Should Costa Cruises Face a Criminal Investigation?

Answer all questions about the cruise line accident in our Costa Concordia quick poll.

Ever since the luxury cruise vessel, the Costa Concordia, ran aground off the coast of Tuscany—killing at least five and injuring many more—everyone has been asking the same question: who or what is to blame?



Faulty maps? Power failure? The captain’s ill intentions? The crew?

Some have zeroed in on the British-American owned Italian cruise line Costa Cruises, operated by Carnival Corporation. Accidents do happen, but from the accounts of the survivors, it seems like this crisis may have been mismanaged.

According to many passengers, the crew members were disorganized, were not prepared to handle the emergency, and were not following a chain of command.

"Every crew member who walked past shouted instructions, but the instructions contradicted each other," said passenger Benji Smith of Boston.

Italian officials are also investigating why the ship did not immediately send a mayday signal to the Coastal Authorities at the first sign of trouble.

“At the moment we can't exclude that the ship had some kind of technical problem," said Officer Emilio Del Santo of the Coastal Authorities of Livorno, "and for this reason moved towards the coast in order to save the passengers, the crew and the ship. But they didn't send a mayday. The ship got in contact with us once the evacuation procedures were already ongoing."

There are also many questions surrounding the lifeboats. Passengers report that some malfunctioned due to crew error. Had the crew members received proper emergency training?

Other crew members waited too long, allegedly under captain’s orders, to lower the lifeboats. By the time they were ready, the boat had tilted too far to the side for lifeboat rescue. This meant that many individuals had no choice but to jump into the sea or to wait to be plucked to safety by helicopters. Why the delay?

What do you think? Should Costa Cruises face a criminal investigation?