gCaptain Radio episode 51 appears critical of the Costa Concordia investigative report issued by the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure & Transport. But the reason for this criticism is a little unclear to me.
What exactly is missing that needs clarification through further investigation? Why?
The ship was operated in a poorly conceived close quarters maneuver and struck at speed, a charted hazard that breached the hull. People died and were injured in what was a very serious casualty.
Ahhhhh, is there something else we need to know Cap’n?
The report is completely unreadable. Here’s the very first paragraph (it get’s worse after this) as an example (Full report can be found HERE):
If the danger of fire has always been the utmost threat for passenger vessels and still is, despite the technological evolution and the progress of rules and regulations as well as the higher skills resulting from the training and from the severe safety management system (on board and ashore), in the Concordia casualty we have discovered that a contact characterized by the dynamic that occurred in this event also represents a serious risk.
I’d like to think the run on and nonsensical sentences are the fault of the translator but even the attached graphics are utterly confusing.
There are countless other problems with the report (e.g. only 8 pages of recommendations, none of which are specific enough to be helpful, in the full 175 page report )… too many to list.
Well that’s exactly what the Cruise Industry wants us to think but why was this captain promoted despite a record of idiocy? Why did Costa allow these flybys? Why was BRM completely ignored?
The idiot Captain was just one link in the chain… many other links failed including ones that are the responsibility of the company, the shipyard and the wider industry.