greg-nc

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2108790/Costa-Concordia-officers-took-drugs-duty-molested-women-staff-Explosive-claims-investigation.html

Two former Costa Cruises employees have told Italian prosecutors investigating the Concordia disaster that officers 'took drugs' while on duty and molested female staff members, it was reported in Italy today.

And further that said crew have been trained that when sand hits fan, in the absence of any real info, tell guests everythings fine,

nothing to see here, move along. Everythings under control. Must maintain the cruising illusion at any cost

"Everything is fine. Go back to your cabins. Don't worry about the rising water."

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/story/2012-02-29/Costa-Concordia-survivors-tell-Congress-they-felt-betrayed/53302454/1

One quote:

Divya and Sameer Sharma, a Massachusetts couple who were celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary aboard the Concordia, riveted lawmakers with their description of a crew that refused to tell them the ship had struck a reef or to explain how to evacuate.

"We felt very betrayed, very much lied to," Sameer Sharma said. "They were not honest with us at any given point."

As per NUMEROUS Media reporting that Schettino slowed down and sped up, that is FALSE INFORMATION!!!

 

AIS recordings from various sources have PROVEN those False Media Claims/Reports to be false!!

 

Please watch this in its entirety and note both the speeds and the time line: http://news.qps.nl.s3.amazonaws.com/Grounding+Costa+Concordia.wmv

 

Here is a more detailed and more recent one to watch: http://news.qps.nl.s3.amazonaws.com/Grouding+Costa+Concordia+January+13+2012+AIS+Reconstruction+by+QPS.wmv

 

You can see more here on their web site: http://www.qps.nl/display/qastor/2012/01/17/20120117_stranding

 

If you do a Google Search under AIS Costa Concordia Timeline you will find even more that disprove the media reports.

 

Joanie

I don't know if it is true or not about the captain speeding up the ship as he approached the island to make up time. However I will point out that a number of people have pointed out that AIS calculates average speed over a period of time and not real time instantaneous speed. According to these sources you would need the black box from the ship to properly determine if the allegations about the captain speeding up the ship are correct.

Here is a more complete press story about the interview with Domnica Cemortan.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2106516/Costa-Concordia-Domnica-Cemortan-kissed-captain-Francisco-Schettino-crash.html

New week, a new story from the captain's blonde. Sounds like she has told so many stories that she can't keep them straight anymore.

Costa Concordia blonde tells about her relationship with captain

Earlier she has a room key to her own room and her stuff being in the captain's cabin was "all lies". Now it is her stuff was in the captain's cabin while waiting for a room to open up. Earlier she never had a romantic relationship with the captain, now she is sharing long passionate kisses with him in his cabin.

Sorry...I didn't see all those posts asking for us to cease and desist until after I had posted my last post......Don't want to cause anyone any more undue stress.

The same here.

On the news front, it is interesting to note that all the U.K. insurance companies have been coming out in the last few days announcing their exposure to the Concordia sinking. The latest is Lancashire with a $35M net exposure. They provide a figure that the total industry loss is expected to be $850 million.

Lancashire Holdings Limited : Exposure to Costa Concordia

Let me point out the other thing that is completely disturbing about the Costa settlement offer when compared to US Airways.

The Costa offer of $14,000 is expected to compensate you for all the possessions that you lost in your cabin. To get compensated for your possessions, you have to sign a waiver that you will not sue Costa.

US Airways compensated passengers with $5000 for their luggage and an additional $5000 for those with expensive electronics from Day 1. They did not require the passengers sign an agreement to not sue to get this money and all of their possessions back also. Passengers were free to sue after getting this money. In other words, the passengers were made whole for their possessions and still had the option to sue.

Only the $10,000 settlement from US Airways via their AIG insurance agent which came a couple of months later required that a passenger to sign away their right to sue to get the money.

As I stated in my post...supported by the link I posted....the $10,000 was an offer made months AFTER the accident by the INSURANCE COMPANY with the stipulation that should the person take that money they agree not to sue. That was NOT compensation from US Air. Costa's insurers could still do the same thing...and I hope they do.....although the law suits are already flying. So it appears that Costa "initially" offered more than US Air did!

Actually all the passengers were told by US Airways nearly immediately they would be getting a letter from AIG about a proposed settlement, the letter arrived 45 days after the crash in the case of our co-worker. The $5000 for luggage, and additional $5000 plus all the electronics luggage, money to get home, etc. were done within 48 hours of the plane going down.

The money from AIG was part of the entire US Airways package; simply it's source of funding was the insurance company and not the airline.

Let's get back to WHAT IS THE TOTAL VALUE OF WHAT WAS OFFERED TO THE PASSENGERS? COSTA VS. US AIRWAYS

Let me state that the passengers on Costa will not be getting an additional offer from the insurance companies. If they were going to, they would be informed of this pending transaction in the offer letter from Costa (like US Airways did).

I posted a link showing my source for the $$ numbers.....where did you get your information from? Please post a link so we can all study the numbers. Thanks.

The numbers are directly out of your link - which is the same as a link I posted earlier in a discussion. Very plainly $5000 + $5000 + $10,000 is a minimum of $20,000.

