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Costa Concordia sinking (merged threads)

ItalianGuest

By ItalianGuest,
in Holland America Line

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IRL_Joanie

IRL_Joanie

Posted
Posted

This is on the Costa Boards "Costa says Captain at Fault http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1549486"

 

VERY disturbing to read a couple paragraphs:

 

Only posting a couple paragraphs that really stuck out at me:

 

.....

Owners of the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship said "preliminary indications" suggested the captain may have been guilty of "significant human error".

 

The owners added: "We are aware that the lead prosecutor has levelled serious accusations against the ship's Captain, who joined Costa Crociere in 2002 as a Safety Officer and was appointed Captain in 2006, after acting as Staff Captain as well.......

 

 

And these 3:

 

 

......

Prosecutors believe Mr Schettino had been intending to perform the nautical equivalent of a fly-by past the island's main port when the accident happened. It had apparently become a long-standing practice for the Costa Concordia to sail close to the island in order to greet its inhabitants with a siren from the ship.

The tradition appears to have begun when the wife of a former senior officer lived on the island and he would take the ship close to Giglio to greet her. There were reports last night that the vessel's current officers had a friend ashore, from the Italian merchant navy, that they wanted to salute in a similar manner.

As the ship approached the port from the south, it sailed too close to the coastline and struck a rocky reef, known to locals as "Le Scole", a few hundred yards out. Islanders said they had never seen the ship try to pass so close before. Ships usually pass by up to five miles away....

 

 

Link to news report giving additional info is here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9016769/Cruise-disaster-Captain-neared-Italian-rocks-to-greet-friend-on-shore.html

 

Joanie

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sail7seas

sail7seas

Posted
Posted
Sail,

 

If you can, colour is far better as it identifies you. Say you are left behind or in the situation of these poor Costa passengers. In exceptional circumstances you may not have to wait for a passport - the embassy can 'vouch' that this is legit and you can get on the plane.

 

If it helps get you home, get you on the plane, whatever it's worth doing the colour print out IMO as they can see your picture better. And if if you are using it for id - a colour picture is always better :)

 

 

Thanks, Host Walt and Kazu re: color copy of passports.

 

I never thought the copy was good for anything more than having the date of issue and passport number. I suppose the photo could be compared to the one Passport Office has on file. I have never heard it could actually be used as ID and that only an original was actually useable but why not get the color! Certainly can't hurt.

 

I'll have to think of a place that can make me color copies and laminate one for me and one for DH.

 

Thanks.

 

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2cruisecats

2cruisecats

Posted
Posted
Sail,

 

If you can, colour is far better as it identifies you. Say you are left behind or in the situation of these poor Costa passengers. In exceptional circumstances you may not have to wait for a passport - the embassy can 'vouch' that this is legit and you can get on the plane.

 

If it helps get you home, get you on the plane, whatever it's worth doing the colour print out IMO as they can see your picture better. And if if you are using it for id - a colour picture is always better :)

 

In addition to photocopies of all docs, we also scan all documents (passport, visas, tickets, etc) and email the password protected files to my sister-in-law, a copy to our "travel email-id" so we can access via webmail if needed, and also put them on a memory stick which we leave with our house sitters. Everyone laughed and thought this was "overkill". Now I think of it as a best practice.

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localady

localady

Posted
Posted
They hope that throwing their captain under the bus will help deflect the investigators from delving into what corporate Costa knew about their ships regularly passing unnecessarily close to the island, and about how much standard Costa procedures were really being observed.

 

It does appear that way doesn't it! :eek: I am sure legal counsel reviewed and signed off on the statement, unless their corporate culture is much different than here.

Hope you and DW are well!

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catl331

catl331

Posted
Posted
This is fresh news to me and something I am glad to have not had to weed through all the others to read.
If you click on the "down arrow" to the left of the title you will go directly to the first post that you have not yet read.
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Cindy

Cindy

Posted
Posted
VERY disturbing to read a couple paragraphs:

......

