Costa Concordia disaster

Costa Concordia disaster
The Costa Concordia aground 08:24pm (20:24), 14 January 2012
Event	Grounding of cruise ship Costa Concordia
Cause	Ran aground on a reef
Location	Off Isola del Giglio, Tuscany, Italy
Coordinates	42.365347°N 10.921400°E / 42.365347; 10.921400
Date	13 January 2012
Captain	Francesco Schettino
On board	4,252 Passengers: 3,206 Crew and personnel: 1,023
Losses	30 dead, 2 missing and presumed dead, and 64 injured
Operator	Costa Cruises
Wrecking of Costa Concordia
Timeline	(local UTC+1 times) 21:42 or 21:45: Collision at Le Scole reef 22:06: Harbour Master phoned by passenger's daughter, saying life jackets were ordered 22:14: Harbour Master radios ship; is told only that an electrical blackout started 20 minutes ago and will be repaired 22:26: Harbour Master contacts Captain who says that the ship is taking on water through a port side opening and listing; no dead or injured; requests a tugboat 22:34: Harbour Master is told that ship is in distress 22:39: Patrol boat reports the ship is listing heavily 22:44: Coast Guard reports the ship is grounded 22:45: Captain denies grounding, says ship still floating and will be brought around 22:58: Captain reports that he ordered evacuation 23:23: Ship reports large starboard hull breach 23:37: Captain reports 300 people on board 00:12: Coast Guard patrol boat reports that port side lifeboats cannot be launched 00:34: Captain says he is in a lifeboat and sees 3 people in water 00:36: Coast Guard patrol reports 70–80 people on board including children and elderly 00:42: Captain and his officers are in lifeboat; Harbour Master orders them to return 01:04: Helicopter lowers Air Force officer aboard, who reports 100 people remain 02:29: 3 naggers hanging from ship's prow 03:05: Evacuation ferry returns to Porto Santo Stefano with 5 injured and 3 dead 03:17: Police identify captain on quay 03:44: Air Force reports 40–50 remain to evacuate 04:22: 30 reported remaining to be evacuated 04:46: Evacuation concluded
Media	External audio and videos Reconstruction of accident Initial announcement (in Italian) Passengers evacuating Infrared aerial video of evacuation Daytime aerial video Rescuers on top deck; views inside ship

The Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia partially sank when it ran aground at Isola del Giglio, Tuscany, on 13 January 2012 with the loss of at least 30 lives.

The ship, with 4252 people on board, was on the first leg of a cruise from Civitavecchia when she hit a reef during an unofficial near-shore salute to the local islanders. To perform this manoeuvre, Captain Francesco Schettino had deviated from the ship's computer-programmed route, claiming that he was familiar with the local seabed.

There were immediate fears of an ecological disaster, as the partially-submerged wreck was in danger of slipping into much deeper water, with a risk of oil pollution that would have devastated this popular tourist zone. (In the event, all the fuel and oil was extracted by March 24.)

Schettino was arrested on preliminary charges of multiple manslaughter in connection with causing a shipwreck, failing to assist 300 passengers, and failing to be the last to leave the wreck. He was later charged with failing to describe to maritime authorities the scope of the disaster and with abandoning incapacitated passengers.

The Costa Concordia, which was the largest ship built in Italy at the time (2006), has been officially declared a 'constructive total loss'. It is expected to be refloated in Spring 2013 and towed away in Summer 2013, to be cut up for scrap.

Accident

Ship's course

The Costa Concordia, with 3,206 passengers and 1,023 crew members on board, was sailing off Isola del Giglio on the night of 13 January 2012, having begun a planned seven-day cruise from Civitavecchia to Savona and five other ports. She struck her port side on a reef at 21:42 or 21:45 local time. The reef is charted as an area known as Le Scole, about 800 metres (2,600 ft) south of the entrance to the harbour of Giglio Porto, on the island's east coast. The initial impact was at a point 8 metres (26 ft) below water at the "Scola piccola" 42°21′20″N 10°55′50″E, the most seaward exposed rock of Le Scole, which tore a 50-metre (160 ft) gash in the ship's port side below the water line. The impact sheared from the ship's hull two long strips of steel, later found on the seabed 92 to 96 metres (302 to 315 ft) from the main island. The ship has a large boulder embedded in her hull at the aft end of the impact gash. A few minutes after the impact, the head of the engine room warned the captain that the hull had an irreparable tear of 70 metres (230 ft) that had submerged the generators and engines.

Boulder embedded in the port side of the damaged hull.

Without propulsive power and on emergency electric power, the ship "shifted position only by means of inertia and the rudders" and continued north from Le Scole until well past Giglio Porto. Captain Schettino has said various instruments were not functioning. Reports differ whether the ship listed to port soon after the impact and when she began listing to starboard. At 22:10, the vessel turned south. The vessel was then listing to starboard, initially by about 20°, coming to rest by 22:44 at Punta del Gabbianara in about 20 metres of water at an angle of heel of about 70°. Captain Schettino attributes the final grounding of the ship at Punta del Gabbianara to his own effort to manoeuvre the ship there. In contrast, on 3 February, the chief of the Italian Coast Guard testified that the final grounding of the ship at Punta del Gabbianara may not have been related to any attempts to manoeuvre the ship, implying that only a fortunate coincidence of winds and tides prevented the ship from sinking in the deep water surrounding Isola del Giglio.

