Death & Chaos: Luxury Cruise Ship ‘Costa Concordia’ Shipwrecked off Italian Coast with 4,200 People on Board, Many Still Missing (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on January 15, 2012
Panic and death - As more victims are being rescued, authorities are investigating the Costa Concordia ship disaster
The mammoth luxury cruise liner Costa Concordia is believed to have hit a submerged rock off the Tuscan coast of Italy on Friday night, which caused the massive ship to capsize. An estimated 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members were on board.
At least three people are reported dead and more are being rescued (update: five now reported dead). With the chaos that ensued, it’s a miracle that more people were not killed, although people are still missing. The captain of the Costa Concordia has been detained by authorities. He is being investigated for multiple counts of manslaughter and for abandoning his ship before all the passengers had escaped.
The elegant cruise ship — which boasts 58 suites with balconies, five restaurants, 13 bars, four swimming pools, and five Jacuzzis — had set off from the Civitavecchia port near Rome earlier Friday when it ran into difficulties. Boats from the nearby port reportedly helped evacuate the passengers and crew from the sinking ship.
Reports from the ship’s passengers claim that the ship’s botched evacuation came too late, creating Titanic-like scenes of panic, with passengers fighting over lifeboats.
Prayers go to the victims and families of those involved in this senseless tragedy.
AlJazeera English: Sonia Gallego reports on the Costa Concordia Accident
From Associated Press, 3rd survivor rescued from stricken cruise ship:
A helicopter on Sunday airlifted a third survivor from the capsized hulk of a luxury cruise liner 36 hours after it ran aground off the Tuscan coast, as prosecutors said they were investigating the captain for manslaughter and accused him of abandoning his ship.
Authorities reduced to 17 from 40 the number of people still unaccounted for, with an Italian who worked in cabin service pulled from the wreckage of the Costa Concordia off the tiny island of Grigio. A South Korean couple on their honeymoon were rescued late Saturday in the unsubmerged part of the liner when firefighters heard their screams.
Three people are confirmed dead after the huge cruise ship carrying more than 4,200 people ran aground on Friday night, forcing a chaotic and frightening evacuation. There are now six crew members and 11 passengers who haven’t been located, Tuscany’s regional president Enrico Rossi said.
Authorities were holding the captain for suspected manslaughter among other possible charges and a prosecutor on Sunday confirmed allegations that the captain abandoned the stricken liner before all the passengers had escaped, which would be a criminal offense.
Asked Sunday by Sky Italia TV about the accusations, Grosseto prosecutor Francesco Verusio replied, “unfortunately, I must confirm that circumstance.”
A French couple who boarded the Concordia in Marseille, Ophelie Gondelle and David Du Pays of Marseille, told the AP they saw the captain in a lifeboat, covered by a blanket, well before all the passengers were off the ship. They insisted on telling a reporter what they saw, so incensed that — according to them — the captain had left the ship before everyone had been evacuated.
“The commander left before and was on the dock before everyone was off,” said Gondelle, 28, a French military officer.
“Normally the commander should leave at the end,” said Du Pays, a police officer who said he helped an injured passenger to a rescue boat. “I did what I could.”
Costa Concordia accident
Sky Center: Costa Concordia accident – Captain Arrested, Panic on Board for Lifeboats
From Chicago Tribune, Survivors plucked from Italian shipwreck:
GIGLIO, Italy (Reuters) – A South Korean honeymoon couple and an injured crewmember were plucked from a capsized Italian liner on Sunday, more than a day after it was wrecked, as rescue workers struggled to find any others still trapped on board.
Teams were painstakingly checking thousands of cabins on the Costa Concordia for people still unaccounted for after the huge vessel foundered and keeled over with more than 4,000 on board, killing at least three people and injuring 70.
The task is akin to searching a small town – but one tilted on its side, largely in darkness and partly submerged in freezing water. Scores of divers were taking part.
At about 1 p.m. rescue workers airlifted Manrico Gianpetroni, chief purser, hours after making voice contact with him several decks below.
Gianpetroni, who had a broken leg, was lifted from the ship on a stretcher by a helicopter and taken directly to hospital.
“I never lost hope of being saved. It was a 36-hour nightmare,” he told reporters.
After midnight, rescue workers had found the two South Koreans still alive in a cabin, after locating them from several decks above, and brought them ashore looking dazed but unharmed.
