The Cost of Concordia

My only exposure to passenger/cruise ship was when I did class and statutory surveys/inspections on the old Mormac BRASIL (ENCHANTED SEAS). On that ship, the duties of Chief Mate were split between the Staff Captain and Safety Officer. I can say that the Captain, from India was certainly very capable.

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As written on Costa Concordia’s Approved Save Manning List:

In an emergency with passengers on board (up to 3780), the some 1000 hotel crew had indeed specific duties, according to the given emergency.

Indeed, in this real case, some crew acted as heroes, others not so much… while the captain was sitting on a shore side rock to look quietly how they worked…

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Actually Costa Concordia had 26 lifeboats for the passengers launched and manned by the 75 crew. They met at muster station A. Then there were 68 davit launched life rafts for the staff launched under supervision of the crew purser. They met at muster station B. In reality all staff took the lifeboats ahead of the pax. Some boats that had to make several trips to shore and no rafts were launched. Three boats were not launched at all. news88 - The evacuation and miraculous repatriation of 4 200+ Survivors from Costa Concordia . The staff apparently opened the watertight doors in the hull during evacuation, which allowed water to spread in the hull causing the sudden capsize due to loss of stability. It was all the fault of Schettino, though!

maybe its like the Philippines where somebody has a real CoC but the gov cant tell you how they got it???
I had the office check out several 2nd mates who just didnt really have the skills they should.
It appears they lost the paper work when they converted to STCW-95

In the old times, if you found a good AB that could navigate, you made him CoC with a certificate provided locally (a printer close to the seamen"s bar). It worked fine. He didn’t have to waste time at some maritime academy ashore.

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lol worked with a 2nd mate who was updating a chart with a black biro as he said its black so I will use my biro…oops it was magenta so not only totally colour blind but he didnt know what was on a modern chart.
Guess where his CoC came from

That’s an interesting video. Like you said it’s not serious.

As it happens I just finished James Reason’s book "Normal Accidents’. In the last chapter Reason points out that narratives likes this that go heavy on the “human error” element of incidents help people responsible but further away in time and distance avoid accountability.

Here’s a paper that uses Reason’s approach to analyze this accident.

The author of the paper and a book posted here a while ago.

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NOLA??

This is a strange incident. To pass and salute the island it would have been better to turn NE well south of the island to pass the island on a straight course parallel with the shore blowing the horn, etc, so passengers aboard could admire the island and people ashore could admire the ship in the complete cold winter darkness. The final alleged island salute steaming straight towards the shore at 16 knots and making a 90° starboard turn in the last moment wasn’t even announced to anyone aboard and ashore … and appears crazy. And both voyage data and voice recorders were switched off. But the Master Schettino was on the bridge shouting orders that were not followed. It didn’t matter! In Italy the Master is responsible for everything aboard and the shipowner just collect the money for the trip. I have a feeling something else happened.

I had a look at the thread, the OP might have had something worth saying. Or might not.
The thread degenerated into bickering about his qualifications and restating Schettino is Guilty.

Which was unfortunate.

To make a worthwhile comment one doesn’t have to be a Cruise Ship Captain or even an MM.
I see no reason why someone with an expertise in Aviation particularly Aviation accident investigation wouldn’t have an interesting opinion.
Or an interest and experience in BRM, BRM training, CRM, CRM training, general accident investigation.
The law just tells us Schettino was Guilty as charged.

The story of how he f ed it up so badly, particularly if it could show the reasons why, beyond saying he was an incompetent, cowardly. negligent, or Guilty.

Did other people F up. Did the company F up, No doubt,

Unfortunately I haven’t seen anything equivalent to a NTSB or MAIB report on the subject.
Was one ever written?
Or just the trail.

As for sail pasts. Isn’t sight seeing, one of the reasons to go on some cruises.

What about the taking a cruise ship full of punters down to the Antarctic hitting a chunk of ice and sinking the dam thing.
Or
Up and down the coast of Norway in the middle of winter, what could possibly go wrong with those plans.

But the paying public want to go to interesting places and see interesting stuff.

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but please be aware that it is 180 pages.

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Thanks

What do you think happened?

What happened? The Italian incident report is anonymous and full of errors and we don’t know who wrote it. The schedule of the trip was planned years in advance and printed in a program to inform passengers what they were buying and what was going to happen. Ports and quays were booked in advance and tickets sold by shore. Everything had been done before. The cruise was just a repeat performance. The Master, crew and catering didn’t have to plan anything. All was planned beforehand by shore. The Master just had to follow orders! It was like driving a tram. Just look out to avoid hitting anyone on the track. So he fucked up … and became responsible for everything. Three lifeboats were stuck in the davits. Normal! No life rafts were launched! The crew didn’t know how to do it. Part of the ISM! The staff at work went to their cabins after the incident and opened watertight doors that couldn’t be closed again after the black-out. Then they left! And the staff used the lifeboats leaving pax behind! They should have used the rafts! And did the steering gear work? A turn is ordered and the rudders are turned and … nothing happens! Was the steering gear working? We don’t know! It seems three compartments were up-flooded due to the contact, so power was lost, but it was a stable condition. The ship could not sink. But the ship later lost stability due to progressive flooding of undamaged compartments through open, illegal doors in the bulkheads. It has been suggested organized crime, i.e. the mafia, used the ship to carry drugs from America to Europe and that it was being dropped off outside Giglio island as a salute. Never investigated. Let"s face it. Italy is a rotten country, where you can get away with murder. The ship wasn’t seaworthy! Schettino was the perfect patsy. But 99% of the people aboard survived and were next day safe at home again. Fantastic. I wonder how they managed that. And the officers aboard were fucking willing passengers and staff!! Never heard of??? The Master had the first choice, though! They must have some fun, too. The end of the drama was years later at Genoa. The wreck was put in a dry dock (without any blocks below it), the damage in the side was patched up and the wreck was towed to sea … and sunk! By a mafia company supposed to re-cycle it!! The mafia at work! They could never enter and clean the dirty lower decks so the only solution was to sink the ship definitely this time.