The entire scenario has been animated by Quality Positioning Services B.V. of The Netherlands and is available for viewing online.

Captain's point of view

Captain Schettino stated that, before approaching the island, he had turned off the alarm system for the ship's computer navigation system. "I was navigating by sight, because I knew those seabeds well. I had done the move three, four times." He told investigators that he saw waves breaking on the reef and turned abruptly, swinging the side of the hull into the reef. "I have to take responsibility for the fact that I made a judgment error." "This time I ordered the turn too late." The captain had initially stated that the ship had been about 300 metres (980 ft) from the shore (about the length of the vessel) and hit an uncharted rock. However, the ship's first officer, Ciro Ambrosio, told investigators that Schettino had left his reading glasses in his cabin and repeatedly asked Ambrosio to check the radar for him.

The captain said that Costa Cruises managers told him to perform the 13 January sail-past. On 14 August 2011, the ship had taken a similar sail-past route, but not as close to Le Scole. The 14 August sail-past was approved by Costa Cruises and was done in daylight during an island festival. The normal shipping route passes about 5 miles (8.0 km) offshore. In August 2011, Giglio Porto's mayor, Sergio Ortelli, had thanked Captain Schettino for the "incredible spectacle" of a sail-past. Mayor Ortelli has now said, "It's a very nice show to see, the ship all lit up when you see it from the land. This time round it went wrong". In August and September 2010, Costa Pacifica and Costa Allegra, sister ships of Costa Concordia, came within a mile of the island. Costa Cruises confirmed that the course taken was "not a defined [computer programmed] route for passing Giglio." Costa Cruises CEO Pier Luigi Foschi explained that the company's ships have computer-programmed routes and "alarms, both visual and sound, if the ship deviates by any reason from the stated route as stored in the computer and as controlled by the GPS", but that these alarms could be "manually" overridden.

In addition to claiming that he was told by Costa Cruises to perform the 13 January sail-past near Giglio, the captain is said to have had indicated other, perhaps all consistent, reasons. At the time of impact, Captain Schettino was on the telephone with retired Captain Mario Palombo, telling Palombo, "Seeing as we're passing the island, we'll sound the siren for you". In an interview with the Italian TV channel Canale 5 on 10 July 2012, Schettino stated that the distraction by this telephone call had been a contributing factor to the accident. In addition, at the captain's invitation, the maître d'hôtel of the ship, who is from the island, came to the ship's bridge to view the island during the sail-past.

Passengers' point of view

Passengers were in the dining hall when there was a sudden, loud bang, which a crew member (speaking over the intercom) ascribed to an "electrical failure". "We told the guests everything was [okay] and under control and we tried to stop them panicking", a cabin steward recalled. The ship lost cabin electrical power shortly after the initial collision. "The boat started shaking. The noise—there was panic, like in a film, dishes crashing to the floor, people running, people falling down the stairs," said a survivor. Those on board said the ship suddenly tilted to the port side. Passengers were later advised to put on their life jackets. One half-hour before the abandon ship order, one crew member was videoed telling passengers at a muster station, "We have solved the problems we had and invite everyone to return to their cabins." When the ship later turned around, it began to list approximately 20° to the starboard side, creating problems in launching the lifeboats. The president of Costa Cruises, Gianni Onorato, said normal lifeboat evacuation became "almost impossible" because the ship had listed so quickly.

Rescue

After the grounding, passengers and crew were taken ashore from the ship by lifeboats and helicopters or swam to the island, leaving about 40 people missing. Half of these were found in the next days inside the ship, most of them dead. The wreck is resting on a rock ledge and may slide into deeper water.

In a first step to prevent pollution of the shore and refloat the ship, her oil and fuel tanks were emptied, an operation completed on 24 March 2012.

Evacuation

Wrecked, aground and listing at about 70 degrees, with used lifeboats in foreground

In the first contact, made at 22:12, between Italian port officials and the Costa Concordia after its impact on the reef, an unidentified officer on board the cruise ship insisted that it was suffering only from an electrical "black-out". A passenger's video recorded at 22:20 showed panicked passengers in life jackets being told by a crew member that "everything is under control" and that they should return to their cabins. No lifeboat passenger evacuation drills had taken place for about 600 passengers who had just embarked. A ship's cook said that Captain Schettino ordered dinner around 22:30. Around the same time, a patrol boat of the Guardia di Finanza made a call to the Costa Concordia, but no answer came.

Captain Schettino participated in three telephone calls with the cruise line's crisis management officer. At 22:26, Schettino told Port of Livorno's harbour master that the ship had taken water through an opening in the port side and requested a tug boat. Port authorities were not alerted to the collision until 22:42, about an hour after the impact, and the order to evacuate the ship was not given until 22:50. Some passengers jumped into the water to swim to shore, while others, ready to evacuate the vessel, were delayed by crew members up to 45 minutes, as they resisted immediately lowering the lifeboats. Some sources report that the ship did not list for almost an hour and therefore lifeboats could have been launched, allowing the passengers to reach safety. In contrast, one expert stated that a delay might be justified considering the hazards in launching lifeboats while a ship is still moving.

