So close to land...A captain always goes down with his ship. Well, not in this case, as the captain for the Costa Concordia abandoned ship. He also abandoned the members of his crew and the citizens aboard his vessel.
So far eleven people are dead and twenty-one are currently missing.
This is a great tragedy; my heart goes out to all the members and passangers that were aboard this ship. My heart also goes out to the captain. Even though he is being greatly accused for being a coward he IS only human. Stress factors, situational emotional response and other psychological survival instincts were most likely factors of his decisions. Don't get me wrong. I highly disagree with his choices of leaving his boat abandoned with hopeless passengers in it. I do find him extremely stupid and dishonorable for not at least trying to help as much as he can to save lives. After all they were for most part his responsiblity. But accidents happen everyday and I am sure it was the least of his intentions... No different from a car crash; tragedies do happen, for all sorts of bizarre reasons...
I pity the fact that he alone could have made a huge difference in saving lives in this situation. He was supposed to; and probably had the best capabilities to, guide and intiate emergency evacuation proceedures. Or to try and guide survivors out individually even. To set proper escape routes and maintain a specific survival and retreat command could have made a vast difference on the lives of those who died and are missing. Guidance was a big factor here, he had crew members to follow orders. It is a massive responsibilty and I cannot say much for different people react to a situation differently. All I can say is this is a very tragic event and at most part I find it frustrating and shamefully rediculous how close the boat was to land and how easy an evacuation could have been compared to a "Titanic," situation where they were in the middle of a freezing ocean. Very very sad... I pray for all those who were involved in this unfortunate occasion.
