Everybody seems to think it's the Captain's fault.

He ignored the approved route and steered recklessly close to the rocky shore.  He delayed giving the "abandon ship" order by one hour, which caused some people to be trapped inside the sinking vessel.

He left the ship without checking to see that there were still passengers aboard.  He refused the Italian Coast Guard's order to return to the ship and supervise the passengers who remained aboard.

And of course Costa and Carnival management quickly blamed the captain. 

Actually, the Captain is not the only one to blame.

Let's consider Costa and Carnival's role in the tragedy.

Interviews with inhabitants of Giglio Island indicate that Captain Schettino has been sailing very close to the island – and off the approved route – for three or four years. He said "I love challenges" and wanted to treat the islanders and his crew to an extremely close-up view of things.  He moved the ship within 0.28 nautical miles of Giglio just to give his personnel a real thrill.  When one warned him about being too close, he ignored him.

The really big question:

Why didn't Costa and Carnival know that the Captain was routinely violating the approved route?

In this age of GPS, computers, and location programming, the cruise companies should have discovered the captain's route deviations when he first started his transgressions.  Such discoveries should have led to reprimands and punishments, up to and including firing.  These actions would have prevented the tragedy of the Concordia.

FedEx and UPS can tell you exactly where your small package is in their delivery system.

Why couldn't Costa and Carnival have employed such systems to locate the positions of a huge cruise ship?

Costa and parent Carnival appear to be clearly guilty of negligence – or worse. 

Unfortunately Captain's Schettino's bad behavior is keeping everyone's eyes off the cruise companies and their roles in the tragedy.

(click here for a printable version of this article)