Italian TITANIC

[Nictoshek]

Rescuers surround the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia after it ran aground off the coast of Isola del Giglio island, Italy Photograph: Giorgio Fanciulli/AP

Italians launch rescue bid after cruise liner runs aground

At least three people are reported dead and more than 4,000 are being evacuated after the Costa Concordia ran aground


Associated Press in Rome
guardian.co.uk, Friday 13

A luxury cruise ship has run aground off the coast of Tuscany, gashing open the hull and forcing some 4,200 people aboard to evacuate on lifeboats to a nearby island early on Saturday. At least three were dead, the Italian coast guard said.

There were at least three more feared dead, and helicopters were working to pluck to safety some 50 people still trapped aboard the badly listing Costa Concordia, said Coast Guard Commander Francesco Paolillo.

Paolillo said it wasn't known if the dead were passengers or crew, nor were the nationalities of the victims immediately known. It is understood there were several British passengers on board.

The Italian news agency ANSA reported that some people had jumped overboard in the scramble to evacuate the ship, which had just begun a Mediterranean cruise.

The evacuees were taking refuge in schools, hotels, and a church on the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, a popular vacation isle about 18 miles (25 kilometres) off Italy's central west coast.

ANSA quoted two Italian journalists who happened to be among the passengers taking the Mediterranean cruise as saying the accident happened during dinner hour.

"We were dining when the lights went out, and suddenly we heard a bang and the dishes fell to the floor," ANSA quoted one of the journalist-passengers, Luciano Castro, as saying.

"It was like a scene from the Titanic," another passenger aboard, journalist Mara Parmegiani, told ANSA.

Paolillo said the exact dynamics of the accident were still unclear, but that the first alarm went off about 10:30pm (2130 GMT), about three hours after the Concordia had begun its voyage from the port of Civitavecchia, enroute to its first port of call, Savona, in northwestern Italy.

The coast guard official, speaking from the port captain's office in the Tuscan port of Livorno, said the vessel "hit an obstacle" - it wasn't clear if it might have hit a rocky reef in the waters off Giglio - "ripping a gash 50 metres (165 feet) across" on the left side of the ship, and started taking on water.

The cruise liner's captain then tried to steer his ship toward shallow waters, near Giglio's small port, to make evacuation by lifeboat easier. But after the ship started listing badly onto its right side, lifeboat evacuation was no longer feasible, Paolillo said.

Five helicopters, from the coast guard, navy and air force, were taking turns airlifting survivors still aboard and ferrying them to safely. A Coast guard member was airlifted to the vessel to help people get aboard a small basket so they could be hoisted up to the helicopter, said Captain Cosimo Nicastro, another Coast Guard official.

A statement from Costa Cruises, the company that runs the ship, confirmed that the evacuation of the 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew had begun, "but the position of the ship, which is worsening, is making more difficult the last part of the evacuation."

Costa Cruises' statement did not mention any casualties, and said it had not yet determined the cause of the problem.

Costa Cruises said the Costa Concordia was sailing on a cruise across the Mediterranean Sea, starting from Civitavecchia with scheduled calls to Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Cagliari and Palermo.

It said about 1,000 Italian passengers were onboard, as well as more than 500 Germans, about 160 French and about 1,000 crew members.

[karl]

What a terrible accident of a fine vessel and those lost. For these situations in the navigational aids of the present, is most unforgivable. In this manner, it is to the capitain to bear the cost of blame. For it is his responsibility and his alone for his ship, his crew, and to the passengers that of total trust is to him.

Now, it is to God to take those of the lost lives. To the crew, it is to recover from the shock, injury of the lost, and to take with them, their memories of the vessel they knew as home, refuge/career/ and employment. For no matter their rehire to another ship,or not to once again go to sea. It will be to their memories of that day, their ship was lost, and this will be as a scar in their minds to the remainder of their days.

