totally stupid to take a 300 mtr ship to within 300 mtr of shore. This captain may have passed theoretical masters exams, but he probably has no real practical seamanship experience. We will see.
Que sera, sera, some of you can take the p**s as I am off for another Cruise in March, but I only go with Cunard,P & O and Princess where there are some Brit officers. AND Life boat drill is before leaving harbour !!!
No comment about Italians, there is very brave men involved with the search & rescue.

***My thoughts are still with the familys who have lost their loved ones through this so must NOT! happen again Tragedy, I will never believe what ever excuse the Captain of "Costa Condordia" has to say, He had a crew of members so who on earth was watching the dangers this ship fataly suffered? It is not a mystery obviously they were not doing their job by making sure of the safety to prevent such a tragedy, My personal believes are that the captain & his crew members were blatently busy doing what they should obviously not of been doing, My all those who lost their live be remembered @ this sad tragedy, R.I.P to all those who have lost their lives, Never forgotton x

I dread to think what would have happened has=d such a disaster struck out at sea?

It is really amazing that so many folk survived (no thanks to the stupid captain, and so sad that many lost their lives!

The boat looks so top heavy even a huge wave would have turn fit over.

The miracle of all this is that a life boat just happened to be right beneath the captain as he was knocked overboard ... what an insult to the folk that dies, he should be taken out to see and dumped over the side ... with not a lifeboat in sight!

If everybody had worked together onboard when the tragedy stuck nobody should have lost their lives, and the captain should have alerted everybody since they were so close to land.The Idiot.

just goes to show my fear of boats is justified,well to me anyway R.I.P all the lost souls

The Captain has the ultimate responsibility for the safety of his ship, the crew and the passengers.

I have never seen anything like this! what was the captain thinking? all those people its thankfull that the costa concordia didnt become the new titanic, all those rescurers should be named and rewarded!!!

I didn't realise that if the power fails you cannot open your cabin door,!! scary