The captain of the luxury 114,500-tonne ship, Francesco Schettino, was under arrest and accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship, Italian police said.
Passengers, comparing the disaster to the movie “Titanic,” told of people leaping into the sea and fighting over lifejackets in panic when the ship hit a rock and ran aground near the island of Giglio, late on Friday.
RT News: Raw Video: Cruise ship aground: More aerial views of sunk Costa Concordia
RT News: Raw Video: Luxury Costa Concordia cruise ship runs aground
From Miami Herald, Cruises may battle Concordia aftermath:
Veterans of the cruise line industry can’t remember an accident more dramatic than the one that captivated the world’s attention this weekend.
An Italian ocean liner capsized onto its side, half the ship submerged in the shallows of the Mediterranean Sea. The Costa Concordia had rolled so far over that a steam stack looked nearly eye-level in photos taken from the shores of a rugged Tuscan island where passengers fled after the grounding. Three passengers were confirmed dead, with dozens missing amid reports of people leaping from the ship as it listed toward 80 degrees.
The images from the half-sunken Concordia present a major challenge to South Florida’s cruise-line industry, which attracts millions of tourists to the region and employs thousands of workers. Carnival, Miami-Dade’s eighth largest private employer, owns Costa, making the financial fall-out a direct concern for the world’s largest cruise company and its 3,500 local employees.
But beyond the sinking of a major ship and the deaths of at least three passengers, the unfolding Concordia incident injects a new worry for those considering any vacation at sea.
“Obviously there’s going to be that gut reaction, like after Sept. 11,’’ said Simon Duval, a South Florida-based home agent with Expedia CruiseShipCenters. “I think there’s going to be a short-term hit to the industry…I pray it’s not long-term.’’
The Concordia incident delivered a particularly disturbing narrative. The crew hadn’t held evacuation drills by the time the vessel with 3,200 passengers struck an underwater rock two hours into the voyage along Italy’s western coast. Images showed the ship resting what looked like a stone’s throw from the Isola del Giglio, a lighthouse framing many of the photos.
Passengers described chaos after the ship struck ground around 10 p.m. and began leaning toward the sea. One couple recalled a mother handing them an infant as the boat turned. With the ship listing so severely, some life rafts couldn’t be lowered. By Saturday evening, reports had three passengers dead, 70 missing and the captain under arrest on suspicion of abandoning ship.
Carnival and Costa communicated only in press releases well into Saturday evening. “This is a terrible tragedy and we are deeply saddened,” Carnival said in a statement. Costa’s president Gianni Oporto’s statement said in part: “We are not at this time able to answer questions because the authorities are trying, with our cooperation, to understand the reasons for the incident.”
From Sydney Morning Herald, Captain detained over claims he abandoned ship:
THE Italian cruise liner disaster that killed three people and left 17 unaccounted for might have been caused by an electrical failure that left the ship impossible to steer and allowed it to smash into rocks, experts say.
As divers continued a desperate search of the Costa Concordia’s submerged cabins Italian police detained the ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, and his first officer for questioning on charges of manslaughter, failure to offer assistance and abandonment of ship. There were reports that the captain left the ship at 11.30pm on Friday while most passengers were not evacuated until after 3am on Saturday.
Two Korean honeymooners, both 29, were rescued yesterday, 24 hours after the ship sank, after being found in a cabin two decks above the water line.
Italian firefighters told the BBC last night they had found a third person alive, an Italian man who is a senior member of the crew. It is believed he may have a broken leg.
A coast guard official, asked how long the search might take, said ”possibly weeks”.
Divers say it is possible there are air pockets in the submerged part of the ship. As many as 60 people are missing.
Passengers claimed the ship’s botched evacuation came too late and created Titanic-like scenes of panic, with passengers fighting over lifeboats, people in evening clothes crawling up almost vertical corridors in darkness, and one couple begging for someone to take their three-year-old to safety.
An official inquiry has begun with the recovery of the ship’s ”black box” recorder by the Italian coast guard on Saturday.
The president of the cruise company that runs the Costa Concordia, Gianni Onorato, said the ship had struck ”a submerged rock” when sailing its regular itinerary from Civitavecchia to Savona, Italy.
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I still can not believe in what happened. What a terrible tragedy. Poor people and their families. Let us pray for them.
They still have not found eveyrone who is missing. Pray for the families and those still missing.