genni

sorry all, did not complete my own reply...

There are regulations regarding how close a motarized ship/boat can get to the Italian coast, however small. A small motor boat can perhaps get to 300 meters off shore - (note this is often ignored by tourists, whether they have any knowledge of the Italian rules or not). There is no excuse for any cruise ship captain to permit the ship to be that close, especially an Italian one. There is a huge question as to why a cruise ship helmsman was not capable of understanding English or Italian (no officer ever noticed this?)...

It is not acceptable that a ship of that size was permitted to attempt to pass so near. I've swum around those rocks and cannot 'digest' the fact that anyone on the bridge permitted the Concordia to get that close. In January at night when there was no one out and around to be 'impressed' by an 'inchino' - sail-by? So terrible.

. My point was - if the Concordia had stayed in the shipping lanes where it belonged and was determined safe for ships to be, we would not be discussing this terrible tragedy. I don't know who or why a sail by was ordered but that decision is what caused the series of events that ultimately became the result of an unnecessary tragedy. That fateful decision, whomever made it, set the ball rolling to introduce human error, incompetence and possibly ship malfunctons to come together causing injury and loss of life.....agreed! But when posters go on and on about other problems with the ship and personnel no matter how knowledgable, valid and informing, when the implication that these reasons are why the accident initially happened is, at least for me, irritating.

Let's just take away the fact that the ship hit the rocks and caused the gash. Sailing that close to land at night with limited or no port support nearby, if the ship has a mechanical problem and goes dead in the water, its a good possibility she may be grounded from the wind or sea conditions. A ship and it's passengers should never be put in that situation but stay in safe waters.

By all means, continue the news and discussions of contributing factors and how to improve communications and design and all the other things that have been brought forth on this thread...but don't for a minute think those are the reasons this event happened.