I think that speculation on this thread is legitimate ,but the head of Costa Cruises was much too quick to publicly put all the blame on the captain and the media was too quick to go along with that . The ship was obviously too close to the shore , but according to reports on Reuters yesterday the Costa Concordia often sailed close to that island honking its siren to entertain tourists there . Did the owners of the ship know about this ? If they didn't , why not? That's something that an inquiry should determine.