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The worst
Captain Francesco Schettino of the Costa Concordia committed not one, not two, not three, but four inconceivable and totally unnecessary errors or misdeeds: (1) taking the ship off course close to the island of Giglio for entirely frivolous reasons, resulting in the collision with an underwater rock and the fatal damage to the ship, a 160 foot long gash in the hull reminiscent of what happened to Titanic; (2) continuing to sail the ship northward past Giglio harbor and not turning it around until forty minutes after the collision, instead of pulling immediately into the harbor which was ahead of the ship off its port bow at the time of the collision; (3) delaying the order to abandon ship for about an hour after the collision, even though his engine crew told him a few minutes after the collision that the ship had suffered irreparable damage; and (4) abandoning the Costa Concordia himself even as people from Giglio, including its deputy mayor, had rowed out to the ship and were helping rescue passengers and crew.
It’s just about the worst behavior by a man in a position of authority that I’ve ever heard of. It’s amazing that a thousand or two thousand people didn’t die, instead of the 32 who did. Thirty-two dead, many more injured, and a half billion dollar vessel destroyed, for no reason. Email entry |