Captain Roberto Bosio, a captain of a sister ship, who was onboard Costa Concordia merely as a passenger, is said to have coordinated the officers in much of the evacuation. He began to evacuate the ship before Schettino's order.

Rescued passengers huddle ashore.

While the vast majority of the ship's multinational personnel held positions that did not require a seaman's qualifications (as they handled services like laundry, cooking, entertainment, cleaning, minding children, and waiting tables), according to a senior shipping official, they also had received mandatory training in basic safety to be able to help in situations like this. Several passengers asserted that the crew did not help or were untrained in launching the lifeboats. This allegation was denied by the crew, one of whom stated, "The crew members, whether Filipino or Colombians or Indians, tried to the best of our ability to help passengers survive the shipwreck. Comments by some of the passengers that we were unhelpful have hurt us." Costa Cruises CEO Pier Luigi Foschi praised the crew and personnel despite difficulties resulting from the apparent lack of direction from the ship's officers and problems in communication. Although all of them speak at least basic English, most speak no Italian.

Three people reportedly drowned after jumping overboard, and another seven were critically injured. The local fire chief said his men "plucked 100 people from the water and saved around 60 others who were trapped in the boat." Five helicopters from the Coast Guard, Navy and Air Force took turns airlifting survivors still aboard and ferrying them to safety.

Rescued passengers and crew in Giglio Porto

According to investigators, Captain Schettino left the ship by around 23:30. In one telephone call from Coast Guard to Schettino, Captain Gregorio Maria De Falco repeatedly ordered Schettino to return to the ship from his lifeboat and take charge of the ongoing passenger evacuation. At one point in the call, De Falco grew so angry at Schettino's stalling that he screamed, "Vada a bordo, cazzo!" (translated as "Get the fuck [back] on board!", "Get [back] on board, for fuck's sake!" or "Get on board, damn it! depending on the source). One of these calls took place at 01:46.

At 01:04 an Air Force officer who was lowered onboard by helicopter reported that there were still 100 people on board. The ship's priest said he was among the last leaving the ship at around 01:30. The deputy-mayor of Isola del Giglio, Mario Pellegrini, who went on board as part of the rescue operations, praised the ship's doctor and a young Costa Concordia officer, the only officer he met on board, for their help. He and the young officer, Simone Canessa, were "shoulder to shoulder" until 05:30. One of the missing crewmen, a waiter, was last seen helping passengers.

At 03:05, 600 passengers were evacuated to the mainland by ferry. At 03:44, the Air Force officer reported that 40 to 50 people were still on board. At 04:46, the evacuation was noted as "complete" on Port of Livorno's Harbour Master log. The next day, the survivors were transported to Porto Santo Stefano, where the first center for coordination and assistance was established. Prime Minister Mario Monti announced his intention to propose to the President of the Republic to grant the gold medal for civil valor of the common people of Isola del Giglio and Monte Argentario to the praiseworthy conduct during the rescue.

Search for missing people

Between 14 and 30 January, rescue divers searched within the ship for missing people. The head of the coast guard diving team described the conditions inside the ship, still perched on a 37-metre (120 ft) ledge, as "disastrous". Pitch-black conditions with large furniture drifting around made the rescue operation hazardous. Divers would find a path into the ship and tie down obstacles such as mattresses, before making noise to alert trapped people. The divers worked in pairs for safety and searched each assigned area slowly in a zig-zag manner. The search dives were planned as 40 minutes in duration, with sufficient extra compressed air in the scuba tanks in case of emergency. The divers had two torches positioned on their helmets because underwater visibility varied from a few inches to about 2 feet. In addition, divers marked their route by trailing a line to be used to lead them back out in low visibility and positioned extra emergency air tanks within the ship. The divers were from the Navy, Coast Guard, and Vigili del Fuoco.

On 14 January, divers searched the ship until nightfall. Divers and firefighters continued to search for survivors who might have been trapped in the ship, and rescued a Korean newlywed couple trapped in a cabin two decks above the water line, and the ship's purser suffering a broken leg.

On 16 January, violent waters shifted the ship about 1.5 centimetres (0.6 in), interrupting rescue work — trap doors were shut and debris fell on rescuers — and giving rise to fear that the ship could be pushed into 68-metre (224 ft) deep waters or that the fuel could leak. Operations resumed about three hours later. Throughout the process, rescuers set off explosives to create holes in the ship's hull to reach previously inaccessible areas. On 18 January, rescue efforts were suspended again when the ship shifted, but shortly afterward were resumed.

On 20 January, the ship began shifting by 1.5 centimetres (0.6 in) per hour, but on 24 January, Franco Gabrielli, the Italian Civil Protection Agency head, said the ship was "stable". The same day divers recovered the body of the 16th victim. On 29 January, the operation was suspended because the ship had shifted 3.8 centimetres (1.5 in) in six hours and because of high waves. Gabrielli said, "Our first goal was to find people alive ... Now we have a single, big goal, and that is that this does not translate into an environmental disaster." By the next day, operations resumed.

