Let us look at this, in light of what I will refer to as seafarers' ethical responsibilities.  The failures cited may be different from ours, yet they will have similar consequences for us. 

The media coverage concentrated on a number of aspects about this tragedy.  They stressed the heroism of the captain of Coast Guard ship, and the questionable behaviour of Captain Francesco Schettino of the Costa Concordia.

The concerns about an ecological disaster were also a daily concern of the media.  Reports about perceptions of the crew and passengers were covered to help people understand the reality of the situation.

Let us now take a brief look at the Costa Concordia from an ethical perspective.

The nautical ethical responsibilities recognize the captain of any ship as the key individual to oversee every aspect of keeping order.  Since the captain left early, the crew had no idea how to respond to the situation.  The crew initially suspected that there was simply a power outage.  Since the captain is the person who declares an emergency, the crew advised Coast Guard ships that they did NOT require assistance.  It was the captain's duty to inform the crew that there was a serious situation.  All ships near any ship in danger are to offer assistance.  We see this in WWII when the 330,000 Allied forces were evacuated by 800 small ships transferring the troops to larger ships and then to the United Kingdom.  

The captain's ethical responsibility can be understood by the simple expression "the captain goes down with the ship."  This means that the captain must ensure that absolutely everyone is off of the ship before the captain leaves.  This is an absolute essential requirement for any captain.  There have been some lapses in this essential ethical responsibility in the last few years.  This leads to the potential for a greater loss of life for passengers who are unacquainted with the realities of how to react in large bodies of water.  We see this quite literally with Captain Edward John Smith, who remained on board as the RMS Titanic as the ship sank with passengers and crew still on board.

When the seriousness of the situation was evident the Coast Guard responded immediately.   Coast Guard Captain Gregorio De Falco commanded, "You get back on board! That is an order! There is nothing else for you to consider. You have sounded the 'Abandon Ship.' I am giving the orders now. Get back on board. Is that clear?"  This is the reason for the captain having ultimate responsibility for the assistance of every passenger and crew member.  Only the captain knows the ship this thoroughly.  This is another example of a seafarers' ethical responsibility.  We see this in the position of ship pilot, such as those who are St. Lawrence pilots.  These pilots take temporary command of the ships on St. Lawrence River in order to assure safe navigation through the lower St. Lawrence.  
                 
Let us place all luxury cruise ships within the context of size.  The capacity of the Costa Concordia was 4,200 crew and passengers.  This is essentially a large village in size.  There are all of the complex issues that a village has.  People are moving and interacting.  There are small concerns to address for the crew.  These complexities require continuous updating since there are numerous changes in the people residing in the ship.  Cruise ships are designed for people to stay for a short period of time.  The crew needs to function with little capacity to truly learn about their residents.  Training is extremely important.  There appears to have been a deficiency in training relating to emergency planning.  This is an ethical issue since emergencies can happen at any time.  Staff training is essential and should always include emergency training. 

There is a great need for emergency training.  The lights on the cruise ship went out creating problems for evacuation of the passengers.  The crew did not inform the passengers that there was any problem.  The crew actually sent the passengers to their state rooms rather than the lifeboats as a precaution.  When you are in any large body of water, such as the Mediterranean Sea, you may be unable to swim to safety.  This is particularly insidious since there were a dozen children on this cruise.

When we forget about ethics, deaths can result.  It can also be traumatic - just ask the survivors.  For entrepreneurs, the result is failure.  Entrepreneurs are committed to success.