I will also point out that US Airways treated these passengers properly from Day 1 and communicated very well with them. Something Costa failed to do...

Seems kind of like comparing apples to oranges. In one instance you have a jet with 155 people aboard who crash into a flock of birds and the heroic captain using his skills and thankfull lack of panic...guided the jet to a miraculous and safe landing on the Hudson. Now take the Concordia who's Captains seemingly wreckless behavior drove the ship onto the rocks with over 4000 people aboard....then panicked and delayed getting the passengers to safety....then left the ship and refused to go back. I checked out the US flight 1549 details on Wikipedia.....it states that:

 

"The passengers on the aircraft each received a letter of apology, $5,000 in compensation for lost baggage, or $5,000 more if passengers can demonstrate more than $5,000 in losses, and a refund of the ticket price.[88][89] Beginning in May 2009, passengers received their baggage and other belongings. In addition, passengers reported they were offered $10,000 each not to sue US Airways for damages by American International Group (AIG), the airline's insurance carrier.[90]"

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Us_Airways_Flight_1549

 

So it appears to me that Costa's "initial" settlement offer is substantially higher than US Airways was ($14,605.71 + losses vs. $5000 + losses). The insurance company in the US Airway case later offered up to $10,000 to each passenger if they agreed not to sue.....don't know how many took them up on that. Don't know if Costa's insurers will do the same in upcoming months. I don't know what a "fair" offer is.....I imagine everyone has their own opinion. I can only say that if my wife and I had been on the Concordia that night and escaped uninjured...and Costa offered us a total of $29,000+ for our night of horror....I would have taken it....just as reportedly 1/3 of the Concordia passengers already have. But then I put little to no blame on the company for this accident....I place it squarely on the Captains back....so I guess I have more empathy for the embattled cruise company....they're taking an enormous monetary hit for a wreckless Captains actions.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Concordia_disaster

Actually the US Air settlement offer from Day 1 was $10,000 (AIG), $5000 for lost baggage, another $5000 to anyone with laptops or electronics, plus you got all your baggage back. Your flight was refunded (approx $300), flight home paid for (approx $300), and hotels ($150) /food ($150) /taxi paid (approx. $100) for (even at your destination to/from airport to get spare keys for you car). The base value of the US Airways package was $21,000 for nearly every passenger on the plane. This was offered from the start. 100% of passengers took US Airways up on the offer.

$21,000 is far more than the Costa settlement offer of $14,605.71 (which does not include getting your luggage back, etc.)

BTW - my co-worker was on this flight.

If they aren't paying for and making arrangements for the transport of the bodies that would be beyond cruel. Has this been reported on? Has there been credible reports about the treatment of passengers once they were on shore? I've followed this since day one and other than comments posted here from some that were on the ship, I haven't seen any detailed information about it.

I believe that earlier press stated that the Italian government stepped in and has been working with the families of the missing and deceased in terms of the families traveling to Italy, visiting the Concordia for a ceremony, and anything involving transport of the bodies.

I don't know if this is because that Costa failed in working with the families, or that the Italian government thought having oversight in helping the families was an appropriate action by the government in this situation.

I would have to say that the US Airways incident was vastly different due to the fact that the plane was safely landed. If it hadn't and people had been seriously injured or killed, US Airways would have known that the offer would not be accepted by most of the passengers and thus they might have made a different offer knowing that in the long run they will ending up defending themselves against lawsuits.

 

I'm not saying that I think the offer was or wasn't acceptable but that the offer was made with the knowledge that there will be a lot of passengers seeking larger settlements and by starting at a lower amount they have more room to negotiate. It's no different than when you negotiate the purchase of any product. The seller starts high, the buyer starts low and in the end the two meet somewhere near the middle.

 

Just for the heck of it I asked a few of my friends if they would have taken the offer and some said yes, some said no and one of them said "hell no, I'd make them pay".

 

What do you think would have been a fair offer?

Considering that the Concordia situation involves the gross negligence of their captain who is criminally charged in the case, you would think that they at least would start with a proposed settlement offer that was greater than the one provided by US Airways..... instead of the lowest initial proposed settlement offer in the past 30 years of major transportation disasters in Europe and the U.S.

But had Costa/CCL offered what the rest of the cruising community considered a fair offer then they would have come off much better from a PR standpoint and perhaps limited future cruisers from writing them off as incredibly cheap and insensitive to the tragedy. A company they no longer wanted to ever do business with.

 

A fair offer would have no impact on settlements as more people with sue with the lowball offer. And the greedy would sue no matter what (as you correctly pointed out) but the courts will settle if the demands are unreasonable.

 

So I still maintain that - from a purely business standpoint - that Costa/CCL is heading down the wrong path by trying to go cheap.....

I can only agree with the above.

Considering the offer from Costa / Carnival Corp. is the lowest proposed initial settlement offer for a major transportation disaster in Europe or the U.S. in the past 30 years - the entire treatment of the passengers is a complete PR fiasco that will reduce future business for Costa considerably.

