Costa Concordia SINKING

[CruiseBoyzGermany]

Something that, IMHO, needs to be considered before blaming crew members for not being prepared, is that the passengers panic may have contributed heavily to the chaotic situation. Also, since the majority of the passengers were Italian, it is conceivable that they may have been thinking, "Just get me off of this sinking ship and I can find my own way home!" Not a criticism, just human nature. If I were vacationing at Disney World and a hurricane hit, it would be much easier for me to cope than it would be for a visitor from Europe, since I only live a couple of hours away.

 

I've seen complaints that those operating the life boats circled instead of going straight to the docks, but perhaps that was done intentionally due to available dock space or crowd control.

 

Without expounding on all the instances that have been reported, I am just hoping that people can avoid judging at this early hour. There is so much that we don't know and, remembering that even the BBC initially reported that the ship had left Savona headed for Rome when the accident first occurred, I would be sceptical of the accuracy of media reports, especially regarding fine details.

 

Regards,

MorganMars

 

That is a really good point, yet my reactions and opinion has been formed by listening to the interviews with German survivors here on German TV. They have their own videos that clearly showed disorganization.

 

Having lived for 20 years in Florida and working at Disney World your point is a good one regarding people getting home.

 

But this conversation will have to be had at some point. In the communication age, where one has instant video portrayals of real life events, you can quickly make up your own mind if the people did the right thing. Again, the Carnival episode showed how fantastic that crew reacted. What one hears out of the mouths of passengers will carry more weight than what one hears from a reporter.

[lobolady]

One article says the cruise started 1/7 but the emergency drill wasn't scheduled until 1/14. But it also says this was a week-long cruise. When and where did the cruise start?

[Bobal]

This is what Costa says on their website:

 

We are working with investigators to find out precisely what went wrong aboard the Costa Concordia. While the investigation is ongoing, preliminary indications are that there may have been significant human error on the part of the ship’s master, Captain Francesco Schettino, which resulted in these grave consequences. The route of the vessel appears to have been too close to the shore, and in handling the emergency the captain appears not to have followed standard Costa procedures. We are aware that the lead Prosecutor has leveled serious accusations against the ship’s captain, who joined Costa Crociere in 2002 as a safety officer and was appointed captain in 2006.

 

In light of these accusations and the continuing investigation, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this time.

 

the page is here http://www.costacruise.com/B2C/USA/Info/concordia_statement.htm

[CruiseAdict218]

https://twitter.com/#!/Puljac/status/158623386178822144/photo/1

 

 

This one makes me so sad... the people on the left sitting with no life jackets... look in the man's arms. That's an infant. :(

 

Wow, thats terrible

[Davyjonesrugrat]

You are also not much of a cruiser. 3 cruise does not give you much cruise experince. I also notice that you only had 3 post before this board. I think you need more cruise experience before you act like you know a lot about cruising.

This member is a US Coastguard officer so I would think her experience like mine is one based on knowledge/experience !:)

[wrp96]

One article says the cruise started 1/7 but the emergency drill wasn't scheduled until 1/14. But it also says this was a week-long cruise. When and where did the cruise start?

 

This ship did 7 night cruises, but allowed boarding in 4 different ports (Savona, Marseilles, Barcelona, and Rome). So some people onboard would've boarded on 1/7 in Savona, then others in Marseilles and Barcelona throughout the week, but others boarded the day of the accident in Rome. The people that boarded in Savona, Marseilles, and Barcelona, would've already had a muster drill. But for those that boarded in Rome (the day of the accident), their muster drill was scheduled the next day in Savona where a majority of the guests board.

[Red Mini Stapler]

wait, i don't understand this, why don't they have life vests? i thought ships carry loads of extra life vests, that way people don't need to run back to their cabin to grab one?

[CruiseScrooge]

CruiseAdict218

This one makes me so sad... the people on the left sitting with no life jackets... look in the man's arms. That's an infant.

 

look closely at the grey haired man standing. the picture cuts it off but it looks like he could be holding a life jacket in his left hand. either that or the orange carpet in the background has blended in.

[junglejane]

I believe mferris77 has offered the best theory of what happened. Let me amplify and explain why I agree.

 

The idea here was to repeat the "greeting" of Giglio as shown on the youtube video--a delicate maneuver where the ship does a close pass blowing its horn. This explains the change of course directly towards Giglio island many minutes before the impact. Choosing to perform this reckless stunt was the first mistake.