All lost, because the Capitain neglected all the science/technology of sea charts/navigational aids/depth finder/navigational radar and all that is available in the wheel house. And of this, no one was to know or have any inclination of a rocky out crop in the sea lane of travel that was of the ship...

Extremely deplorable with such attributes as to be of extreme criminal negligence with commensurately loss of license if not to bear the dishonour of a criminal court of inquiry.

Karl

[Nictoshek]

Third Italian cruise ship survivor found on board

Almost 40 people are still missing after the 114,000-tonne Costa Concordia ran aground off the Italian island of Giglio

John Hooper on Coastguard vessel CP305 and Tom Kington in Rome
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 January 2012

Emergency workers and divers are working to rescue a third survivor who remains trapped on board the Costa Concordia, the 114,000-tonne cruise ship lying on its side half-submerged off the coast of Tuscany after it collided with rocks on Friday.

The survivor, named by Italian press reports as the crew member Manrico Giampedroni, 57, was located after rescuers took a newlywed South Korean couple off the vessel on Saturday night after hearing their screams.

Three passengers were confirmed drowned and 17are still missing following the panicked evacuation of the ship by 4,200 passengers and crew as it listed on rocks, yards from the coast of the island of Giglio.

Giampetroni – who according to some reports is suffering from a broken leg – was reportedly located in a part of ship close to the sections underwater by rescuers who followed his cries for help.

Six crew members and 11 passengers remain unaccounted for.

As the rescue operation continued, the Costa Concordia presented a gruesome sight, its brilliant white superstructure heaved over so that the vessel was almost parallel to the sea. On the seaward side, several empty liferafts dangled from the hull or lay in the water, evidence of the chaotic evacuation.

Along the side of the hull going aft there was first a deep scar penetrating the hull, then a stretch of buckled and twisted metal, and finally a deep gash running away from the water, in which a huge rock remained embedded.

A search through every cabin continued on Sunday, amid fears that the electronic locks on cabin doors opened by credit card locks automatically locked shut during the blackouts on board the vessel as passengers clamoured to be allowed on to lifeboats.

On the quayside on the tiny island of Giglio divers readied a jetski to take them out to the stricken ship. "We are searching the Costa Concordia cabin by cabin. We're also searching the lift shafts, and later we'll be exploring underwater."

The vessel's captain, Francesco Schettino, who spent the night in custody as magistrates continued to question him, may have sailed too close to the rocky shores of Giglio to give passengers a grandstand view of the island, Italian media speculated on Sunday.

An Italian prosecutor confirmed on Sunday that allegations from passengers and others that Schettino abandoned the stricken liner before all the passengers had left would be investigated. Witnesses say the captain left the ship between 11.40pm and midnight, while the last passengers left the vessel after 3am. A company spokesman said the Costa Concordia had sailed the route 52 times last year, calling it "a very traditional route". But that added to the mystery of how navigators on board were unaware of the rocky outcrop that tore a hole in the side of the vessel.

Schettino sailed so close to the rocks "that it was inevitable that this outcrop would be under the vessel", the investigating magistrate, Francesco Verusio, said on Sunday.

There was anger among the thousands of passengers who had swum or been ferried and flown to safety over what they described as a botched evacuation by crew members who panicked. Italian police confirmed that two French tourists and a Peruvian crew member had died in the accident. About 30 people were reported to have been injured, with three remaining critical.

One woman said she had found her children left alone in the creche after the alarm was sounded. Another passenger – a former sailor – said he took over command of a lifeboat after the crew member in charge proved incapable of lowering it into the sea.

The cruise company Costa Crociere confirmed on Sunday that 25 British passengers and 12 British crew members were on board. The foreign secretary, William Hague, said they were all safe.

Giuseppe Linardi, the prefect in the nearby town of Grosseto, said the figure of up to 40 missing was possibly exaggerated because of conflicting passenger lists being used by officials and because some survivors had left the scene without giving their names.