 

Prosecutors believe Mr Schettino had been intending to perform the nautical equivalent of a fly-by past the island's main port when the accident happened. It had apparently become a long-standing practice for the Costa Concordia to sail close to the island in order to greet its inhabitants with a siren from the ship.

 

 

The tradition appears to have begun when the wife of a former senior officer lived on the island and he would take the ship close to Giglio to greet her. There were reports last night that the vessel's current officers had a friend ashore, from the Italian merchant navy, that they wanted to salute in a similar manner.

 

 

Joanie

 

That is profoundly disturbing to me. Just the thought that a master of a cruise ship who is responsible for thousands of lives would deliberately place the ship and passengers' lives in danger to "salute" friends on shore boggles my mind.

Accidents happen, and anything mechanical can have a malfunction that can be catastrophic...I can accept that. I can't accept a person entrusted with thousands of lives and a multi-million dollar cruise ship treating the ship the same way he would his personal vessel. He basically took a ship full of passengers on a joy ride! If this proves to be true, what a callous disregard the captain had for the lives and well-being of those entrusted to his care!

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itzmered

itzmered

Posted
Posted
In addition to photocopies of all docs, we also scan all documents (passport, visas, tickets, etc) and email the password protected files to my sister-in-law, a copy to our "travel email-id" so we can access via webmail if needed, and also put them on a memory stick which we leave with our house sitters. Everyone laughed and thought this was "overkill". Now I think of it as a best practice.

 

I do the same thing along with scanned copies of the front and back of all of my credit cards. I hope I never am in a situation to use any of it but I have all of the documents available via the internet if need be. My sister also has copies of everything also

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itzmered

itzmered

Posted
Posted
This is on the Costa Boards "Costa says Captain at Fault http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1549486"

 

VERY disturbing to read a couple paragraphs:

 

Only posting a couple paragraphs that really stuck out at me:

 

.....

Owners of the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship said "preliminary indications" suggested the captain may have been guilty of "significant human error".

 

The owners added: "We are aware that the lead prosecutor has levelled serious accusations against the ship's Captain, who joined Costa Crociere in 2002 as a Safety Officer and was appointed Captain in 2006, after acting as Staff Captain as well.......

 

 

And these 3:

 

 

......

Prosecutors believe Mr Schettino had been intending to perform the nautical equivalent of a fly-by past the island's main port when the accident happened. It had apparently become a long-standing practice for the Costa Concordia to sail close to the island in order to greet its inhabitants with a siren from the ship.

The tradition appears to have begun when the wife of a former senior officer lived on the island and he would take the ship close to Giglio to greet her. There were reports last night that the vessel's current officers had a friend ashore, from the Italian merchant navy, that they wanted to salute in a similar manner.

As the ship approached the port from the south, it sailed too close to the coastline and struck a rocky reef, known to locals as "Le Scole", a few hundred yards out. Islanders said they had never seen the ship try to pass so close before. Ships usually pass by up to five miles away....

 

 

Link to news report giving additional info is here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9016769/Cruise-disaster-Captain-neared-Italian-rocks-to-greet-friend-on-shore.html

 

Joanie

 

This is just plain disturbing :( We also have to remember that this is a very sensational news story and often times things are reported as facts by the news and they are far from it. I sure hope this is the case with this report :eek:

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wrp96

wrp96

Posted
Posted
Thanks, Host Walt and Kazu re: color copy of passports.

 

I never thought the copy was good for anything more than having the date of issue and passport number. I suppose the photo could be compared to the one Passport Office has on file. I have never heard it could actually be used as ID and that only an original was actually useable but why not get the color!

 

As a US citizen if you can get to a US entry point, you aren't supposed to be denied access to the US. Especially in an emergency, if you have a good quality color copy of your US passport, you may be able to talk your way onto a US bound plane, and thus gain access to the US. The officials would definitely be unhappy with you but they are supposed to allow you into the country. For example, in the last week someone was able to use a scanned copy of their passport that was on their iPad to get through immigration in Montreal. The officials were quite on unhappy with the man and he was warned not to try it again, but he was allowed into the US.

