Say goodbye to that career

From Sky News:

Captain Held After Cruise Ship Capsizes
The captain and first officer of a cruise liner that ran aground off the coast of Italy are being held on suspicion of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship while passengers were still in danger.

Three people are known to have died and around 40 others are still unaccounted for after the ship, which was carrying thousands of passengers, including British holidaymakers, apparently struck a rock.

A bit more:

A major rescue operation was launched after the liner, which was carrying 4,234 people, began sinking near the island of Giglio, off the Tuscan coast, late on Friday - just two hours after it started its voyage.

The captain, Francesco Schettino, then gave the order to abandon the 290m-long ship with seven short whistles.

Maritime officials were questioning Capt. Schettino about the incident as it emerged he was at least four miles off course.

Local prosecutor Francesco Verusio confirmed the captain and the ship's first officer Ciro Ambrosio had both been detained in custody.

Mr Verusio added that the Costa Concordia had approached Giglio "the wrong way" and had struck a reef on its left hand side causing it to take in an "enormous amount of water in a matter of minutes".

Sources in the prosecutor's office said the 52-year-old captain from Naples had abandoned the ship at "around 23.30" while the last passengers were not taken to safety until 3am the following morning.

Being the Captain gives you ultimate control. It also gives you ultimate responsibility. I do not care how the accident happened, it happened on Capt. Schettino's watch and he should have stayed on board until it was evident that the ship was doomed to sink and that there was absolutely nothing more he could do. Bailing out three and a half hours before the last passengers were evaced was unconscionable. From the reports in the article, it seems that conditions on board were chaotic with no overall communication from the bridge to the crew and passengers and no apparent emergency training for the crew. Hell of a way to run a ship...