Op-Ed: Costa Cruises offers discount to Costa Concordia survivors

Reports have said that Costa Cruises have offered 30% discount on the 'next cruise' to survivors rescued Friday 13th. That is if you weren't one of the 15 already dead from the tragedy in Giglio Island, Italy.

Costa Concordia one of the largest cruise ships in the industry had 4200 aboard (including staff and crew) when it crashed into the rocks near Giglio Island, Italy while the ship made a 'hot dog' sail past, near the hilly coastline of Italy. Costa Ship Lines who's parent company is Carnival Cruise Lines out of Miami, USA, has tried to distant itself from the accident, as many will undoubtedly launch $100 million class action suits after the tragedy. So far 15 passengers have been confirmed dead and almost 20 are still reported missing. It was just revealed yesterday that there may also be unregistered people that were on the ship as stowaways that could also be missing on the ship. The offer made to survivors of this terrible tragedy is insulting, and I seriously doubt if anyone would accept such an offer. This would also be no comfort to the 13 who are already dead from no fault of their own. The Captain of the ship Francesco Schettino (dubbed the 'Chicken of the Sea' by the New York Post) has been put under house arrest and is expected to be charged with abandoning ship, and manslaughter. It has been reported that he was 'showboating' when he went off his regular course by Giglio Island and steered closely to the shore and became grounded in the rocks. Schettino even went as far as to say he "tripped and fell into a lifeboat" which just happened to have other officers from the ship in it. He is denying he abandoned ship on purpose. In the video above the crew member tells passengers, "go back to your cabins, everything is OK, we just have a small electrical problem." As it turned out, much of what the passengers were told, was not completely accurate. Salvage crews are waiting in the wings as the ship is still sitting on the rocks, and the plan is to remove the fuel and then somehow upright the ship. For over a week the Italian Government has had an oil/fuel boom in place in case this becomes an environmental issue, but at this point there has been no spills reported.