'Get On Board!' Coast Guard Officer Rages At Italian Cruise Ship Captain

[arely staircase]

Dramatic audio has emerged of an irate Italian Coast Guard officer ordering the captain of the cruise ship Costa Concordia to "get back on board!" as the stricken vessel lay crippled off the coast of Tuscany on Friday night...As NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports, in the telephone call Coast Guard Capt. Gregorio De Falco shouts as he accuses Costa Concordia Capt. Francesco Schettino of abandoning his ship. Schettino was apparently sitting in a row boat at the time.

"You've abandoned ship! I'm in charge now," De Falco rages. "Go back and report to me how many passengers [are still on board] and what they need. ... Perhaps you saved yourself from the sea, but I'll make you pay for this, damn it!"

[link:http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/01/17/145334966/get-on-board-coast-guard-officer-rages-at-italian-cruise-ship-captain|

[Whisp]

1. there was some talk on another thread about whether 'women and children first'

is fair or is it sexist against men.

What if that Captain was a woman, would she have run like that sickling coward did? Probaby not.

[arely staircase]

4. well i think "captains first" is universally rejected. nt

[cbayer]

6. No way, unless she was as cowardly as this guy.

I have never met a captain who would abandon his or her ship before making sure that everyone else was safe.

Never.

[Blue Owl]

2. Master and CommanD'OH

n/t

[Stinky The Clown]

3. I'm not privvy to the details of any of this, but from the general reporting, this captain was unfit

The essence of the cause is that he was doing the ship version of a "fly-by" to toot at some imagined friends on the shore of the island. he was five miles outside the channel.

The rocks he hit WERE charted. Clearly.

He abandoned the ship while still stricken but afloat. Dereliction of duty at the least.

Speculation is that he abandoned the ship and his post so as to flee and avoid responsibility.

[arely staircase]

5. i think he has been taken into custody. nt

[Stinky The Clown]

7. Yes, he is in jail

They arrested him because they feared he was fleeing. He has since been charged with manslaughter, the counts growing with each recovered body.

[Cali_Democrat]

8. Isn't the captain supposed to go down with the ship?

Why would he abandon ship especially when there were people still trapped and trying to get off? What a coward.

[Cooley Hurd]

9. Not anymore, BUT they are supposed to be one of the last on it.

[arely staircase]

10. yes

they are responsible for overseeing the safe evacuation of the passengers.

[alcibiades_mystery]

11. This dude is the anti-Sully-Sullenberger

He takes something on the water, and drives it catastrophically into the land.

He departs first, leaving the others to their fate.

He's like a weird Sullenberger inversion.

[smb]

12. Contemptible

I can just imaging De Falco's frustration as he confronted this coward's actions and tried to browbeat or shame him into manning up and doing his duty as captain.