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sail7seas

sail7seas

Posted
Posted
Any office supply chain store, i.e., Office Max, Office Depot, etc., can do this. Kinkos is another option.

 

 

 

Thanks. Kinkos it is.

Sadly the Office Depot and Office Max which used to be near us both are victims of the economy. Closed many months ago. :(

 

 

As a US citizen if you can get to a US entry point, you aren't supposed to be denied access to the US. Especially in an emergency, if you have a good quality color copy of your US passport, you may be able to talk your way onto a US bound plane, and thus gain access to the US. The officials would definitely be unhappy with you but they are supposed to allow you into the country. For example, in the last week someone was able to use a scanned copy of their passport that was on their iPad to get through immigration in Montreal. The officials were quite on unhappy with the man and he was warned not to try it again, but he was allowed into the US.

 

 

This is great to know. I had to idea.

Thank you. I will having those copies made this week.

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sail7seas

sail7seas

Posted
Posted

:) Thank you, WRP, and the same for everyone here.

May none of us ever need such copies. May all our travels be safe.

 

 

Anyone know if Staples will make the copies and laminate? I can always laminate myself.

 

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serendipity1499

serendipity1499

Posted
Posted
Thanks, Host Walt and Kazu re: color copy of passports.

 

I never thought the copy was good for anything more than having the date of issue and passport number. I suppose the photo could be compared to the one Passport Office has on file. I have never heard it could actually be used as ID and that only an original was actually useable but why not get the color! Certainly can't hurt.

 

I'll have to think of a place that can make me color copies and laminate one for me and one for DH.

 

Thanks.

 

Sail..I made color copies of our passports on our personal home printer/copier...

Instead of laminating them put them in a double zip lock plastic bag, which we carry with us..Also have a color copy of our credit cards & next to the picture of each write in both the domestic & international phone numbers of the issuing companies in case of loss..

 

Believe Staples can also copy them & laminate them...

 

Betty

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sail7seas

sail7seas

Posted
Posted

Thanks, Serendipity.

 

I was just thinking about once reading public copy machines have memory. I'm not sure I want our passports copied at a public machine.

 

I'll do them on DH's office copier. They can be placed flat. My home computer they have to be fed through the 'feeder'. I don't want to risk they could get damaged.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

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Boytjie

Boytjie

Posted
Posted
As one with over thirty cruises with HAL, and as one who was told in 1998 that the takeover by Carnival was a good thing for Holland America:

 

It wasn't, isn't, and never will be. It has been tragic watching one of the original lines gradually emasculated by the profit seeking bean counters in Miami. It has been hard listening to fellow HAL loyalists sadly but loyally note the constant attrition of the standards and customs that HAL once had. The HAL of today is not the HAL that was. I know it needed saving, but sometimes it is better for a great line to die than to be killed by a thousand cuts.

 

Sorry. I am emotionally invested in HAL. I loathe Carnival. LOATHE IT.

 

And without Carnival there would have been no HAL today. Neither Cunard. :rolleyes:

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Boytjie

Boytjie

Posted
Posted
Thanks, Serendipity.

 

I was just thinking about once reading public copy machines have memory. I'm not sure I want our passports copied at a public machine.

 

I'll do them on DH's office copier. They can be placed flat. My home computer they have to be fed through the 'feeder'. I don't want to risk they could get damaged.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Office copiers may store copies in memory too, FYI.

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sail7seas

sail7seas

Posted
Posted

Concordia's Crew.........

 

 

Has anyone heard or read anything about all the crew/staff/officers? I've been hoping Costa is at least seeing to their needs right now. Sailors, stewards, bartenders etc from all over the world with no money, no passports, no credit cards...... so far from home and certainly needing help.

 

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