Costa Concordia disaster sinking story
I remember
on the evening of January 13 2012 I saw a news report claiming that a Costa
cruise ship had run aground off the coast of Italy it wasn’t until the
following morning when the first pictures began emerging that I saw the full
extent of a tragedy that would not only change the cruise industry forever but
would become the most infamous ship disaster next to the Titanic.
I wanted to
tell the incredible and truly unfathomable story of the sinking of the Costa
Concordia scoots or Costa cruise lines however you want to pronounce it is
owned by the Carnival Corporation it was founded in the mid-1800s and
eventually became a pretty prominent European cruise line it was eventually
purchased by Carnival in 2000 and began building ships based on the designs
already proving very successful for Carnival Costa then began ordering ships
based off the general design of carnivals conquest class just another 4,000
tons larger in 2004 Cost ordered the first ship of its brand-new class named
the Costa Concordia.
the vessel completed construction and entered
service for Costa on June 30th2006 at the cost of five hundred and seventy
million dollars at the time the ship was the largest in the coast of fleets she
was nine hundred and fifty two feet long had a beam of 116 feet span thirteen
public decks and had a top speed of 23 knots the Concordia was the new flagship
vessel of the coast of fleets and the company ensured that the ship would be
the very best they had to offer while it wasn't anything that drastically
different than the previous Carnival and coast of vessels it did feature a
massive two-story spa along with four pools the ship center pool featured an
outdoor movie screen and the kids / family pool would end from twisting
waterslide below the top decks the ship would feature five restaurants13 bars
and the grand atrium that soared10Dorries it was a culmination of everything
the modern cruise industry had and really was the new shining star for the
Carnival Corporation she truly was a modern enormous cruise ship the Costa
Concordia had 1502 guest cabins and 601 crew cabins allowing the vessel to
carry a maximum of four thousand eight hundred and ninety people following the
Concordia Costa ordered another five ships in its class all being sisters to
the Concordia captaining the vessel since its 2006 launch was Francesco Stettin
an Italian man who had been working forecaster since 2002.
The Concordia began cruises catering to the
Italian market sailing mostly in the Mediterranean she continued with regular
cruises carrying hundreds of thousands of passengers until early 2012 when one
January night changed cruising forever the Costa Concordia was starting at
seven-day Mediterranean cruise starting from the point of keg Lurie On January 11 2012 after it stopped in Sicily the
vessel arrived in Cavite Vecchia Italy on Friday the 13th 2012 by sunset the
Costa Concordia had set sail on its way to Savona the official course charted took
the vessel directly down the center between Italy's mainland and the island of Gigolo
however deviation was made on the official route to take the vessel much closer
to the island to perform what is known as a sale by salute this was deliberate
action to take the ship relatively close offshore to give passengers a unique
view of the island and also as a nod to fellow sailors on land this isn't
really a new thing for cruise ships nor is it new for the Concordia which had
performed this maneuver several times before even forth island of Giglio as
night falls the vessel is making its deviation course towards the island of
Giglio on the bridge deck officers are guiding the ship as captain Schettino is
eating dinner.
The officers on the bridge are instructed to
keep at least 1500 feet away from the island shore as that was the determined
safe distance by 9:40p.m. the Costa Concordia is moving at 15knots and is about
to make its turn forth island the captain returns to the bridge along with his
mistress yeah I’ll talk about that a little later however there is a miscommunication
between the captain to the officer at helm on what the correct turning course
should be because of the incorrect heading numbers the turning radius of the
ship to sail alongside the island was much wider than it should have been which
brought the colossal ships 659 meters closer to the shore than it was supposed
to be the Concordia is immediately ordered by the captain to turn 20 degrees to
the right seconds later at 9:44 p.m. the port side of the ship collides with underwater
rocks creating a 60 meter gash in the hull breaching several watertight
compartments the Concordia immediately lost power in its generators and full
propulsion from its two engines panic ensued in the main dining rooms where
passengers had been eating as the ship’s emergency generators kicked in by 9.51
an announcement was made to passengers ensuring the situation had been under
control and that technicians were working on fixing the problem .However
moments later the bridge was informed that three compartments had been breached
and that water has reached the main electrical panel
This was
communicated to Costa cruise lines Crisis Center via captain Schettino minutes
later by 10:07 p.m. the harbor contacts the Concordia however the ship claims
that the situation is only a blackouts and that they have the situation under
control during this time the deputy chief engineer meets with the officers on
the bridge to inform them that the flooding has appeared to reach compartments
four five six and seven at this point the ship is starting to list as water
fills the watertight compartments and the passengers are making their way down
to deck four where the life boats are located themselves. captain Schettino did
make the decision to let the ship drift into shallow water where at worst case
the vessel would rest on the seabed however his pumps failed the flooding
worsened as to the ship’s listing even at this time not the captain nor Costa
cruise lines contacted anyone for help however as the situation below decks
worsened and as passengers climbed into light boats themselves.
