The Power of Choice
In 2012, on a seemingly typical Friday evening in January, the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia was sailing past Giglio island on the west coast of Italy. The ship, doing what it does 52 weeks of the year, ran aground and a 160-foot gash was ripped in the hull of the ship. Water poured through the wound, the ship listed to the side and eventually sank half of itself into the sea.
The ship is a 114,500 ton vessel which means it’s the largest passenger ship wreck in Earth’s history. To put that into perspective, it’s twice the size of the Titanic.
Fire fighters, scuba divers, military personal, rescuers and the Italian Coast Guard have already spent days assisting passengers to safety and beginning the massive cleanup of this ship wreck. More than 2 dozen individuals died from this accident. The ships operator, Carnival Cruise line, estimated that the disaster would cost their organization roughly $90 million.
How could this happen? Better yet, why did it happen?
The answer is simple. The ship’s Captain, Francesco Schettino, made a poor choice.
Now, it’s not clear exactly why he made this choice, but clearly the ship was out of position. Captain Schettino was sailing his ship too close to the Giglio island shoreline.
Immediately after the accident, Schettino’s bosses at Carnival Cruise line, accused their captain of causing the disaster by “sharply deviating from the charted course.”
There is speculation that he was trying to give his passengers a better view of the shore and give the island residents a better view of the ship.
It is also thought that the reason the ship was so close to the island of Giglio was to put on a show for the family of the ships head waiter who is a native of Giglio. Well, mission accomplished. They got the show of their life.
At the time of this writing, prosecutors were investigating Captain Schettino for manslaughter and abandoning his ship. You see, not only did Captain Schettino literally steer his passengers into harm’s way, he also left the ship before most of them were off the ship and safely on the shore.
Additionally the alarm for the accident was not raised by an SOS from the ship. Rather, it was from mobile phone calls from passengers on board calling Italian police on mainland Italy.
So, not only did Schettino make a poor choice in steering to close to the shore, that choice lead to a series of other poor choices that left his crew & passengers in harm’s way.
Why Captain Schettino chose the course he did may never be fully understood by anyone other than Captain Schettino. But, one truth is clear, he made a poor choice. Actually, he made a horrible course.
Because this Captain chose to deviated from course:
• More than 2 dozen individuals died
• A massive luxury cruise liner was severely damaged
• Roughly 500,000 gallons of fuel is at risk of leaking into the sea
• Italian Environment Minister declared the site a state of emergency
• The ships operator will pay approximately $90 million to clean up the mess
• Untold numbers of would be cruise goers will not take a cruise because of a fear for their safety
• The Tourism industry and specifically the cruise industry will not have as many vacation goers in the coming weeks and months
• Italian and other officials will spend weeks cleaning up the mess
Think about that! One decision by one person had such a massive impact.
Consider how much of an impact your decisions have on others! Probably much bigger than you ever imagined. Consider that one seemingly innocent decision could impact untold scores of individuals and circumstances.
Of course this is both positive and negative. Your choices to help and uplift others can too impact countless individuals and circumstances.
I’m sure that when Captain Schettino woke up that morning he didn’t plan on making a choice that would impact the environment, a worldwide industry, the Italian government and kill dozens of his passengers. But, that’s what happened.
One choice had a much larger impact than anyone could have ever imagined.