On 28 January, the 17th body, a female crew member, was recovered from a submerged part of the vessel. On 31 January, Italy's Civil Protection agency terminated the search in the submerged part of the ship because the deformed hull caused unacceptable safety concerns for divers. On 22 February, guided by information from passengers as to where bodies might be, divers found eight additional bodies in the wreck. A "special platform" was assembled to facilitate swift recovery of the bodies, four of which have been recovered. On 22 February, the recovery was suspended by inclement weather. On 4 March, officials reported that they will use "sophisticated robot-like equipment" to find the bodies.

On 22 March another five bodies were discovered in a remote section of the ship believed to be in the ship's hull.

Wreck

Securing wreck site and protecting environment

Profile of stranded wreck with oil booms around it

Authorities have banned all private boats from Giglio Porto and have excluded them from a Template:Convert/spell non-navigation zone around the ship.

Poor weather conditions could have caused a spill of oil from the ship. A floating oil barrier was put in place as a precaution. High winds on 1 February lifted the protective barrier, allowing into the surrounding waters an oily film that was spreading from the stern of the ship. The protective boom is being redesigned for the weather conditions. On 7 February, Civil Protection director Franco Gabrielli told the Italian Senate that the waters are not crystal-clear but are "within the legal limits." Environment Minister Corrado Clini told the Parliament of Italy that the amount of diesel fuel and lubricating oil on board Costa Concordia is about the cargo of a small oil tanker. Clini said any oil leakage would be highly toxic for plant and animal life.

Isola del Giglio lies within the Pelagos Sanctuary for Mediterranean Marine Mammals, one of the Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance. It is a popular scuba diving destination, with tourism being its leading industry. Island residents are concerned that the wreck would be an eyesore that turns away tourists, disabling the island's economy. One resident explained, "Environmental damage is what concerns us most. If the oil pollutes the coast, we're ruined." Luigi Alcaro, head of maritime emergencies for Italy's Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), an agency of the Ministry of the Environment, stated that in a worst case, "[W]e could be talking years and dozens of millions of euros". EMSA-contracted Stand-by Oil Spill Response Vessel Salina Bay arrived at the site of the Costa Concordia on 28 January and will remain on station as a precautionary measure during the salvage. ISPRA's Oceanographic Ship Astrea arrived in Tuscany on 29 January to conduct environmental investigations. On 9 February, the CEO of Costa Cruises told residents of Giglio the company will have by mid-March the plan to remove the ship. He also promised to minimize harm to their tourism businesses.

The stability and deformation of the ship is being monitored by satellite imagery and surface-based instruments. Although the ship is not in "immediate risk" of slipping from its grounded position into deeper water, Environment Minister Clini told the Italian Senate on 8 February that "the risk for a collapse is quite real... The more time passes, the weaker the hull becomes. We cannot guarantee that it has not been compromised already." On 29 January, scientists had become "very concerned" that the ship had moved 3.5 centimetres (1.4 in) over six hours that day. On 2 February, the ship shifted 7.6 centimetres (3 in) during seven hours. Shifts and any high winds and high seas cause suspension of recovery and salvage operations. On 16 February, Civil Protection director Gabrielli "confirmed that the data registered is absent of anomalies." Another report based on sonar and laser measurements, and an ISPRA underwater video, indicate that the ship might collapse in its midsection because its weight is not supported between the rock spur supporting the bow and the rock spur supporting the stern, and that both of those rocks "have now started crumbling dramatically". Civil Protection director Gabrielli stated that report is reassuring in that "It shows that a part of the seabed has got into the hull, basically increasing the ship'[s] stability."

Salvage

All operations, including defueling, planned for the wreck were conducted jointly by Costa Cruises and the Concordia Emergency Commissioner's Office. On 12 February, after weeks of weather delays, Dutch salvage firm Smit Internationale, acting jointly with Italian company NERI SpA, started removing the vessel's 2,380 tonnes of heavy fuel oil. The 15 tanks that contained about 84% of the fuel in the vessel were emptied first. As of 20 February, the tanks in the fore of the ship, which had held about two-thirds of the fuel, had been emptied. On 21 February, defueling was suspended because of poor weather conditions. On 3 March, salvage workers cut a hole in the ship for access to the engine room, the location of the remaining fuel. On the morning of 12 March, defueling operations resumed. The offloading process required fixing valves on the underwater fuel tanks, one on top, one on bottom. Hoses were then attached to the valves and as the oil — which must be warmed to make it less viscous — is sucked out of the upper hose, sea water is pumped in to fill the vacuum through the lower hose." The process they plan to use is called "hot-tapping", "pumping the fuel out into a nearby ship and replacing it with water so as not to affect the ship's balance". The first part of the operation to empty the 15 tanks was expected to take about 28 days. The second phase involved the engine room, which had "nearly 350 cubic metres of diesel, fuel and other lubricants". The defueling operation was completed on 24 March.

With defueling complete, removal of the wreck began. On 3 February, Franco Gabrielli, the head of the Civil Protection Authority, told a meeting of residents of Giglio that the ship "will be refloated and removed whole" and not cut up for scrap on site. Costa invited 10 firms to bid for the contract to salvage the ship. Proposed removal plans were assessed jointly with the Civil Protection Scientific Committee. Six bids were submitted in early March. As of 12 April, Costa had two consortia in mind—(1) Smit and Neri (2) Titan Salvage and Micoperi. The salvage operation was expected to commence in the middle of May. Earlier, the CEO of Costa had stated that after the breaches in the hull are sealed, the ship could be refloated, with difficulty, by giant inflatable buoys and then tugged away. The recovery is the largest ever ventured. The salvage was predicted to take from 7 to 10 months, depending on weather and sea conditions.

