It is very odd, if it is indeed true, that the prosecutor has not seen these first. With not coming to light until a few weeks after the event makes me think otherwise, to hide the identity of the filmer.

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Originally posted by desirod7:
I honestly believe based on what I have read and heard that if everyone was mustered just after the impact, there would have been no loss of life.

All but 3 lifeboats were launched on the high list side.

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PS: I think this is the longest running CruiseTalk thread.

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Originally posted by Globaliser:
Update: now being reported as eight bodies found today, and suggesting a total of 25 bodies now found. They are being said to include that of the 5-year old girl who is believed to have died.

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Originally posted by desirod7:
I think the crew members, one on video, that told the passengers to go back to their cabins should be charged with murder.[...]

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They should not go unpunished.

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Originally posted by Ernst:

Do you really think that this person - whoever gave that order - had the intention (!) to kill someone? It might have been careless or stupid - and we do not even know that for now - but murder (!) is a very, very sever accusation.

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quote:

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Originally posted by desirod7:
I think the crew members, one on video, that told the passengers to go back to their cabins should be charged with murder.

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Originally posted by desirod7:
They should not go unpunished.

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Particularly in the light of the instructions given to passengers for action when the general muster signal is sounded.

Lovely.

It has been reported today that some of the Costa Cruises company staff are now being questioned including the head of their crisis unit.

And every response I have read regarding this particular circumstance is in full agreement.

Who in their right mind actually orders life jacketed passengers back to their cabins when a General Muster has been ordered and announced, and not rescinded.

Answer that.

It was obvious to the passengers that it was more than just an electrical problem. That's why you do not see in any of the videos that have surfaced hallways full of people heading back to their cabins.

The person (ships officer?) issuing the request (order?) for passengers to return to their cabins should at least be identified by the cruise line and find out where she got her orders from, the orders to tell life jacketed passengers to go back to their cabins.

If I was one of the passengers standing right there in front of her, I would have told her to her face that she was CRAZY in the head if she thought I was going back to my cabin, in the dark, while the ships crew attempted to fix the reported 'electrical problem'.

I'm smart enough to know better.

And if any of the passengers that have died were from that particular muster station, and it appears that they just didn't know any better than to follow the irresponsible and blatantly incorrect advice (request, order) to return to their darkened cabins below decks in a General Muster (emergency), with no followup order from someone in charge for them to return to their Muster Stations and abandon ship then yes, some type of criminal charges should be filed against that crew member.

And don't tell me that 'it was announced abandon ship', and that 'the alarm sounded seven times and everyone should have known what it was and were to go'. Then explain to me why some many that died where found at or near there interior Muster Stations with their life jackets on. Were they just abandoned while the entire crew was at their General Muster station on deck?

Explain to me why one single person died below decks (or at their interior Muster Station) in a ship that took hours to capsize, in calm weather, that close to shore, with all but three of it's lifeboats launched.

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Originally posted by dmwnc1:
[...]
It's apparent that someone screwed up, and BIG. And that video (evidence) of a crew member telling people to go back to their cabins, is a HUGE screw up.

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I guess it is pretty much clear that someone screwed up badly - we talk about the sinking of a modern, intact ship in good weather conditions.

However, this is a rather complicated situation - many things went wrong and all these events (the reason for the collision, the evacuation etc.) have to be seen independently.

I heard an interview with a crew member who said that the 'secret code' for the crew to prepare for muster/evacuation has been give out immediately - at the same time while the announcements about the 'electrical problem' were made (allegedly to avoid panic). Mind you, I can not verify this statement.

Of course, this is not an excuse for not giving out the (official) signal for mustering the passengers earlier. Giving the reports on how late the mustering and the evacuation started something definitely went wrong here. Part of that could have been that some crew members were under the impression that passengers should not yet go to their muster stations but stay where they are - and mind you, the ship was not entirely dark (one can see that in many videos posted). This could be part of the evacuation procedure ('wait for the order to guide passengers to muster station') another reason for that could have been a direct order or simply the inability of some crew members to deal with the situation (something like: 'I don't know what to do, so I tell them to go to the cabins like we tell them before the drill').

I would also question whether it is appropriate to 'hinder' passengers from proceeding to a muster station or to advice them not to do so. However, I would be careful with such severe accusations - they simply might not have know better (which of course does not necessarily entirely absolve these crew members since they do indeed have responsibilities).

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Originally posted by lasuvidaboy:
How did the captain not know how serious the damage was within several minutes of the accident? [...]

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This is not implausible. In the video from the bridge that has been published on could hear someone saying that only two compartments are affected. It might indeed take some time to assess the full extent of such a damage.

Beside that, the captain and the officers might have been under the impression that there is a good chance to ground her in a way that she is not sinking (whether that was a good decision is of course again another story). While all that might be a reason to decide against an immediate evacuation it is of course not an explanation why the passengers were not asked to muster.

[ 02-23-2012: Message edited by: Ernst ]

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Originally posted by dmwnc1:
The person (ships officer?) issuing the request (order?) for passengers to return to their cabins should at least be identified by the cruise line and find out where she got her orders from, the orders to tell life jacketed passengers to go back to their cabins.

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This whole incident could just have easily have been Monarch of the Seas a few years back. More or less the same situation, just she was able to make a sandbar to rest on so didn't capsize and it took several hours to evacuate her with shore based vessels once 'stuck in the mud'. The pax were called to muster straight away, but they did not evacuate then. If Concordia had found a similar sandbar it perhaps could have been the same. Wonder what happened to her Captain and bridge officers?