Dick Dasterdly

Lets hope Jacky isn't cruising around her favourite country at present.

http://news.uk.msn.com/world/passeng...uns-aground-15

Right beside the shoreline.
Looking at the very latest pictures with the ship keeled right over on its side, it appears to be a total wreck, with only the rocks stopping it from going right under.

Have to wonder what the situation would be if it had happened out in open waters in a rough sea with 4000 plus ppl. aboard ?

Rescuers are still searching the ship for more casualties.

jackytoo

Wouldn't catch me anywhere in the Med in January...especially on Costa line

Been listening to a crew member speaking about the panic

Fred James

If it had been in open sea it probably wouldn't have hit a rock - the Med is pretty deep.

It looks like a serious navigation error to me.

Dick Dasterdly

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...Concordia.html

Looking at these photos you've got to wonder who was at the wheel,
......if anybody ?



Err what was I just saying yesterday evening,.....

""It's Black Friday today by the way, somethings bound to happen.""

johnnyone

Lewis Hamilton?

Dick Dasterdly

Alonso more like !

Hard to believe they could cock it up to the extent they did by accident.

Reckon it's an insurance job myself.

gill556

we were booked to go on this ship in April, so sad for all the people involved.

Fred James

The captain has now said that he was 300m from the rocks but that he hit one that wasn't on the chart.

It is 50 km from the island to the mainland of Italy and most of it is over 100m deep - what on earth was he doing 300m from the island as he was on passage to Savrona 200km to the north?

JLFS

70 people missing..........bad, bad, bad.

Terrible for all concerned.

Dick Dasterdly

Hopefully not quite that bad.

They seem to think that a lot of ppl. may just have wandered off when they got to shore.

The latest is that they don't seem to know exactly how many were on board.

Maybe not know the full truth until every cabin and compartment has been thoroughly searched, which could be a difficult and long painstaking job on a ship like that, laid on its side.

Dick Dasterdly

Captain and First Officer detained on suspicion of manslaughter and abandoning the ship while passengers were still in danger.

Hino

Perhaps taking a 'shortcut' to reduce fuel consumption ? Perhaps sheltering in the Lee of the island because of bad weather ? Perhaps finding somewhere 'safe' and sheltered to spend the night hours before a short 'low speed' run to their destination. There could be many valid reasons why a ship of this size should be so close to shore, especially given the fact that it's a Cruise Ship.

I've seen photo's of the wreck on the BBC news site, these show that the sun loungers had been roped together and secured. Though the initial reports stated that the weather was 'calm', securing loose objects on the weather decks only happens when the ship is expecting foul weather.

The Mediterranean in winter is no place for a cruise ship. I did two winters in the 'med' on a cruise ship just a little smaller than the 'Concordia' and it was hell on wheels.

Lets just be grateful that the 'damage bill' wasn't greater.

steviedeluxe

Whichever mode of transport you choose, there is always an element of risk, no matter how small. They were describing what happened on breakfast television this morning - apparently the ship tilted to one side before falling in the opposite direction. It must have been absolutely terrifying for those on the ship.

Fred James

It wasn't a short cut - he does this trip every week or so and the correct course is miles away from this little island.

It was flat calm at the time. He would have been going at normal speed as his destination was 200 miles away.

Dick Dasterdly

Courses can vary slightly from time to time.

For instance I mentioned recently on another thread how I was surprised to find the Bilbao/Portsmouth ferry cutting inside one of the islands off Brest on my last return trip and being very close to the islands shoreline, although there were hundreds of miles of open sea on the other side, the normal previous course.

Though on the map it seemed only very marginally shorter than the previous route, I was advised that it was a short cut.

Quite a few ferry companies have been struggling in recent years and one of the main reasons given is the fuel costs.

When my regular Newcastle/Gothenburg route was closed a few years back the reason given was the fuel costs.
I was quite surprised as just before closing the route the ship always seemed
to be fullly booked whereas going back a few more years it was normally less than 50%.

I think the pressure is on everyone concerned, possibly incl.the crews, to keep costs to an absolute minimum, as the competition in the cruise ship world is fairly stiff at present and even a saving of ten or fifteen minutes of fuel could be considered significant.

Of course the reason may well be something else entirely, but it was just one possibility that crossed my mind.