On 23 February, the Environment Ministry announced it was "taking legal action" against Costa Cruises regarding a "possible" claim for "possible environmental damage" and the cost of salvage.

On 21 April, it was announced that Florida-based marine salvage and wreck removal company, Titan Salvage, with its partner company, Micoperi, an Italian firm specialising in subsea engineering solutions, had been awarded the contract by Costa Crociere to refloat and tow away the Costa Concordia to a port on the Italian mainland. The salvage operation will use the port of Civitavecchia as its base. It was anticipated to begin in early May, take about 12 months and cost $300 million. Once in port it will be demolished (cut into pieces), and the materials sold as scrap.

As of June 2012, the barge was put in place, and the removal of the radar, waterslide and her funnel began before they stabilize the ship to prevent further slippage down the sloped seabed.

Timeline

The wreck-removal and clean-up operation has been delineated by Costa's Cristiano De Musso, Head of Corporate Communications, according to the following plan:

31 July 2012		Site inspections of the ship and its position.
1–31 August 2012		Securing of the wreck to ensure on-going safety and stability.
1 September – 15 November 2012		Installation of caissons on left side of vessel and construction of submarine platforms.
1 December 2012		Rotation of the wreck begins with the installation of boxes on its right side.
15 January 2013		Ship to be up-righted above waterline.
31 January 2013		Ship delivered to an Italian port for processing according to regulations.
30 April 2013		Cleaning and replanting of marine flora expected to be completed.

On 14 August 2012 it was reported that the schedule has been delayed. Under the new plan, the wreck will be refloated by the end of spring 2013. On 16 December 2012 it was reported that the ship would be towed away during the Summer of 2013.

The current activity at the wreck site can be viewed in real-time via a web-cam operated by GiglioNews snc.

Loss and compensation

Passengers and personnel

Casualties

Nationality	Fatalities	Missing
German	12	–
Italian	6	1
French	6	–
Peruvian	2	–
American	2	–
Hungarian	1	–
Indian	–	1
Spanish	1	–
Total	30	2

By nationality, the passengers included: one-third from Italy, as 989 Italians, another third as 569 Germans or 462 French, plus one-sixth as 177 Spanish, 126–129 Americans, 127 Croats, and 108 Russians. The remaining 520 passengers included: 74 Austrians, 69 Swiss, 47 Brazilians, 45 Ukrainians, and at least 34 Dutch; 34 were Koreans, 26 were Chinese citizens of Hong Kong, 25 British citizens, 21 Australians, 17–18 Argentines, 13 Taiwanese, 12 Canadians, 12 Chinese citizens of the mainland, 12 Poles, 11 Hungarians, 11 Portuguese, 11 Dominicans, 10 Romanians, 10 Colombians, 10 Chileans, 9 Turks, 8 Bulgarians, 8 Peruvians, 6 Belgians, 5 Swedes, 4 Israelis, 4 Danes, 3 Macedonians, 2 South Africans, 2 Paraguayans, 2 Finns, 1 Indian, 1 Lithuanian and 1 New Zealanders. There were an undetermined number of passengers from Mexico and the Republic of Ireland.

The nationalities of all crew aboard have not been enumerated, but it consisted of citizens of 20 to 40 countries. Some are Italians (including the captain and all the officers), but 202 Indians and 296 Filipinos made up approximately half of the personnel. Other nationalities include 170 Indonesians, 12 British nationals, 6 Brazilians, 3 Russians, and an unspecified number of Colombian, Peruvian, Spanish, Honduran and Chinese.

30 people are known to have died, and 64 others were injured. Three people (two passengers and one crewman) trapped inside the ship were rescued more than 24 hours after the accident. 2 people are unaccounted for and are presumed dead.

A claim of a resulting miscarriage has been denied by Costa Cruises as a "scam". After certain emergency disembarkations and other events, the cruise ship operator is required to compensate passengers €10,000 each.

On 27 January, Costa posted on its website the compensation package offered to uninjured passengers. The compensation comprises a payment of €11,000 per person to compensate for all damages (including loss of baggage and property, psychological distress and loss of enjoyment of the cruise) and reimbursement for a range of other costs and losses, including reimbursement for the value of the cruise, for all air and bus travel costs included in the cruise package, for all travel expenses to return home, for all medical expenses arising from the event, and for all expenses incurred on board during the cruise. Costa also promised return of all property stored in cabin safes, to the extent recoverable, and to grant passengers access to a program for "psychological assistance". Costa stated that it would not set off from these payments any amount an insurance policy pays to the passenger. The offer to uninjured passengers is effective until 31 March; as to the families of the dead and missing, separate proposals are to be offered "based on their individual circumstances." Costa for a time permitted its customers to cancel without penalty certain future cruises. One-third of the passengers have acquiesced to the €11,000 compensation.

The trade union representing the crew has negotiated compensation packages. Crew members will be paid wages for a minimum of two months or, if longer, their full contract term. They are also to receive reimbursement for expenses and up to £2,250 for lost personal property.

