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This is Cruise Radio, a special edition.

Costa Concordia. Tragedy in the Mediterranean. Hey, I'm Matt Baskford. And I'm Doug Parker. If you're a first-time listener, check us out online at cruiseradio.net. I was out Friday night, got the Facebook alert, and there you had the story right up there before, that was the first time I had seen it. And you know what? I saw it randomly on Twitter, just someone saying, oh my gosh, a cruise ship ran aground, but I thought it was like nothing, like I hit a sandbar. I had no clues and had like such grave consequences. Yeah, it is a huge story. And so we're very lucky to have one of the passengers from the Costa Concordia who's going to talk with us about that whole night. But first, Stewart, you are the cruise guys here. America's most quoted cruise expert,

contributed to ABC's Good Morning America. who's going to talk with us about that whole night. But first, Stuart, you're on the cruise guys here.

America's most quoted cruise expert, contributed to ABC's Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and Fox Business.

Before we talk to Stewart, there was a press conference earlier today with the chairman and CEO of Costa Cruises, Pierre Fosci. Do you have any explanation for why the captain changed the ship's course?

Yes, the explanation is he wanted to show the ship to nearby this island of Gilles.

And so he decided to change the course of the ship to go closer to the island and pass through in front of the little

city that sit in that island. This is what you wanted to do.

Stuart, is it common for captains to deviate from the course?

No, because the courses are preset and loaded into the computer based on weather conditions.

It's kind of like a flight plan where the plane was supposed to go from A to B and it kind of deviates because of certain conditions that may arise.

In this case, the captain went way off course. He was anywhere from two to four miles off course and, you know, there's all kinds of speculation as to what he was

actually doing and you know of course those will come out the truth will come out you know when they

have more time to review the black box review the entire matter and also the uh the the tapes to find out

what really was the main reason for the captain to deviate from the course.

And for the folks who are listening, the ship was actually heading up the northern coast of Italy between the mainland and an island, right?

Yes, it was actually, it was heading north, you know, between the mainland Italy.

It had just left

uh... chivethevacia which is a port for rome and it was on its way to savonia which

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