Captain Francesco Schettino Arrested
The blame for the Costa Concordia tragedy was falling on the shoulders of Captain Francesco Schettino yesterday.
Schettino was in charge of the 5 year old $570 million ship equipped with state of the art navigation equipment which hit rocks off the Isola del Giglio on Friday killing at least 2 French tourists and a Peruvian crew member. The bodies of 2 elderly men were found by divers inside the ship on Sunday.
A statement issued by Costa Cruises firmly placed the blame on Schettino stating “Preliminary indications are that there may have been significant human error on the part of the ship’s master, Captain Francesco Schettino, which resulted in these grave consequences”.
The company statement went on to suggest the cause of the disaster “The route of the vessel appears to have been too close to the shore, and in handling the emergency, the Captain appears not to have followed standard Costa procedures”.
Although Costa will be wanting to point the blame far from themselves, the facts of the matter – the speed of the ship, the fact that the Captain was one of the first off the ship, and the deviation from the correct route, would appear to support the company’s statement.
Meanwhile Italian prosecutors have seized the ship’s equivalent of an airline black box, the VDR (voyage data recorder) and arrested Schettino with likely charges including manslaughter, causing a wreck, and abandoning the ship before all the passengers were evacuated.
It has also emerged that the standard lifeboard drill (muster) had not been carried out. Although this drill is not legally required until 24 hours after sailing, standard practice with most cruise lines is to carry it out either prior to sailing or within the first hour. It is certainly unusual to have served dinner (as in this case) prior to carrying out the drill.
cruiseastute.com says …
“As we suggested yesterday, this tragedy is certainly looking like human error on the part of the Captain. Emerging details continue to make bad reading for Francesco Schettino with some members of the crew suggesting that he handled the ship like a Ferrari”.
