The ship floundered and sank a few days ago in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Tuscany.Off the 4200 people on board, thus far eleven are dead and twenty one still missing.
The ship's captain, Francisco Schettino, is under house arrest on suspicion of multiple manslaughter. He is also charged with negligence and sooner than latter will be for causing pollution. It is not be forgotten that Giglio is one of the most beautiful 'marinas' in the world.
Strangely, the Capt;, decided to stray off course and go close to the island to salute a friend! Incredible to say the least. Even more strange is that, when the ship went off her laid down course; the Head Quarters would have been alerted, if they had had an Automatic Tracking System (ATS ). What was their action?
After hitting rocks, floundering and shipping water, the Captain ( or an officer on the ships bridge ) calmly informs, the loacl coast guard, that the ship has had a black out ( generator shutdown ) and that they are trying to fix the problem.A similar message seems to have gone out to a terrified body of passengers on the Captain's orders.
As the ship keels over and is capsizing,the order to abandon ship is given and there is general confusion and a lack of command by the Captain. Apparently he has abandoned ship and fled the scene. Mistakes might be tolerated but this is sacrilege in the marine world. A Captain stays on board his sinking ship till the last person is safely out of it. In his defence the ship's captain, Francisco Schettino, says that he tripped and fell and when he awoke found himself in a life boat. That’s a story that a marine court might find hard to digest leave alone believe!
To add to the quagmire is a report that there was a woman (not part of the ship’s crew) on the bridge, when the incident occurred. The ships bridge is a restricted area and not an area for spectator sport. If this woman is identified, the Captain will be hard pressed to defend her presence on the bridge, particularly when he too was there on the bridge.
Ship Captains are process driven, so what caused this ( mis )adventure? My take is poor hiring and a lack of training. Being a commander of a cruise liner is serious business and requires serious people to do it and not gents like Francisco Schettino, who comes across as a gregarious, weak willed person who likes to take short cuts for a lark!
Like many industries the navy too faces a serious shortage of talent and unless pundits have a well thought out plan in hand we are sure to hear of more Concordia’s in the days to come.
6 comments:
I fully agree with Captain Nagaraj's comments. What hits us most is the apparent negligence by the captain of the cruise liner - Mohan
Dear Capt Nagaraj,
your analysis was very informative.
Your analysis of the situation, like getting enough rightly trained people, being process driven and not falling prey to short cuts applies to almost all walks of life.
Hope people realise that not following a fail safe process may result in paying a price with lives of people.
One example of following a process discipline, being loyal to one's profession, taking pride in one's job is the case of Mumbai Tiffin wala . They have a defect of one in a million. They don't use any great technology to achieve this.
with Regards
Padmanabh
Dr.Gopinath & Padmanabh, thank you for your comments.
Amidst words like creativity & innovation, discipline and process seem to have taken a back seat. If so this is unfortunate.
Hi Sir
I totally agree to your criticism from the Hiring perspective .Moreover It has been observed that few people ,after gaining qualifications and attaining higher authorities tend to take things very casually as they feel they can handle everything which comes their way ! Blame the experience or the morale boost provided to them by society! This is a case of irresponsibility which costed so many lives just in a day !
The environmental concern brought up by you is also a serious issue which presently people might have rated secondary as compared to the lives lost,or may be not have even thought about it! They should start understanding that Today, more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense of Universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life.
Now since the hiring is done by individuals appointed by the government ,we get a chain of people to blame !
I think it is somewhat rightly said that "Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other"
SHWETA TEWARI
Costa tragedy: 'Get back on board, damn it!' T-shirts a hit selling at 12.9 euros. a remark by the cost guard made into a famous tag line for the people escaping their responsibilities.
Very true Ramnath........if you look at the recent financial scams that have hit uss from ENRON to Satyam to Bearings Bank.....that should have been the tagline!
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