That could well be true, that they just serve in an advisory role. I really don't know. As I said in this case though there never would have been a pilot onboard, as they never were supposed to stop there. Pilots are only for entering and leaving port. It seems that ships these days are supposed to be computerized and maybe they hire captains that are more 'figureheads', who get along well with pax?? Not to mention causing this calamity, this particular captain seems to have had no clue about how to act in an emergency.