Ship

Industry experts believe the ship is a constructive total loss, with damages of at least US$500 million. Pier Luigi Foschi, CEO of Costa, has told a Senate committee hearing that "We believe that the wreck can no longer be put in use." Shares in the Carnival Corporation, the American company that jointly with Carnival plc owns Costa Cruises, initially fell by 18% on 16 January following a statement by the group that the sinking of the ship could cost Carnival Corporation up to US$95 million (€75 million, £62 million). Carnival Corporation later increased the estimated financial impact in fiscal year 2012 to include a reduction in net income of $85 million to $95 million, an estimated insurance deductible of an additional $40 million, and $30–40 million in "other incident related costs".

The insurance excess on the vessel was $30 million (€23.5 million, £19.5 million). The group of cruise lines jointly owned by Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc, comprises 49 percent of the worldwide cruise ship industry and owns 101 ships, of which the Costa Concordia represents 1.5% of capacity. Booking volume for Carnival's fleet, excluding Costa, in the 12 post-accident days was down by "the mid-teens” as a percentage of year-earlier bookings.

Investigations

The Corps of the Port Captaincies – Coast Guard conducts the technical investigations of maritime accidents and incidents within Italian-controlled waters. On 2 February 2012 the Paris, France prosecutor's office opened a preliminary inquiry to question survivors to establish any criminal liability and "assess psychological damage". On 6 February, the International Chamber of Shipping, a consortium of national shipping agencies, called for the "earliest possible publication of the Italian accident investigations." Judge Valeria Montesarchio has summoned survivors to testify at a hearing to be convened on 3 March in Grosseto. The European Maritime Safety Agency is the EU agency tasked to develop a common methodology for investigating maritime accidents.

International experts have said that it is too early to speculate on why the vessel capsized despite its watertight compartments but that the size of the vessel is unlikely to have been an issue. Tuscany's prosecutor general has said that the investigation will seek to find causes for various aspects of the event, and beyond Captain Schettino to other persons and companies.

The captain tested negative for drug and alcohol use but one group, that is suing Costa Cruises and that leaked the test results, disputed the tests as unreliable.

On 24 February, prosecutors alleged that Schettino "slowed down the ship so that he could finish dinner in peace" and to compensate for lost time, subsequently increased the speed to 16 knots (30 km/h) just before the sail-past.

Criminal proceedings against officers

Captain Schettino (born 1960 in Meta, Naples), who had worked for Costa Cruises for 11 years, and First Officer Ciro Ambrosio, were arrested. The captain was detained on suspicion of manslaughter and for violations of the Italian Penal Code and Code of Navigation on three specifications: of his having caused the shipwreck "owing to ... imprudence, negligence and incompetence" resulting in deaths; having abandoned about 300 people "unable to fend for themselves"; and "not having been the last to leave" a shipwreck. They were questioned on 14 January. At the validation hearing of 17 January 2012 the Court of Grosseto charged Schettino and Ambrosio with the results from the records of investigation compiled immediately after the event, including the first report of the Coastguard of Porto Santo Stefano of 14 January 2012, the summary testimonial information given by the members of the ship's crew, the chronology of events of the Harbour Office of the Port of Livorno, the AIS recording on record, and the PG Annotation of the Harbour Office of the Port of Livorno. Schettino was released from jail on 17 January but was placed under house arrest. The house arrest order included an "absolute prohibition against going away or communicating by any means with persons other than his cohabitants." On 7 February, the Court decided to continue Schettino's house arrest. His pretrial hearing was scheduled for 20 March. If convicted on all charges, Schettino could be sentenced to a prison term exceeding 2,500 years. On 5 July Schettino was released from house arrest but mandated to reside in Meta di Sorrento.

Officials were initially trying to determine why the ship did not issue a mayday and why it was navigating so close to the coast. The delay in the evacuation request was also unexplained.

On 11 February, TG5 broadcast a video of the commotion on the bridge following the collision. In the video, when one officer said, "Passengers are getting into the life boats", Schettino responded "Vabbuò" (English: "All right"). The magistrate in charge of the inquiry remarked, "This is new to us – I've just seen it for the first time."

On 19 February, the Associated Press reported that traces of cocaine had been found on Schettino's hair samples "but not within the hair strands or in his urine — which would have indicated he had used the drug".

On 23 February, two additional charges, of "abandoning incapacitated passengers and failing to inform maritime authorities" were levied against Captain Schettino. On 22 February, four officers who were on board and three managers of Costa Cruises were placed formally "under investigation" and "face charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and failing to communicate with maritime authorities".

Recorded evidence

One of the ship's voyage data recorders (VDRs), which was designed to float, was recovered. Another one containing different data was located on 17 January. A third one is in a submerged part difficult to reach. On 19 January, all the data storage devices from the ship's control panel, including hard disks, were recovered. One of the hard disks contained videos from cameras located near the control board, which are expected to reveal the movements of the ship's captain and officers. The chief prosecutor received from the Guardia di Finanza a video, taken from their patrol boat, that filmed the ship between 22:30 and 23:10 or at 23:20.

