The Wreck Of The COSTA CONCORDIA –Updated
Update: According to Italian media reports, two people were discovered alive on board the ship late on Saturday night. Rescuers have managed to speak to a man and a woman but cannot not yet reach them. The survivors are stranded two decks down on the half-submerged ship.
After sunrise on January 14th, the extent of the disaster was clear: The 2006-built COSTA CONCORDIA, one of the largest ships of the Costa Crociere fleet, lay on her starboard side off the west coast of Italy less than 700 feet from the small island of Giglio. Reports have now reduced the number of dead to three* people killed and the numbers of the missing vary. Divers have been searching around the wreck and the black box records were retrieved before sunset. The cause of the accident remains unclear since the experienced crew had made the same voyage many times and the sea was calm.
Amazingly, most of the complement of 4,200 people on-board, 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members were able to escape the sinking vessel.
Today, Costa issued the following statement: “It is a tragedy that deeply affects our company. Our first thoughts go to the victims and we would like to express our condolences and our closeness to their families and friends. In this moment, all our efforts are focused on the completion of the last emergency operations, besides providing assistance to the guests and the crew who were on board in order to have them going back home as soon as possible. The emergency procedures started promptly to evacuate the ship. The slope, gradually taken over by the ship, made the evacuation extremely difficult. We would like to express our profound gratitude to the Coast Guard and all the forces co-ordinated by the Coast Guard, including the authorities and citizens of the island ‘Isola del Giglio’, who have been involved in the rescue and assistance to guests and crew members. The company will fully co-operate with the relevant Authorities in order to determine the causes of what happened.”
Costa Cruises issued the following for friends and family members may use the following country-specific contact numbers to reach them:
Italy 848505050
U.S. 800-462-6782
Austria 00438109006565
Germany +4940570121314
France +33155475554
Spain +34934875685
Portugal +34914185951
UK 08453510552
*an earlier version of the story reported eight deaths.
Add a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I’ve still not heard a good explanation for the failure of the emergency lighting system in this ship. Upon failure of the main electrical grid, battery operated emergency lights in hallways and public rooms should have automatically activated. Yet every description we hear is “total darkness.”
There is no explanation, this was just one of this captains many lies. He hit the rocks and of course sea water would knock out power. Im just suprised that nobody has said they felt the ship hit something, the all have said the power went out, the ship jilted and thats it. I would like to know why he just didnt go straight to next port which was directly in front of him he back circled and went back to Giglio??does not make sense to me. he could have driven that ship right into the next city port period, maybe then we would have had only a couple of deaths. NO PASSENGERS should have died on this state of the art ship period!!!
Gross negligence on the captains part period..hes 100% to blame, if he was more honest and said “hey I screwed up this is my fault, now hes blaming Costa??if this was a policy of saluting all of Costas fleet would have been doing it, and they have not!!!!he keeps piling up the lies, I did feel sorry for him and gave him the benefit of the doubt, but when I saw the animated route that he took, GUILTY!!!I hope he gets the worst possible sentence for this crime. so far 13 dead and 20 missing. Really nice, hes nice and warm at home and someones luved ones are decomposing in the water..Really nice!!!!!!
Hi Stephen,
The ships have a double bottom, not a double hull, meaning the sides above the bouble bottom are a single hull. About half inch steel up to the water line if I’m not mistaken.
There’s a stability system, so it’s possible to flood ballast tanks as needed, but I’m doubtful the deck officers would have loaded additional ballast to right the ship. My guess is that maneuvering caused the list in the opposite direction and based on the charts of the spurs they’re beaced on, I’m fairly certian the starboard side of the hull was holed upon beaching leading to additional flooding.
I’m pretty sure 25 degrees is the max list before they’re in serious trouble. Further, once deck 3 goes under on any side, the ship is pretty much lost.
When will the ship be towed back o Italy??