Finally at 10:35 p.m. the bridge calls for an
abandon ship and the emergency alarm is sounded there are currently four
thousand two hundred and twenty-nine people aboard the Costa Concordia by now
all passengers and crew are making their way down to deck four and crowding
around the light boats as one by one are launched at 11 o'clock p.m. The ship
is now listing on its starboard side more than 25 degrees by this point any
hope of the vessel being saved was gone and as light boats continue to launch
the list continued to worsen by now the majority of the bridge officershadtheir
positions including captain Schettino and by 11:30 the Costa Concordia is
bridge had been abandoned as water reached deck for the sinking of the ship
accelerated as listing got the point where light boats being launched from the
port side was impossible 80 people remained on the ship ascending down the side
of the hull by a rope ladder where rescue boats byte Coast Guard were waiting
captainSchettino however had already returned to the shore.
Where the Coast Guard began demanding him to
return to the vessel he never did the Coast Guard continued to rescue people
still clinging to the side of the ship as most residents living on the island
of Giglio welcomed the stranded passengers into their homes because of the way
the Costa Concordia drifted onto shore the vessel rested on the shoreline rocks
at around an 80 degree angle with its starboard side completely submerged by
6:17 a.m. rescue operations concluded and the Rising Sun revealed the true
extent of the disaster.
Since the vessel partially capsized on its
starboard side the gaping hole on the port side showed just how severe the
impact was daylight also revealed that three of the ships portside lifeboats
were never able to be launched which is why so many people were left aboard the
ship as a result of the capsizing thirty-two people have been killed 27 of whom
had been passengers and five being crew members almost all of which had been trapped
below as water rushed into the ship truly I can't even begin to imagine the
horror it would have been like bodies were recovered mostly on the lower decks
indicating people were trapped inside the vessel as a capsized in the atrium
elevators four bodies had been discovered trapped inside as well as another
nine bodies trapped in two other elevators soon after the wreck carnival and
their insurance company had deemed the vessel a total loss as damages had
exceeded 500 million dollars oil and fuel had been extracted salvage crews
began working on removing the wreck.
However removing a 114 thousand ton half
submerged cruise ship proved to be a pretty daunting task the plan was to place
a steel structure under the Concordia and turn it upright massive buoyancy
tanks were welded tithe ship's port side and on September16th 2013 the Costa
Concordia was turned upright resting on the underwater platform turning the
vessel upright showed just how unbelievably heavy the ship was as arrested on
its side completely crushing sections of the ship’s steel balconies up writing the
vessel also allowed pictures to be taken inside showcasing the true extent of the
damage it's so surreal to see a modern cruise ship have its interior slowly
decay from being abandoned and untouched buoyancy tanks were fitted to the ship’s
other side the starboard side and the Concordia was slowly lifted off its
platform now freely floating .
On July14th
the vessel was towed on its final voyage to the Italian port of Genoawhere the
ship was completely gutted scrapping began by cutting sections of the ship
apart and by July of 2017 the Costa Concordia had been completely dismantled
and sold for scrap metal the total cost of the salvage operation was 1.2
billion dollars following the disaster the search to find who was responsible
concluded with six arrests and prosecutions several of the Concordia's first
officers were given jail sentences most mean under two years Costa cruise lines
crisis director who captain Stettin had been contacting during the events had been
given the longest sentence of the five with two years and 10 months .
Captain
Francesco Stettin himself well his story was well sketchy to say the least he
claimed that during the ordeal he had been coordinating the rescue when he had
slipped and stumbled into lifeboat due to the listing of the ship video later
emerged of what appeared to be captain Stettino calmly standing at the railing
on deck waiting to board lifeboat though he claimed that this was not him it
was also later revealed that he had been having an affair with a woman that he
brought aboard the Concordia with notes he by the way like I said earlier was
taken to the bridge of the vessel when all of this happened however he assured
that she did not affect the disaster he also claimed that he should not be
responsible for the deaths of the 32 people aboard as they were not killed as a
result of the initial impact and instead by the sinking the only good thing
captain Schettino did was make the decision to deliberately ground the ship so it
wouldn’t fully sink if the Concordia sank about 700 feet where it eventually
did the entire vessel would have likely went under and it's possible that many
more people would have been killed.
Schettino
was charged for manslaughter causing shipwreck and abandoning passengers he was
given a 16 year jail sentence which he is currently serving the Carnival
Corporation certainly felt the financial impact of the disaster in their 2012
annual report they claimed that as a direct result of the CostaConcordia
incidents the company had lost 410 million dollars in declined revenue though
2012 was not a great year for Carnival at all with the addition of the Carnival
Triumph power failure in the same year Carnival offered each of the Concordia
survivors $13,000 which included the refund of their cruise great.
I just think the whole situation is truly unbelievable
don't really like Carnival at all and think I have a fair reason to the company
Gannet subsidiaries have done so many shady things and the safety features that
had implemented on the Concordia well sucked the fact that modern cruise ship
owned by the largest cruise line in the world could have something like this
happened is unfathomable the Costa Concordia was only five years old, it cost
570 million dollars which was all put to waste just a few years later the
disaster in its entirety ended up costing around two billion dollars .
Costas’s now
been building new ships once again and in carnival's defense they did change
CEOs and they have been focusing lot more on building back their safety
reputation, which to be fair I can appreciate it really is hard to believe
though that 100 years after the Titanic sank off the coast of a small Italian
island human error once again brought down what we thought was an unsinkvessel
the Costa Concordia
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