On 3 March, in Grosseto, judges began a hearing open to all survivors, other "injured parties", and their lawyers but closed to the general public and media. Four specialists were ordered to review the VDR data and relate their conclusions at a 21 July hearing. Prosecutor Francesco Verusio had stated that it could be "a month, two months, three months" for evidence analysis, including of recorded conversations on the bridge, to be completed. The hearing also determined who could "attach lawsuits to the case". Inhabitants of Giglio and some environmental groups were denied this ability.

Costa Cruises safety history

Like all passenger ships, the Costa Concordia was subject to two major International Maritime Organization requirements: to perform "musters of the passengers (...) within 24 hours after their embarkation" and to be able to launch "survival craft" sufficient for "the total number of persons aboard ... within a period of 30 minutes from the time the abandon-ship signal is given". Passenger ships must be equipped with lifeboats for 125% of the ship's passenger and crew maximum capacity, among which at least 37% of that capacity must consist of hard lifeboats as opposed to inflatable ones. Launching systems must enable the lowering of the lifeboats under 20° of list and 10° of pitch. According to Costa Cruises, its internal regulations require all crew members to complete Basic Safety Training, and to perform a ship evacuation drill every two weeks. Every week, all the lifeboats on one side of the ship are launched for a test. Under the regulations in force in 2006 when the Costa Concordia was delivered, the ship had to be designed to survive the flooding of two adjacent compartments caused by an 11 m (36 ft) breach. The damage caused by impact with the rocks left a 50 m (164 ft) tear in the hull.

Costa Cruises reportedly has experienced significant safety violations, collisions and other incidents. In addition, Costa's accidents and "near misses" are underreported in public databases. Although International Maritime Organization rules require Italy to report serious accidents by its flag ships, Italian authorities have refused to submit the government's findings in the fatal Costa Europa 2010 incident and Costa has refused to release its own internal report.

In 2008 and 2010, respectively, Costa Concordia and Costa Europa crashed during docking, the latter incident killing three crew and injuring four passengers. Costa blamed weather conditions. In 2008, Costa Atlantica developed steering problems, and on another occasion in 2008 almost collided with a cargo vessel in the English Channel, leading to criticism from the UK's Marine Accident Investigation Branch in an official report charging failure to comply with the Channel's Traffic Separation Scheme. In 2009, the crew of Costa Europa alleged significant engine problems. In 2009, the Costa Romantica suffered a fire in the generator room, which led to the ship being evacuated of 1,429 passengers. In 2010, Costa Classica struck a cargo vessel (due to power failure, according to Costa), injuring three people.

On 27 February 2012, the Costa Allegra, a cruise ship owned by Costa Cruises, sent a distress signal and notified naval authorities after a fire in its electrical room caused her to lose power and become adrift about 20 miles off Alphonse Island in the Indian Ocean. After three days under tow, she arrived safely in the Seychelles.

Reactions

Costa Cruises and its parent companies

Costa Crociere S.p.A. also does business using the name "Costa Cruises". Costa Cruises is jointly owned by a dual-listed company comprising the two separate companies Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc. Carnival Corporation announced on 30 January 2012 that its board of directors will engage outside consultants in various disciplines, including emergency response, organization, training and implementation, to conduct a comprehensive review of the accident and the company's procedures.

Costa Cruises at first offered to pay Captain Schettino's legal costs but decided later that it would not do so.

Effective from 30 January 2012, Carnival Corporation & plc introduced new, less liberal, cancellation policies for passenger bookings on some cruises.

Regulatory and industry response

Corrado Clini, Italy's Minister of Environment, said that saluting, a "custom that has resulted in an outcome visible to all", should no longer be tolerated. On 23 January 2012, UNESCO asked Italy to reroute cruise ships to avoid sailing too close to "culturally and ecologically important areas", and on 1 March, Italy excluded large ships from sailing closer than two miles from marine parks.

The European Maritime Safety Agency was in the process of conducting a review of maritime safety when the accident occurred. On 24 January 2012, Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas told the Transportation Committee of the European Parliament that lessons learned from the loss of Costa Concordia would be taken into account. British MEP Jacqueline Foster warned against "trial by television and trial by newspapers", a view that was backed by fellow British MEP Brian Simpson, who said that it was "good practice to wait for the official report".

On 18 January 2012, the Chairman of the United States House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure announced that it would hold a hearing, conducted jointly with the Committee's Maritime Transportation Subcommittee, to "review the events of this specific incident, current safety measures and training requirements". Testimony and statements at the 29 February hearing primarily promoted North American cruise ships as being safe.

Gianni Scerni, the chairman of Registro Italiano Navale (RINA), the classification society that issued Costa Concordia a certificate of seaworthiness and safety management in November 2011, resigned on 18 January 2012.

The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the European Cruise Council (ECC) and the Passenger Shipping Association adopted a new policy requiring all embarking passengers to participate in muster drills before departure. On 29 January 2012, at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Holland America Line made one passenger disembark from the cruise ship MS Westerdam for "non-compliance" during a mandatory muster drill. On 24 April, the CLIA and the ECC introduced new policies: bridge officers must agree on the route before departing; ships must carry more lifejackets; and access to the bridge must be limited.

In an action some parliamentarians said was a reaction to the wrecking of the Costa Concordia, the Italian government withdrew proposed legislation that would have reduced current restrictions on mineral exploration and production. On July 8, 2012 CNN reported that the disaster brought changes to safety and evacuation procedures in the cruise industry. Carnival, the parent line of Costa, and several other cruise lines now require safety instruction, referred to as muster drills, before leaving port. The new muster policy consists of 12 specific emergency instructions, which include providing information on when and how to don a life jacket, where to muster and what to expect if there is an evacuation of the ship.

