One thing I do know, I never enjoy meeting a crusie liner, and I do mean, ANY Cruise Liner out at sea.

I have made safe passing agreements with everyone I have ever met and they have NEVER kept to the meeting agreement. We would both promise to turn right 10 degrees and they will consistently give me a 2 degree turn at the most.

The major factors in the M/V STOCKHOLM and M/V ANDREA DORIA collision was: 1) going too fast in limited visibility (sea fog, Both vessels), 2) Lack of knowledge and experience in using their RADAR (Andrea Doria), and 3) Departing from the Rules of the Road (Andrea Doria kept turning to the left/Port).

It all came down to the M/V ANDREA DORIA was more concerned in "docking in New York per their schedule" than in practising common sense and good seamanship, in adverse weather conditions.

You wonder how a ship could run aground in the age of GPS, but it's happened before.
Excerpt from the book Taming Hal:
http://ti.arc.nasa.gov/m/profile/adegani/Grounding%20of%20the%20Royal%20Majesty.pdf

The short version is that the GPS antenna cable failed, so the GPS switched to ded reconing mode and kept on displaying what appeared to be a valid position, as well as feeding it to the autopilot.

You can blame it on a very poor human interface design, but the humans were also complacent and ignored a number of warning signs that all was not well, "bending the map" as described in Deep Survival.

I don't mind the dangers of a cruise ship, and my guess is that the actual risks are probably statistically small. I like the sea. But I'm more worried about having no escape from the 3,999 other passengers in what amounts to a hotel. That seems like a potential hell without even a disaster.

Looks like they're trying to blame navigational error caused by an engineering casualty -- Power blackout could have caused Italian cruise disaster

Hmmm, when I turn my truck off the cheap (by cruise-ship standards) Garmin Nuvi asks me if I want it to keep running or shutdown, Yes or No -- then a 30 second countdown starts which ends with the Garmin shutting itself off -- otherwise it continues running on battery. My other GPS receivers run on internal batteries (AA/AAA) only and they can run most of a day without having to change those batteries. I don't want to second-guess the cruise ship industry, but just about any cheap handheld GPS loaded with nautical charts could have shown them to be way off course.

Back before GPS nav became the norm, a ship's Captain was held responsible for hitting things and running aground regardless of things malfunctioning. Things malfunctioning was the Captain's responsibility too. With a crew of 1000, I find it amusing that these ships have no apparent back-up to ship-powered GPS. Amusing and sad.

Shouldn't someone have been looking out the window and noticed the giant obstacle called land? Those who navigate by GPS alone are asking for trouble. Your eyes can be really useful for avoiding problems. Use them.

It seems like what the article suggests is not a GPS failure, but a complete engine and steering failure. From the article:



In other words, if this were your truck, it wouldn't be that the Garmin had shut off, but the engine that had shut off. Now, this article is hardly the final word, and I'm sure more details will emerge. There is supposed to be a black box on modern cruisers such as this, so we'll find out more.

Lightweight, thin, and SIMPLE would be important features on a ship. It essentially becomes a close-quarters situation where errant straps, buckles, or dangling doohickies become dangerous because they can snag. That's the last thing you need when navigating narrow confines that can be dark, flooded, and potentially upside down.

What a mess.

If they lost steering control, they are near enough a port it seems that a tender vessel might have been available to pull them to safety? I would think even another ship could have helped out? If you loose control so near to a hazard, might an option have been to drop an anchor while you are still in deep water?

It's seems like a slow motion disaster to me where options might have been available to prevent tragedy.

According to this morning's New York Times article, divers have saved at least two people who were trapped inside the ship, and recovered a couple of bodies.

One thing I have been looking for, but have not yet seen, is a timeline of the sinking. How long was it from the ship first hitting the "rock like object" (as one article put it) until it rolled on it's side? In the MS Estonia disaster in the Baltic Sea, the ship had rolled 90 degrees in no more than 1/2 hour from the initial problem.

Whenever I get on any kind of boat or airplane, the first thing I try to do is locate and fix in my mind where the emergency exits and emergency gear are. When TSHTF things may happen very quickly.

Well, I'm glad that I'm not being tried by you A previous accident is not prima facia proof of guilt.

At this point I would ask the membership to refrain from drawing over hasty conclusions. We just do not know at present.

Was it neligence? Perhaps.
Or equipment failure? Let me give you this possibility: The Solar Maxima has thrown the GPS positioning signal. Actual position was 100m to starboard of position shown on bridge. That is somewhat less than the length of the ship.

We do not know. Yet.