Officials are investigating why a professional cruise ship crew, and in particular the captain, was unable to remain calm and execute an emergency procedure as the boat sank Saturday morning near San Francisco, leaving no survivors. Officials describe the mayday call as “histrionic and incoherent”, and suspect this behavior had something to do with why the boat sank.
“These commercial cruises are operated by professional crews that practice emergency procedures regularly so that they can do them in any adverse environment” a spokesman from the Coast Guard said, “We may never know what caused the captain to lose his composure and cry, scream, and wail on the emergency channel.”
We may never know what caused the captain to lose his composure and cry, scream, and wail on the emergency channel
The recording of the call may have other clues, and officials are using software to analyze the other sounds in the background. “It’s quite a challenge sifting through all the chaos on that recording,” said Mark Levine, a sound engineer from San Francisco’s esteemed Pyramind audio institute, who was contracted for the project. “Everything is basically drowned out by ‘Dancing Queen’, which sounds as if it was being played through the ship’s internal broadcast, which I think is against the rules.”
The internal broadcast is reserved for official ship announcements, which, if ‘Dancing Queen’ was being played, would explain why emergency procedure instructions were likely not communicated to passengers.
“Well, it’s a bit more complicated,” said one official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Some of these gay cruise ships actually give emergency sing/song instructions using ABBA or Elton John music. It’s the only way they can get the attention of 150 partying gay men. It might sound odd, but you try to find a better way.”
Some of these gay cruise ships actually give emergency sing/song instructions using ABBA music. It’s the only way they can get the attention of 150 partying gay men. It might sound odd, but you try to find a better way.