Italian Liner Sinks - lights go out

One of the on-line aviation newsletters I receive made an interesting comparison between the actions of the cruise ship captain and that of Capt. Sullinberger who landed his airliner in the Hudson River, almost 3 years ago to the day.

From AvWeb...

 

Yep. I've been thinking of Sullinberger too.

Apparently, Schettino is a "daredevil" and had done this "maneuver three or four times before". And now, there's a mysterious young blonde in the picture...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...e-of-young-Moldovan-woman-on-cruise-ship.html

 

This is the equivalent of a 747 pilot buzzing a friend's beach house in Marina del Rey just after taking off from LAX.

The liner's captain was not chicken, he was heroically organizing rescue efforts...from shore.

That rock, stuck in the side of the ship, will be used as ballast.

 

... or a Washington State Ferry captain showing 'the Siren of the San Juans' what her home looks like from the water:

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Elwha"]MV Elwha[/ame]

Elwha on the Rocks

"Unfortunately it was in the Islands that the Elwha would began to develop an unsavory reputation. Perhaps the most famous incident for the vessel happened in 1983 when her captain "discovered" an uncharted rock in Grindstone Harbor while showing a female passenger what her home looked like from the water. The event, while hardly comic, as it resulted in a tear in the Elwha's hull did have some soap opera-like qualities to it. Soon thereafter the woman in question began being referred to as "the Siren of the San Juans" and local bars began selling a drink called "Elwha on the Rocks." A local band in Friday Harbor cut a 45 with a song of the same title."

"In 1989 the reef the vessel hit was officially named "Elwha Rock""

 

And now the cook says Schettino ordered dinner after the ship was hit. Good lord!!!

 

Directing the rescue efforts from shore requires a full tummy.

 

And Sis...


You KNOW Italians know how to cook... whatever... cause... they ARE Italian... ☺

 

GIGLIO, Italy, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- The Costa Concordia captain ordered dinner for himself and a woman after the ship struck rocks off Italy's coast, a ship's cook told a Philippine TV network.

Capt. Francesco Schettino ordered dinner for himself and a female Moldovan crew member, who was on board but not on duty, less than an hour after the $450 million, 114,500-ton cruise ship hit a reef a week ago, Rogelio Barista told GMA Network.

... Schettino ordered dinner around 10:30 p.m., Barista told the network.

"We wondered what was going on," he said.

"At that time, we really felt something was wrong. ... The stuff in the kitchen was falling off shelves and we realized how grave the situation was," he said.

 

Well, I think that I've discovered why the Captain left the vessel and
passengers in extremis...

He did it to preserve evidence, and a scientific anomaly as well...
and that would be an adult brain fully devoid of any evidence
whatsoever of a prefrontal cortex.

The higher cognitive functions, working memory, mental imagery
and willed action, are all intimately associated with consciousness. The
common process underlying all these functions is that information is
“held in mind†for a period of time. This information, which may be
about stimuli or responses, can be derived from the past or generated
for the future. Brain imaging studies show that “holding something in
mind†is associated with activity in an extended system which involves
both prefrontal cortex and more posterior areas whose location is
determined by the nature of the information being held in mind.
Automatic actions and perceptions which do not involve consciousness
are associated with activity in the relevant posterior areas, but not in
the prefrontal cortex. These studies demonstrate that activity occurs in
the same posterior area whether the associated information comes
from the outside world or is internally generated. This raises the
problem of how we know whether our experience derives from mental
imagery or from something happening in the outside world. There is
evidence that patients with schizophrenia have precisely this problem
since they perceive their own thoughts and even sub-vocal speech as
coming from outside (hallucinations). Recent brain imaging studies
suggest that there is a disconnection between prefrontal and posterior
areas in these patients which could explain their characteristic
misperceptions.
The role of the prefrontal cortex in higher cognitive functions

Biologically speaking, that would mean that he's got the brain functions
of a snake or lizard or something like that.

 

An Italian opera in the making? A villainous captain, a mysterious blonde, an accidental hero, destruction and death, selfless sacrifices, selfish acts of preservation. If only Puccini was alive today, we'd have another instant classic.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/w...mbrace-a-hero-after-cruise-ship-accident.html

 

Throw in the Spiderman scene and we have a neo-Broadway musical!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...cordia-Spider-Man-tried-to-calm-children.html

Mr Lazzarini told how he had found the group of young passengers huddled together near the ship's theatre just as the vessel smashed into rocks off the island of Giglio.

"From there, we waited for some sign, and once heard of the code signals, we went quietly back to the Squok Club on Deck 10," he said.

"We gathered in a secure area because the ship was already beginning to lean on its left side.

"We put ourselves in a circle with the children inside and began to distract from the them to try and keep them happy.

"I dressed up as Spiderman to allay their fears.

"After several blackouts, we heard the signal to abandon ship and I formed a chain with the children. Hand in hand, we went down to Deck 4, the pickup area, where I divided them up according to which muster station they belonged to and helped them find their parents."

 

How many of you are also thinking that there is a made-for-TV movie deal about to be cut with this guy over this entire ridiculous and sad disaster?

 

Great personal account by Giglio's deputy mayor, who went on board Costa to help with the evacuation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16638399

 

Thanks, a good account except for one nit pic

The young officer was one of the few "men" among the ships officers. The ships officers that abandoned ship were older, but they weren't real men.

 

I think that was his diplomatic way of saying the same thing.

 

A spokesman for Costa Cruises said: "The company is trying to do everything they can for those passengers directly affected.

"The company is not only going to refund everybody but they will offer a 30 per cent discount on future cruises if they want to stay loyal to the company."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...rdia-insulting-cruise-offer-to-survivors.html

 

decided to remove