Meanwhile, attention focused on the captain, who was spotted by Coast Guard officials and passengers fleeing the scene even as the chaotic and terrifying evacuation was under way.
. . .
A French couple who boarded the Concordia in Marseille, Ophelie Gondelle and David Du Pays, told the Associated Press they saw the captain in a lifeboat, covered by a blanket . . . .
Coast Guard officers later spotted Schettino on land as the evacuation unfolded. The officers urged him to return to his ship and honor his duty to stay aboard until everyone was safely off the vessel, but he ignored them, Coast Guard Cmdr. Francesco Paolillo said.
The other day I quoted from an expert As my former captain used to say, "Rule 1 of navigation is 'look out the fucking window.'" Apparently they were either too trusting of all the electronics, or nobody bothered to actually LOOK.
2 comments:
Nice big hole there.
And that captain - case of the Peter Principle?
Of course it can be somewhere between hard and impossible to know how you'd really behave in a big crisis, until it happens, so maybe he deserves some sympathy.
Beats me. It's my thought that getting to Captain still involves working your way up, so unless every voyage was clean and easy you'd think such tendencies would be noticed and prevent him getting to that rank. Unless they were glossed over? Or maybe he deteriorated with time.
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