Italy cruise ship Costa Concordia accident eyewitness accounts

Table Of Content

• Trials
• Regulatory and industry response
• A ‘cold-blooded killer’ called Smiley haunted L.A. for 14 years. How he finally faced justice
• Costa Cruises and its parent companies
• years later, Costa Concordia survivors share their stories from doomed cruise ship
• Search for missing people
• Packed Italian court as captain in Concordia disaster hears evidence

There are going to be substantial risks before the Costa Concordia is gone for good, however. As CNN writes, the ship's rotting hull could break off as it is jostled about, which would cause lengthy delays. "The worst case scenario is that the ship falls apart during the first six hours as it's raised off the platform -- or that it breaks up somewhere off the coast of Corsica, which is where the Mediterranean's currents are the strongest," CNN continues. Some environmental groups, like Greenpeace, are also concerned that the Costa Concordia will leave a trail of leaky toxic waste in its wake, CNN adds. “It was a night that, in addition to being a tragedy, had a beautiful side because the response of the people was a spontaneous gesture that was appreciated around the world,” Ortelli said. A decade after that harrowing night, the survivors are grateful to have made it out alive.

Trials

Cruise ship crashes into tourist boat in Venice, injuring five people - The Guardian

Cruise ship crashes into tourist boat in Venice, injuring five people.

Posted: Sun, 02 Jun 2019 07:00:00 GMT [source]

In 2015, a court found Schettino guilty of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck, abandoning ship before passengers and crew were evacuated and lying to authorities about the disaster. In addition to Schettino, Ferrarini and Rusli Bin, the other people who received convictions for their role in the disaster were Cabin Service Director Manrico Giampedroni, First Officer Ciro Ambrosio and Third Officer Silvia Coronica. The hospitality of the tight-knit community of islanders kicked in, at first to give basic assistance to the 4,229 passengers and crew members who had to be evacuated from a listing vessel as high as a skyscraper. In no time, Giglio residents hosted thousands of journalists, law enforcement officers and rescue experts who descended on the port.

Regulatory and industry response

It happened on Friday evening and marked the start of hours of panic among the 4,000 people on board the cruise ship. In the next few days, Schettino, the eight other people accused, and the many survivors and families of victims, will learn if he will face charges over the deaths of 32 people after his ship run aground off Giglio island on Jan. 13. The Costa Concordia began to drift and, investigators later explained, list as a result of water in the damaged hull. By 10.15pm, the Italian coastguard began getting reports of trouble on board directly from the passengers, but Schettino still did not react.

A ‘cold-blooded killer’ called Smiley haunted L.A. for 14 years. How he finally faced justice

The calamity caused changes in the cruise industry like carrying more lifejackets and holding emergency drills before leaving port. GIGLIO PORTO, Italy — The curvy granite rocks of the Tuscan island of Giglio lay bare in the winter sun, no longer hidden by the ominous, stricken cruise liner that ran aground in the turquoise waters of this marine sanctuary ten years ago. Following the conclusion of the righting operation, the ship was kept on the platform while further inspections were made and the starboard sponsons attached. The crew of 1,300 had first observed a 14-day quarantine before reporting for duty. The ship will set off with around 1,500 passengers on board - a quarter of its full capacity.

But no one came from the bridge, and of course the ship, in the meantime, was still performing this very macabre choreography of slowly capsizing. As workers began to break apart the ship in Genoa, and they discovered the body of Russel Rebello, an Indian waiter. The married commander, now 54, was accompanied by his lover, Domnica Cemortan, a classically trained dancer from Moldova.

The operation, led by a wisecracking South African named Nick Sloane, involved first moving the capsized vessel into an upright position, and then slowly shifting it into deeper water. In such an unprecedented operation, environmental contamination was a constant threat, with tonnes of rotting food, passenger belongings and other items still located on the vessel. The 3,299 passengers who boarded the Costa Concordia on 13 January in the Italian port city of Civitavecchia for their seven-day cruise around the Mediterranean had much to enjoy. There were 1,500 cabins, one of the largest fitness centres at sea, a Turkish bath and solarium, a poolside movie theatre on the main pool deck, and 13 bars, including one devoted to cognac.

Making things worse, the crew had dropped the anchor incorrectly, causing the ship to flop over even more dramatically. Evidence introduced in Schettino’s trial suggests that the safety of his passengers and crew wasn’t his number one priority as he assessed the damage to the Concordia. I left the bar and found myself stumbling along sloping corridors with passengers and crew members. Ultimately, it took more than an hour for Schettino to give the order to abandon ship. By that point, the vessel was already tilted at a 30-degree angle, complicating some of the rescue effort.

Cruise Ship Crashes In Venice, Italy - NPR

Cruise Ship Crashes In Venice, Italy.

Posted: Sun, 02 Jun 2019 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Search for missing people

"A year and a half without going anywhere is a long time. It was about time we set off again for the sea, the atmosphere, the views. We've been missing all that," said Jean-Pierre Faux, a 74-year-old pensioner from Belgium holidaying with his wife Martine. The cruise industry has been smashed by the pandemic, suffering a shortfall of 64 billion euros and shedding 518,000 jobs between just mid-March and September last year, according to the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA). Rescue teams searched for survivors and helicopters evacuated the last 50 people on the deck. Some people decided it was too difficult to get on to a lifeboat and chose to swim, with a number safely reaching the nearby island of Giglio.

But when it deviated from its planned path to sail closer to the island of Giglio, the ship struck a reef known as the Scole Rocks. The impact damaged the ship, allowing water to seep in and putting the 4,229 people on board in danger. An investigation focused on shortcomings in the procedures followed by Costa Concordia's crew and the actions of her captain, Francesco Schettino, who left the ship prematurely. He left about 300 passengers on board the sinking vessel, most of whom were rescued by helicopter or motorboats in the area.

Elizabeth Nanni, of Isola del Giglio Tourist Information, said those who arrived on the island were survivors in a state of shock, ''desperate people looking for each other'' and people suffering from hypothermia after jumping into the sea. “You find a consistent pattern of a lack of discipline on crew training, on the design of the vessel, on the communication problems. This captain made a horrible mistake, but we are not going to save lives if we don’t change the standards in the whole industry, not only of this particular captain,” Eaves said. Video taken by passengers at the time showed scenes of chaos and confusion as the Costa Concordia started to list heavily. "It was just said in court that musicians on board had more safety training than other crew members," Eaves told NBC.

"I imagine it like a nail stuck to the wall that marks that date, as a before and after," he said, recounting how he joined the rescue effort that night, helping pull ashore the dazed, injured and freezing passengers from lifeboats. Italy will mark the 10th anniversary of the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster on Thursday with a daylong commemoration. The dinner plates that flew off the tables when the rocks first gashed the hull. The final mad scramble to evacuate the listing liner and then the extraordinary generosity of Giglio islanders who offered shoes, sweatshirts and shelter until the sun rose and passengers were ferried to the mainland.

The MS Costa Concordia, the Italian cruise ship that killed 32 people when it sank off the coast off Isola del Giglio in 2012, has just been sitting off the Tuscan coast ever since. This morning, though, the ship was successfully refloated, the Guardian reports. Environmentalists are relieved since the ship has been marring a marine sanctuary for more than two years, while local residents say they are looking forward to no longer having to see a giant wreck each time they look out to sea. The Concordia was supposed to take passengers on a seven-day Italian cruise from Civitavecchia to Savona.