Sorry this just sounds like a typical conspiracy theory. A conspiracy in Italy is a little bit of a stereotype.
Off course there could be conspiracy’s in the response. I think you need some kind of evidence. To make allegations.

I only read a few pages of the report, it appears to be a translation so some of the subtle parts may be lost in translation. Typically reports of this kind are a product of many authors work, reviewed by lawyers by the interested parties and any references to liability or blame removed or softened.
Which is consistent with normal accident report methods.

Route and voyage plan. probably was a recycled plan from previous voyages. The point there was a pretty significant deviation from the plan. Even if deviations were relatively routine.

Damage limited but spreading due to open watertight doors? I have read this far yet. Crew returning to cabins after loss of power. Possible? plausible? Or passing through on their way out,
Or failed to close properly after collision and things falling in way or structure bending?

Watertight doors, Usually have accumulators capable of three cycles. Plus hand pump at door, plus remote closing. Failing to Hand pump a door closed behind you on the way out. Might not be hard to expect when the water is up to your ass.
So doors having been opened?

The emergency generator failing? Not good, Routine maintenance, problems. Engine Dept issue.

Steering, loose power, loose steering, should be on emergency bus. But if Emergency generator fails, no more steering.
Em lighting appears to have lasted ok, Battery’s.
Bridge equipment, apparently UPS ok.

Quite a long delay, prior to general alarms and distress calls, phone calls to company. Incorrect information being passed on down playing severity.

So some crew didn’t know how to operate evacuation equipment? I guess buck stops with the Master. Don’t Cruise ships typically have a safety officer who is in charge of this shit.
You do have a point here.

He wasn’t the only one on board who F ed up. By most industry standards the whole bridge team F ed up.
We would probably never have heard of Schettino or Costa or the Costa Concordia,

If he had just said pas close by Giglio, and Give me a call 10 minutes before we get there. Turned up with his current flame and people he wanted to impress. Stood of to one side by the window and left the bridge team to it.

But he didn’t. He showed up, Took over F ed it up and hit a rock. Apparently without anyone questioning his actions.
So the QM made some errors? QMs make errors, you deal with it. Normally no big deal.

If you are the QM with a dumb ass Capt. Heading for an island, thinking it’s about high time, he altered course. You might be anticipating a starboard helm order. And be a little bit surprised to hear a port helm order.
So mixed up helm orders in extreme circumstances?

Still it’s the first time I’ve heard it was the Mafia Drug Drop what caused it.

Why would the Mafia, Smuggle drugs, by Cruise Ship, From an Italian port to some little Italian island.

I’m sure the Mafia smuggles lots of Drugs, Into Italy and Probably out of Italy. Possibly even by Cruise ship. Leaving an Italian port to drop drugs at an Italian island just doesn’t add up.

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Thanks, Uricanejack, for your comment. Re watertight doors they are only allowed between engine room spaces as per SOLAS to faciltate an engine watch keeper moving around. All other must go up to the bulkhead deck and down, etc. Even engine crew in an emergency. You cannot open a watertight door when the ship is sinking. All the other watertight doors on Costa Concordia were illegal or not as per SOLAS. Of course the doors could be operated by hand pumps but only idiots would do it in an emergency. Anyway, it was only Schettino that F up everything and he is paid to shut up and take the blame. You know why? Money! No other cruise ships officers of any flag/ships went to support Schettino. They all shut up. What a rotten biz supported by governments, authorities and paid agents.

I’m a ships Captain , now retired. I have been in command of ULCC and VLCC. I always refused to be in Command of cruise ships despite many offers. On board the cruise ships usually the Master is also SSO which is very wrong. The same on merchant ships vessels. This is very wrong.it’s very common and compulsory for cruise ships to pass very close to coast which is very wrong. I never meet Schettino but he was Captain with Chevron, among all. He was a coward because he abandoned ship. Fault is with Costa and Port control but he paid for all. Nowadays we have on board multi nationals crews and the wheelman didn’t understand his orders. It happened also to me in the past. Sometimes the Captain is paying for others fault. Exxon Valdez is one example.According to ISM the company is also responsible. Schettino is the only one to pay ( rightly) also for others mistakes. Following Exxon Valdez , Exon disappeared ( officially) from market. Costa is still taking advantages from the accident. This is the difference between USA and Italy.

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As I predicted earlier:

Am I the only one who doesn’t consider diluted human waste a major challenge to modern PPE? I mean, workers dive into sewers regularly and work in all kinds of dangerous atmospheres. It’s just shit, nothing worse. Stinks but washes off.

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@Heiwa is a well-known conspiracy theorist who doesn’t believe in, among other things, nuclear bombs and human space flight because, according to him, they cannot work. He’s also an incompetent naval architect who fills gaps in his own understanding with fantasy. What he does not understand he rules out as a lie.

And yes, I’m getting a bit tired of treating him like the official jester of this professional forum. After all, we are talking about a person who, as a consulting naval architect, may have been indirectly responsible of significant loss of life (which he openly admits on his website). How would you treat a fellow mariner who keeps telling stories about that time when he fell asleep on the wheel and ran over a fishing boat?

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That remains me of an old Brit in Singapore that used to tell horror stories about all the Typhoons, accidents and near misses he had been experiencing in his many years as Master in the Far East.
He nearly always started with; “Mind you, I was not on the bridge at the time”.