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Cruise Ship sinks!

I'm surprised people aren't talking about this here. I saw a photo and OMFG... I could NOT believe it! This ship was a massive 6-7 story cruise ship with 4,000 people on board... and it hit a reef only a few hundred yards from shore!! I'm not kidding, that captain must have been drunk because if not for the reef, it would have gone a few hundred more feet and plowed right into the shore.

The captain... who was the FIRST one off the sinking ship, btw... is being charged with manslaughter. This guy should never see the light of day again.

Horrible tragedy. Still people missing, corpses being found. I'm really stunned there's so little interest in this story.
 
It sure looks bad for the captain, but let's wait for the investigation before we make him walk the plank.
 
I've been reading about this since it was reported but didn't bring it here because I thought I kept missing the thread. Guess not. But now that there IS a thread, I am glad to participate.

Yeah, that captain left before all the passengers did! Even his lawyer admitted he did. What a loser.
 
It sure looks bad for the captain, but let's wait for the investigation before we make him walk the plank.

He ran the ship aground, then bailed before the passengers could be rescued. I'm thinking both are plank-walking offenses. Apparently, so do the Italian authorities.

Those poor people were left in the dark, crawling on their knees through broken glass screaming for help from a captain and crew that had already abandoned ship. A totally avoidable accident, yet people are injured, dead and unaccounted for. That's on the captain. His watch, his responsibility.
 
The photos are terrifying. I know the captain's been arrested, and I understand that his claim is that rocks weren't where they were supposed to be, but I'm waiting on more info. This is every potential cruise-traveller's nightmare, including mine. My BFF has traveled on many fabulous cruises and has been urging me to get over my "Davy Jones Locker" issues, but this is a little Titanicesque.
 
According to some passengers, the crew said it was just a technical error and wouldn't respond when asked why they were in life jackets but they were not told to put their on as well. And the captain was seen leaving, with a blanket over his head.
 
He ran the ship aground, then bailed before the passengers could be rescued. I'm thinking both are plank-walking offenses. Apparently, so do the Italian authorities.

Those poor people were left in the dark, crawling on their knees through broken glass screaming for help from a captain and crew that had already abandoned ship. A totally avoidable accident, yet people are injured, dead and unaccounted for. That's on the captain. His watch, his responsibility.

Yep, it sure sounds that way. And lord knows the press is never wrong!
 
They didn't even do their life boat drills. Isn't that the mistake the captain of the Titanic made?
 
The photos are terrifying. I know the captain's been arrested, and I understand that his claim is that rocks weren't where they were supposed to be, but I'm waiting on more info. This is every potential cruise-traveller's nightmare, including mine. My BFF has traveled on many fabulous cruises and has been urging me to get over my "Davy Jones Locker" issues, but this is a little Titanicesque.

It was true last week before this accident and true today... by far, the most dangerous part of a cruise vacation is the ride in your car to the airport. Unless, you have a habit of getting drunk and dancing on the rail of your ships veranda, in that case the cruise is pretty dangerous.
 
It was true last week before this accident and true today... by far, the most dangerous part of a cruise vacation is the ride in your car to the airport. Unless, you have a habit of getting drunk and dancing on the rail of your ships veranda, in that case the cruise is pretty dangerous.

You're correct. Every form of transportation has some danger. That's true of riding in a car, a bus, or an airplane. It's true of ships, but the danger is minimal. It had been a long time since a cruise ship sank, and even with this one almost everyone survived.

It's still tragic and I feel for the people affected.
 
I never had a hankering to go on a cruise. Too many people in too small a space and the cabins? Too boxy. And too many stories of legionaires disease, etc. But if I were a cruising sort of person, I wouldn't let this latest situation stop me.
 
They didn't even do their life boat drills. Isn't that the mistake the captain of the Titanic made?



didnt have enough lifeboats on the Titanic either, it cluttered the deck lol!
 
I hear those things get about 60 feet per gallon.
 
The captain... who was the FIRST one off the sinking ship, btw... is being charged with manslaughter. This guy should never see the light of day again.

Factually incorrect. That was some american tourist who claimed that but that was quickly debunked by pretty much everyone else. The issue with him is if he was the last off or not.
 
They didn't even do their life boat drills. Isn't that the mistake the captain of the Titanic made?

First off... life boat drills are totally voluntary for the passengers. They are held, but no one can force the passengers to attend.

Secondly.. the boat was a few hours out of harbour and the regulations state that these drills have to happen within 24 hours of leaving port. Add to the fact that it was near dinner time, then it would be utter useless to hold the drill before the sinking.
 
I'm just waiting for terrorist to attack one of these things in the open sea someday, talk about a soft target with high casualties.

Yeah, that's part of why you'll never find me on one. Way too many people in a confined space and without the ability to defend themselves. Makes for a lovely terrorist target, and even just the fact that there is really no allowance for self-defense or personal protection on these ships from what I'm told; just makes me unwilling to even consider it.
 
Yeah, that's part of why you'll never find me on one. Way too many people in a confined space and without the ability to defend themselves. Makes for a lovely terrorist target, and even just the fact that there is really no allowance for self-defense or personal protection on these ships from what I'm told; just makes me unwilling to even consider it.

Hey, there might be a place for a new cruise line concentrating on the paranoid pyschotic market. ;)
 
A cruise ship is not as easy of a target as you might suspect. Unless you hit this thing from multiple angles, there are simply too many people on there for you not to get caught. First, the captain will radio distress and within minutes you will have a military dispatched to ruin your day. Second, its very hard to attack a ship on the open seas, you have to be in a boat big enough to do that and if you are, you are easily tracable. Third, it would be an act of war.

I don't see a cruise ship as an easy target, I see it as a sucker hole into something much worse.
 
Hey, there might be a place for a new cruise line concentrating on the paranoid pyschotic market. ;)

Not sure how well that would work out, but you could give it a try.
 
A cruise ship is not as easy of a target as you might suspect. Unless you hit this thing from multiple angles, there are simply too many people on there for you not to get caught. First, the captain will radio distress and within minutes you will have a military dispatched to ruin your day. Second, its very hard to attack a ship on the open seas, you have to be in a boat big enough to do that and if you are, you are easily tracable. Third, it would be an act of war.

I don't see a cruise ship as an easy target, I see it as a sucker hole into something much worse.

Sounds fairly easy to me . . .

On Oct. 7, 1985, off the coast of Egypt, four gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners in Egypt, Italy, and elsewhere. When the demands weren't met, they killed Leon Klinghoffer, a 69-year-old disabled American tourist. Investigators blamed the Palestine Liberation Front, which some believed to be allied with Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Liberation Organization. Later, U.S. officials were able to link Libya to the PLF and the hijacking.

After the hijackers escaped the Achille Lauro and left Egypt by air, U.S. Navy fighters intercepted their plane and forced it down in Italy. The four hijackers were apprehended, and in 1986, they were found guilty in an Italian court. Two of the hijackers escaped from prison. One, Magid al-Molgi, who confessed to killing Mr. Klinghoffer, was caught and returned to prison. The man identified as the mastermind of the hijacking, Abu Abbas, was released by Italy despite Washington's pleas that he be held for trial.


Read more: Terrorist Attacks On Americans, 1979-1988 | Target America | FRONTLINE | PBS
 
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