Italy's environment minister has ordered 1,300 metres of floating barrier to be sent to the vessel, which is capsized in a protected natural area, in case of fuel leaks.

Survivors described panic, confusion and fear as the ship began to list heavily following what sounded like a loud explosion. "Have you seen Titanic? That's exactly what it was like for us," said Valerie Ananias, 31, a schoolteacher from Los Angeles travelling with her sister and parents.

Kirsty Cook, one of eight British dancers working on the ship, said she was "lucky to be alive" after using a rope ladder to climb down to a rescue boat. Another dancer, Rosie Metcalf, 22, from Dorset, had to cling to a fire hose before being winched to safety by a helicopter crew.

The Costa Concordia, which was built in Italy and launched in 2006, set off from Civitavecchia on Friday for a Mediterranean cruise, carrying 3,206 passengers and 1,023 crew. As the ship slid between Giglio and the coast, passengers sitting down for their first dinner on board felt a shudder before the lights went out.

Despite an announcement that the ship had suffered no more than an electrical failure, diners became suspicious as their drinks began to tilt on the tables in front of them.

Schettino said the ship had struck rocks "which were not indicated on maps". He denied allegations he was sailing too close to the coast.

"We were 300 metres from the rocks and that outcrop should not have been there," he said. A huge chunk of torn-off rock now protrudes from a 50-metre long gash in the ship's hull below the waterline.

Schettino tried to steer the ship towards the coast to make evacuation easier, but as water poured into the lower decks the vessel began to list dangerously and it was soon too late to lower the lifeboats.

Passengers complained that they had urged crew members to let them on to the lifeboats as the ship manoeuvred but were told the captain had not yet given permission. A group of Croatian tourists said that, because of the listing of the ship, one lifeboat that had been eventually loaded with passengers crashed back into the hull.

"There was panic immediately," said Francesca Sinatra, a passenger from Rome. "People were shouting and climbing on each other." The lifeboat that she was in collided a number of times with the listing hull as it was lowered because of the angle, she added.

Mara Parmegiani Alfonsi, an Italian journalist who was on board, said the crew did not appear to have been trained for the emergency.

Rescue ships arrived as the vessel tipped closer to the water, sending furniture and crockery crashing throughout the ship. Helicopters were dispatched by the coastguard, navy and air force to hoist people to safety and light up the sea with searchlights as passengers – "a few hundred" according to one rescuer – plunged into the water to swim to the shore.

Costa Crociere said: "Emergency procedures have been promptly activated, our crew members on board are professionally trained and they took all the necessary actions to assist our guests and help them to evacuate the ship."

But the sailors' union Nautilus International said that, 100 years on from the sinking of the Titanic, "many ships are now effectively small towns at sea, and the sheer number of people on board raises serious questions about evacuation".

[Nictoshek]

The captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, Francesco Schettino, was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter

Doomed cruise skipper was seen 'drinking in the bar with a beautiful woman' before abandoning ship hours before passengers

[Nictoshek]

Costa Concordia's 'showboating' likely cause of disaster

Witnesses said the ship was indulging the local population with a spectacular parade

Published Sunday, January 15, 2012


A risky practice by cruise ships of close-passing the island of Giglio in a foghorn-blasting salute to the local population appears to have contributed to the Costa Concordia disaster, officials and witnesses said on Sunday.

[Nictoshek]

Oversight of Cruise Lines at Issue After Disaster

By STEVEN ERLANGER
January 16, 2012

PARIS — As the world was transfixed by the Titanic-like imagery of the partly submerged Costa Concordia and the frantic efforts to save the fuel-laden vessel in rough seas off the Tuscany coast, questions swirled on Monday about the enormous cruise line industry, which operates without much regulation.

The ship’s detained captain, Francesco Schettino, was accused by his bosses of deviating from a fixed, computerized course to show off his beautiful $450 million boat, carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew members, to the people of Giglio Island on a still Friday night, crashing it on a reef.

