Cruise Ship Tips Over

Oh well, so much for talking my wife into
taking a cruise. This cruise ship ended up
on its side after it ran aground off Italy.
My wife is terrified of boats and I almost
had her talked into a cruise this spring.
She'll never go now.

Wow, unbelievable that something like this could
happen with all the high tech equipment available.
Hopefully the death toll remains low...

My wife and I are going to cruise the Med next; we did the inland passage already, and loved it.

The fact that this ship ran aground will not deter us, no more than a jet crashing would deter us from flying.

Captain arrested, but that is typical in Italy and does not indicate what would be termed Probable Cause under US law.

A long gash would admit a great deal of water and the lack of compartments would mean that it would slosh and severely impair lateral stability but it appears there was no attempt to counter flood on the port side once the list to starboard took place.

No mayday apparently. Proceeding into shallower waters may have been wise.

My initial thought was of course "What soccer match was being broadcast" when a well equipped cruise ship hit a reef that is well known and well marked in calm weather.

On-edit: Anyone notice that its lying on rocks and being kept from completely capsizing by those rocks ... see the lighthouse nearby?
What did someone do? Enter the GPS coordinates of the lighthouse in as the next waypoint?

My brother in law had a big sailboat on Lake MI
for 12 years that slept 6 and we never went on
it because 'people die on boats' according to my
wife. They also die falling down stairs, which is
the second highest cause of accidental deaths in
the US, behind cars wrecks. Yet she runs up and
down the stairs all day.

I have never cruised with the Costa line before. I understand that it is one of the lines that have been bought up by Carnival. My wife and I found an ad for a Costa cruise this spring at an amazing price -- 21 nights for something like $1,200 each including the taxes. An excellent set of ports, too, starting in Sao Paulo, Brazil and ending in Venice. Of course, there was a downside. It would cost a small fortune to get a plane ticket one-way to Brazil and one-way home from Italy. The cheapest option seemed to be to buy round-trip tickets for each route and throw the return tickets in the trash. That was still too pricy -- something like $3,000 each, just to get to a $1,200 cruise ship. Decided against it.

Quote: JohnnyQ

Wow, unbelievable that something like this could happen with all the high tech equipment available.

ON Jan 28, 2005 the USS San Francisco ran into a mountain range while running at 25 knots. Can you imagine how much equipment is on-board a submarine. Always room for human error.

I'm sure the tabloids had the straight dope long before any reporters even arrived on the scene.