Contrast what Costa did with the actions of US Airways after Captain Sully landed a plane in the Hudson. US Airways quickly acted to treat the passengers well and compensated them. 100% of the passengers took the US Airways settlement offer (which was greater financially than Costa's) and most greatly praised the airline's handling of the entire event. It actually turned into a positive PR event for US Airways and bookings went up.

An article with the story of two German survivors:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stern.de%2Ftv%2Fsterntv%2Fwas-passagiere-auf-der-costa-concordia-erlebten-rettungsboote-nur-fuer-die-crew-1774517.html

Some quotes:

"A life raft is lowered into the water, but are denied them a place. Not for Passengers, for Crew only", The boat is reserved for the employees of the ship: "Not for Passengers, crew for only", they say. The two men then try to get to the other side of the ship, where there are reportedly more lifeboats."

"Along the way, they meet two elderly German women who do not speak English and communicate with the crew may not. In desperation, the two men try with the older ladies on the hand, to escape the rising waters when the ship makes a sentence again. A strong eddy trail is created, Hanke and Zuhn lose the hands of two women. Suddenly the doors to go to the elevator shaft and pull the two women into the depths. "I heard a very short, sharp cry, then they were gone." The two women from Offenbach are still considered missing, just like 27 other passengers and crew members."

Just watched the Discovery Channel version of the Corcordia. Surprised to learn that she was dead in the water and was blown closer to shore by the wind, not by Schettino steering her back toward the shore, as he had claimed.

This is not surprising. On previous threads about the Concordia several people pointed out that the winds that evening were at 20 knots and in a direction that would blow the ship onto the island. A outlined in the special the high stack of decks serve as a very good "sail" to make this happen.

It is becoming more clear that Captain Schettino took no measures to save or navigate the ship; it blew up on shore by chance. The reality is that he did not even grasp how bad the situation was and appeared to have no control over the situation. The captain failed to get passengers to muster stations in a timely manner or order the abandon ship early enough.

Is this the same program that was on before? On National Geographic I believe.:confused:

The previews on the Discovery Channel shows that it is a different program. I plan to watch it this evening.

You mean that he was having difficulty sleeping in the days following the crash, not that he had an ongoing sleep problem for which he took a sedative the night of the crash (long before he had any intention of retiring....) Correct?

As a follow-up, I will note that someone just posted some information from an article talking about the captain taking tranquilizers before the accident in the Oz thread. But this is the first time I heard this claim...

You mean that he was having difficulty sleeping in the days following the crash, not that he had an ongoing sleep problem for which he took a sedative the night of the crash (long before he had any intention of retiring....) Correct?

Yes, Correct.

WHAT? When did he "openly admit" that? Has this been out there and I've somehow missed all the posts mentioning it??? :confused: :eek:

I am trying to remember back in time. I believe that there was a report in the couple days after the incident that the captain could not sleep and a doctor prescribed tranquilizers. This probably means a medicine like Valium (imho).

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/cocaine-found-hair-cruise-captain-francesco-schettino-ship-aground-italy-article-1.1024922

♫

Driving the ship, high on cocaine.

Captain Schettino better watch his speed.

Trouble ahead, titanic boulders.

Maybe that notion should've crossed his mind... ♪

Minn. couple lost in Italy shipwreck memorialized

http://news.yahoo.com/minn-couple-lost-italy-shipwreck-memorialized-182954721.html

The graphics are good, but what struck we was the inane statement in the article from the lawyer that the only other "cruise ship" to sink in 100 years was Titanic. I guess he never heard of the Andrea Doria - or, more recently, the Sea Diamond (at least that one was actually a "cruise ship"). It just demonstrates to me that this is not the lawsuit I would latch onto if I was a survivor.

Here is a partial list.

http://www.cruisejunkie.com/Sunk.html

From shipwreck in Italy, a treasure now beckons

By VANESSA GERA, Associated Press

ROME — In the chaotic evacuation of the Costa Concordia, passengers and crew abandoned almost everything on board the cruise ship: jewels, cash, champagne, antiques, 19th century Bohemian crystal glassware, thousands of art objects including 300-year-old woodblock prints by a Japanese master.

In other words, a veritable treasure now lies beneath the pristine Italian waters where the luxury liner ran aground last month.

Though some objects are bound to disintegrate, there is still hoard enough to tempt treasure seekers — just as the Titanic and countless shipwrecks before have lured seekers of gold, armaments and other riches for as far back as mankind can remember.

It may be just a matter of time before treasure hunters set their sights on the sunken spoils of the Costa Concordia, which had more than 4,200 people on board.

(more at above url)

Every time I hear one of these stories about the crew putting their lives in jeopardy in order to help others, it makes me hate the cowardly captain more. I bet there were a lot of crew members who did there job and saved lives.

I expect there are a number of crew members who are heroes and should be commended for doing their jobs very well. There are others who ran and did not in the mass confusion. One critical factor in the entire situation was the lack of effective and visible leadership. If the ships officers were in control, visible, and giving clear orders in the evacuation then the entire crew would have acted as a professional team leading to an orderly abandonment.