But as shares in the ship’s parent company — Carnival Corporation of Miami, the world’s biggest cruise line operator — slid by nearly a fifth and the owners and insurers tried to add up the cost of the disaster, there were more troubling issues raised about how the cruise industry is supervised and controlled.

Those issues included how much safety information and training are required for the crew and passengers, and how much discretion a captain has to alter routes, especially in an age when electronic radar, charts, GPS and other guidance systems are supposed to keep these large, sleek ships on course.

“There are legitimate questions as these vessels have substantially evolved in recent years,” said Helen Kearns, a spokeswoman for Siim Kallas, the European Union transportation commissioner. “The boats have gotten a lot bigger, as it’s economically advantageous to have more passengers,” she said. “But the way these vessels have grown in size does mean finding the right balance to make sure regulations are stringent enough to ensure there are procedures like safe evacuations.”

More than 72 hours after the accident killed at least six people, confusion still reigned over how many were missing. Italy’s coast guard abruptly raised the total to 29 late Monday after having said 16, including 2 Americans, remained unaccounted for. Worries also grew that the ship’s half-million gallons of fuel could leak into a marine wildlife sanctuary.

While airline pilots are directed and guided by controllers on the ground, sea captains are considered to be in complete control. “It’s not like the aircraft industry, where you file a flight plan,” said Peter Wild, a cruise industry consultant at G. P. Wild (International) Limited, a consultancy outside London. Rather, at most cruise lines, company directors determine the routes, which are then transmitted to the captain and a navigating officer, who scrutinize the charted course but are meant to follow it.

Captain Schettino’s boss, Pier Luigi Foschi, insisted that a safe route had been programmed into the navigating computers and that alarms would have sounded for any deviation. “This route was put in correctly,” said Mr. Foschi, who is chairman of Costa Crociere S.p.A.

“The fact that it left from this course is due solely to a maneuver by the commander that was unapproved, unauthorized and unknown to Costa,” he said at an emotional press conference in Genoa. “He wanted to show the ship, to go nearby this island of Giglio, so he decided to change the course of the ship,” Mr. Foschi said, admitting that the ship had done a similar but approved maneuver last summer for a festival.

The captain, who may face criminal charges of manslaughter, failure to offer assistance and abandonment of the ship, had said he struck an uncharted rock.

But an Italian prosecutor, Francesco Verusio, had harsh words on Monday. “We are struck by the unscrupulousness of the reckless maneuver that the commander of the Costa Concordia made near the island of Giglio,” he told reporters. “It was inexcusable.”

For many years, the global cruise line industry has operated under a loosely defined system that tends to escape scrutiny by courts and regulators. Cruise line instances of crime, pollution and safety and health violations have often gone unpoliced because no single authority is in charge.

A United Nations agency, the International Maritime Organization, oversees maritime safety through international conventions, including one for the Safety of Life at Sea, known as Solas, adopted in 1914, which grew out of the global anger that stemmed from the loss of the Titanic in 1912. But the agency has no policing powers.

Ships themselves are certified and inspected by independent classification societies, like Lloyd’s Register Group and the Italian RINA S.p.A., Mr. Wild said, that perform annual checks of ship safety conditions, lifeboats and the like. They approve vital components like fire protection, navigation, radio communication equipment, deck gear, cables and anchors.

While electronic systems are standard on ships like the Costa Concordia, all ships are also required to carry paper charts, said Angus Menzies, a retired British Navy commodore who is now chief executive of the Honorable Company of Master Mariners, a professional association in London for qualified sea captains.

“But I’d suspect that on a modern cruise liner like that he’d be using electronic charts,” Mr. Menzies said. To hit an uncharted rock “nowadays that’s unlikely, but it’s possible,” he said. “The other possibility is that they were just a shower of turkeys — incompetent — on the bridge.”

But the captain is king on his ship, Mr. Menzies said. “The man on the bridge decides everything.”