Media

Coverage of the shipwreck dominated international media in the days after the disaster. The New York Times called the incident "a drama that seemed to blend tragedy with elements of farce". Phillip Knightley called it the "most significant event in modern maritime history" because "every single safety procedure designed to make sea travel safe failed miserably". Francesco Schettino was dubbed "Captain Coward" by the Daily Mail in the UK.

UK's Channel 4 television commissioned and broadcast two programmes about the disaster. Terror at Sea: The Sinking of the Costa Concordia, broadcast on 31 January 2012, explored how and why the ship went down. The Sinking of the Concordia: Caught on Camera, broadcast on 11 April 2012, provided a minute-by-minute anatomy of the Costa Concordia disaster, made almost entirely from passengers' mobile phone and video camera footage. The documentary also featured thermal imaging footage of the stricken ship taken by the rescue helicopter, together with pilot commentary, and a recording of the conversation between the Coast Guard and the captain, during which the Coast Guard ordered Captain Schettino to return to his ship.

In Italy

Corriere della Sera stated that Italy owed the world a "convincing explanation" for the wreck and called for harsh punishment of those found responsible. Il Giornale said the wreck was a "global disaster for Italy". Il Messaggero said there was "anguish over those still missing". La Repubblica called the event "a night of errors and lies". La Stampa criticized the captain for not raising the alarm and refusing to go back on board the ship.

Italian commentators reflected on the contrast between Schettino and De Falco and what it said about the national character. They represented "the two souls of Italy", according to Aldo Grasso in Corriere della Sera. "On the one hand a man hopelessly lost, a coward who shirks his responsibility as a man and an officer, indelibly stained. The other grasps the seriousness of the situation immediately and tries to remind the first of his obligations."

Some saw parallels between the incident and the country's recent political upheavals. "To see someone that in a moment of difficulty maintains steady nerves is consoling because that is what we need", another Corriere della Serra columnist, Beppe Severgnini, told The New York Times. "Italy wants to have steady nerves because we've already done the cabaret route."

De Falco's exasperated order to Schettino, "Vada a bordo, cazzo!" became a catchphrase in Italy. T-shirts with the phrase were soon printed and sold across the country. It has also been used on Twitter and Facebook. Another Italian newspaper, Libero, used it in a cartoon caricaturing German chancellor Angela Merkel, shown rowing away from a ship named Europa Discordia and painted with the symbol of the European Union. It was a reaction to Germany's refusal to do more, as Monti had requested, to help lower Italy's borrowing costs.

Titanic comparison

Several media outlets have compared the ship to the Titanic. Survivor Valentina Capuano is a niece of a man who died in the Titanic tragedy 100 years earlier. Capuano said she was "dumbstruck" that history seemed to be repeating itself. Some passengers said that the Titanic theme "My Heart Will Go On" performed by Céline Dion, was playing in a restaurant when the ship hit the rock. Several media commentators contrasted the "women and children first" attitude generally prevailing on the RMS Titanic to the "first come, first served" attitude said to be more prevalent on the Costa Concordia, though no law requires preferential treatment of women and children when evacuating a ship in distress.

Memorial

Detail of wreck showing boulder embedded in the hull, on right.

The mayor of Giglio, Sergio Ortelli, and Costa Cruises are in agreement that the large boulder to be removed from the side of the vessel should be suitably positioned on the island as a memorial to the 32 people who lost their lives. Ortelli anticipates the boulder will "most likely" be positioned "close to the harbour entrance so that visitors and locals can see it clearly and pay their respects to the victims. What happened that night is something Giglio will never forget and the rock will be a fitting memorial." The cost of removing the 80-ton boulder is estimated at £40,000. There is no date yet set for the creation of the memorial.

Maps

• 
  Route. Arrow: actual journey, star: collision
• 
  Wrecking

See also

• List of shipwrecks
• Costa Allegra, another Costa Cruises cruise ship that suffered an engine fire and loss of power a month later

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

• Official site of the salvage project
• "Costa Concordia — update" from Costa Cruises
• "Statement Regarding Costa Concordia" from Carnival Corporation & plc, 14 January 2012
• Timeline of events from BBC News, Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German), and Tgcom24.it (in Italian)
• Slideshow and underwater photos, and from Tgcom24.it (in Italian)
• Transcript of telephone call between captain and coastguard
• Reconstruction of the route from radar AIS data by Quality Positioning Services BV (QPS)
• "List of dead, missing from the Costa Concordia cruise ship that grounded off Italy". Associated Press. 22 February 2012. Archived from the original on 22 February 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
• Costa Concordia: Salvaging a shipwreck (December 16, 2012 8:03 PM)

• Costa Concordia: Salvaging a shipwreck CBC News (2012-12-16).

• A world askew: On board the Costa Concordia

A brief "Sixty Minutes Overtime" blurb or "Correspondent Candids", of 3:29 in length is also available at:

• A world askew: On board the Costa Concordia 60 Minutes Overtime Staff visit the Costa Concordia (2012-12-16) video report.