Thursday, January 19, 2012

Cruise Captain Says He ‘Tripped’ Into Lifeboat - Who is ultimately responsible and who should be the last off the boat?

Cruise Captain Says He ‘Tripped’ Into Lifeboat
The captain of the Italian cruise ship gave an odd explanation of how he ended up safely in a lifeboat instead of going down with his ship, saying he tripped and fell into the boat as it was being lowered into the sea. “I had no intention of escaping,” Francesco Schettino said during a court hearing Tuesday. “I was helping some passengers put the life boat to sea. At a certain point the mechanism for lowering it, blocked. We had to force it. Suddenly the system unblocked itself and I tripped and I found myself inside the life boat with a number of passengers.” Once in the lifeboat that was lowered into the sea, Schettino insisted that it was “impossible to go back onboard.” The captain also admitted that he lied at when he assured officials that he had dropped anchor shortly after the Costa Concordia slammed into a rock to stabilize the luxury liner. A video by authorities who arrived onsite 10 minutes after the disaster clearly shows that the anchor had not been lowered. The luxury cruise ship was carrying more than 4,000 passengers and crew when it struck rocks Friday evening near Giglio off the coast of Tuscany, during a close pass to shore. At least 11 people were killed in the aftermath when the ship keeled over. Nearly two dozen people are still missing, including an American couple from Minnesota.