Nobody’s Perfect: Malaysian Airlines VS Italian Ferries

Nobody’s Perfect:

This week, we have two countries not having much luck with their transportation enterprises.

Italy Vs Malaysia…or..to be more fair and give respect to international, “We are all equal on this planet” diversity rules: Airplanes VS Ferries.

Let’s start with Malaysia first…it seems they have lost ANOTHER plane into the ocean. Last March we watched various nations send out their military trying to find the missing 370 Malaysian flight that disappeared after a wrong turn. We watched as governments seem to almost love the competition to see WHO could find it first! (Nobody won.)

And now, in the same year, they lost another one;

The search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 resumed on Monday, a day after the commercial jet disappeared in Indonesian airspace with 162 people aboard.

“(Because) the coordinate that was given to us and the evolution from the calculation point of the flight track is at sea, our early conjecture is that the plane is in the bottom of the sea,” Bambang Sulistyo, head of Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency, told reporters Monday.

The plane sought permission to climb above threatening clouds. Air traffic control couldn’t say yes immediately — there was no room. Six other commercial airliners were crowding the surrounding airspace, forcing AirAsia Flight 8501 to remain at a lower altitude.

Minutes later, the jet carrying 162 people was gone from the radar.

And then you have the latest Italian ferry disaster:

Eight dead, dozens ‘missing’ after ferry fire disaster

Ship captain Argilio Giacomazzi, 62, upheld centuries of maritime tradition by ensuring he was the last man off, handing over to Italian navy officers at 2:50 pm (1350 GMT).

His conduct was in marked contrast to that of the last Italian sea captain to make global headlines, Francesco Schettino, the Costa Concordia skipper currently on trial for manslaughter abandoning a sinking cruise liner on which 32 people died in January 2012.

Wrapped in blankets and with many of them sporting bandages, 49 of the 478 passengers and crew who were on board the ferry when it caught fire shortly after dawn on Sunday disembarked from a merchant ship at the Italian port of Bari.

So, who wins the Nobody’s Perfect Award for the week?

Is it the Malaysian Airlines, who continue to pile up bodies on the ocean floor, or the Italian boat captains, who have a habit of piling as many bodies on one ship as they can?

THIS…is a tough one.

On the one hand, the pilots of the Malaysian Airlines don’t seem to be at fault…it’s the guys on the ground that are screwing them up. Our American captains, when they see a problem, like Captain Sully did in 2009, they just land the plane down on the nearest Hudson River, and they don’t really ask permission. Can you imagine how many commissioners in New York would have to give the okay for Scully to land his big airliner on the Hudson River? That’s the American way…think for yourself. But a pilot of a Malaysian plane would probably be more fearful of NOT obeying the commands on the ground, instead of following his own instincts.

There is not a whole lot you can do if you mess up in a plane. It’s a long fall down.

On the other hand, the captains of a ferry or a boat have a better chance of saving people…And it was obvious that the whole Italian crew was NOT prepared for the fire:

“The lifeboats did not work, there was only one of them in the water and none of the crew were there to help people.”

“I ran out. I looked out for a lifejacket but I could not find one.” 

“We did not know what to do. The staff had no idea how to get people off the boat.”

None of the statements made by survivors of the disaster have so far given any indication that as many as 40 passengers may have died.

So, who wins?

I’m going with the ferry-boat. Captains of ANY kind of boat should know better.  After all, every captain in the world has heard of the Titanic. I don’t care if that captain was the last man off the boat, he shouldn’t even have left the dock without life jackets and enough lifeboats.

Or…am I wrong? If so, then I claim my own Nobody’s Perfect Award for the week.

Or should I say, Italy wins. That would be more—- fair. After all, how many captains can afford to buy 400 lifejackets?

December 30, 2014 - Posted by Joyanna Adams | disasters, Uncategorized | disasters