Michael Bruno, dean of the engineering school at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., and chairman of the Marine Board of the National Research Council, said that if there were obstacles on the charts, electronic or paper, the crew should have seen them. “There are probably many people in the field who would say that you don’t need an electronic chart to tell you you’re close to rocks,” he said.

“One of the things to keep in mind is the accuracy of all of these systems,” Mr. Bruno added. Even with GPS, he said, “accuracy is measured in yards, sometimes tens of feet. The difference between hitting a submerged obstacle and not hitting it can sometimes be a matter of feet.”

Questions also loomed about why the Costa Concordia listed so badly after the crash, as the captain tried to bring it closer to the island. Modern ships are built to sink levelly, Mr. Menzies said, by the use of bulkhead doors and pumps that are supposed to be able to be operated remotely. “The worst-case scenario is trying to get non-seafarers off a ship that is capsizing.”

That was certainly the case on board the Costa Concordia Friday night. Passengers described delays and confusion, with unclear instructions and inexperienced crew members. Emily Lau, 27, and her husband, Benji Smith, 34, an American honeymoon couple on board, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that “it was every man for himself,” Ms. Lau said. “The main thing is no one knew how to help because they were never trained. That is the cruise ship’s fault.”

Cruise passengers are supposed to attend a safety briefing within 24 hours of boarding. “We have never had any drills,” Ms. Lau said. “We were asked to go for a safety meeting, and it was nothing but a sales pitch for excursions.”

The accident and the constantly televised images of the elegant ship lying grotesquely will hurt the cruise industry at a crucial period, when global economic uncertainty is rampant and summer bookings are at a peak, analysts said. Carnival and other companies had already dropped prices in the face of weaker demand, especially in Europe, which provides 40 percent of its business. About one-third of all cruise bookings are made in the wintry first quarter of the year.

Investors jettisoned the stocks of cruise operators on Monday. Shares of Carnival, which trades in London, dropped about 17 percent, the most in a decade. (United States markets were closed Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.)

The company estimated the financial impact of the disaster to be as much as $95 million, with the ship out of service for the rest of 2012. But the impact is bound to be much more, said James Rollo, a leisure-industry analyst at Morgan Stanley, who said that the Costa subsidiary is 17 percent of Carnival’s capacity.

“Cruising is a safer way to travel than air, but the investigation may take time, the story is getting global publicity, and people are unlikely to book until confidence returns,” Mr. Rollo said.

Insurers, too, are expected to take a short-term hit. Nick Johnson, an analyst at Numis, a London research firm, estimated total insurance losses of at least $600 million. In a note to clients, he forecast stricter risk assessments because of what he called “the psychological impact of seeing the unthinkable happen.”

[Nictoshek]

Satellite Spots Costa Concordia Shipwreck From Space

SPACE.com Staff
Date: 18 January 2012 Time: 11:23 AM ET

An Earth-watching satellite has snapped a stark view of the Costa Concordia shipwreck from space, showing the huge ocean liner on its side just days after it tragically ran aground off Italy's Tuscany coast.

The new satellite photo was taken Tuesday (Jan. 17) by an Earth-observation satellite operated by DigitalGlobe, a Colorado-based company that uses a constellation of spacecraft to take high-resolution images of Earth.

In the satellite view of the Costa Concordia shipwreck, the luxury cruise ship is visible through a scattered cloud layer, as it lies half-submerged off the coast of Giglio, Italy. The ocean liner hit a reef on Jan. 13 and tipped over.

The Costa Concordia was carrying about 3,200 passengers and a crew of 1,000 when it ran aground, according to news reports. The accident killed 11 people, with more than two dozen others still missing, the ABC News reported today (Jan. 18). Rescue efforts were suspended today due to rough seas that apparently shifted the huge ship.

www.space.com/14273-satellite-photo-costa-concordia-cruise-shipwreck.html