 

The second mistake was in executing the starboard (right) turn in order to put the ship in the best position to closely pass the town. They apparently waited too long. Anyways, the ship wound up S or SW of those two rocky islands that are roughly 800m SW of the town. Like mferris77, I don't think the ship tried to thread the needle between those two little islands (which would be really crazy). Rather, I believe they struck the rocks that are about 65m east of the eastern little island. This is consistent with local reports that the ship hit rocks at "Le Scole" which is the name of these reef/island formations (popular with scuba divers). It's also consistent with the a statement attributed to the prosecutor that the ship hit rocks 300m from the island. B y my measurement, the rocks I'm referring to are 280m from the island. You can see these rocks on google earth at 42 21 20.45N 10 55 48.60E. What happened after that (how the ship wound up pointed S), I have nothing to add.

 

Another thing I've not heard mentioned is whether the ship emptied all the swimming pools in order to fight the listing. On some ship's tour, I recall being told that dumping the pools was an obvious and automatic step to take in any loss-of-control emergency, since all that water weight makes the ship top heavy and less controllable. I've not seen a word about this in any account.

[YII]

https://twitter.com/#!/Puljac/status/158623386178822144/photo/1

 

 

This one makes me so sad... the people on the left sitting with no life jackets... look in the man's arms. That's an infant. :(

 

It makes me wonder why didn't they put them on ? There were vest in exces of the number of passengers.

 

FWIW - Here is a body language analysis of Captain Francesco Schettino's recent interview to the media.

 

Who's that ? Sherlock Holmes doing the analysis ?

[ObscureAllure]

This member is a US Coastguard officer so I would think her experience like mine is one based on knowledge/experience !:)

 

 

(( I'm not sure if you are referring to her or me, but I want to clarify that I am NOT a member of the US Coast Guard. I used to work WITH USCG as a contractor filing eNOADs, but I am not an officer and have never been one. Just wanted to make sure that was clear if you had thought that I was saying that. :) ))

[EVALUATOR]

https://twitter.com/#!/Puljac/status/158623386178822144/photo/1

 

 

This one makes me so sad... the people on the left sitting with no life jackets... look in the man's arms. That's an infant. :(

 

But the man standing on the right seems to be wearing one and holding one in his left hand. The people in the foreground seem to have some under them. The man with the child may simply be sitting on his.

[CruiseBoyzGermany]

FWIW - Here is a body language analysis of Captain Francesco Schettino's recent interview to the media.

 

That was fascinating!

[ObscureAllure]

wait, i don't understand this, why don't they have life vests? i thought ships carry loads of extra life vests, that way people don't need to run back to their cabin to grab one?

 

 

Yeah, I would assume they have one, just were choosing not to wear them at the moment. (It would probably be really hard to hold the infant if you had the lifejacket on, so maybe that's why?) I just think it's got to be THAT much harder to go through all of that with an infant. I can't imagine it.

[ObscureAllure]

Sorry - just want to make clear ... I wasn't saying it was sad that they didn't have a lifejacket visble ... I was saying it was sad that they had an infant going through all of this. Sorry for the confusion. :(

[Davyjonesrugrat]

He has never once said that. YOU said that and I did read back, every page.

 

"I know the chances of what has happened here is rather slim, but you could rest assured that a US flagged vessel would not have had this accident in the first place, and if it did, there would be an orderly abandon ship, conducted at the highest professional standards. "

 

That is the highly controversial last sentence of his post, which if you had at any point read it honestly, was pointing out that many lines fly under foreign flags of convenience. You made a racist and xenophobic leap which you have kept alive every time he posts. If you had ignored him, I would have had a very boring evening.

I am having a very boring evening this evening and its due to you constantly raising this subject.

 

How you read the thread is done one way, others have read it their way. Leave it along and get back to the true topic

 

rgds

[Evil Jeremy]

Excuse me M'aam.. but this forum is about cruising and he has as much right as you to be here. I just found this thread today and went back to the beginning and read from page 1 before posting. I do not know what your problem is, but Deck Officer has as much right to offer opinions as anyone else. I have read enough of yours to know that you have read into things that others have written, that they did not write. I find your attacks and personal insults to be more of a violation of Cruise Critic rules, then Deck Officer's ideas about what may or may not have happened here. There have been no advertisements, yet you keep claiming such things. I believe you need to return to civil discourse or find yourself reported to Cruise Critic. Shocking.

 

 

Then you have not been reading the thread closely enough. Deck Officer has been offensive towards many international nations and their marine laws, and has indeed advertised his website in this thread on multiple occasions, which is downright horrible in light of this tragedy.

[gentlemancruiser]

 

On the video you can see the ship really alters it's course and moves deliberately toward the island. Then it heads north along the coast and then back south again.

 

At one point after 21:00 hours you can see many ships in the area altering course and several from the mainland heading to the island, which presumably is because there has been a mayday.

 

One question I have is did the ship strike the rock and then alter course towards land, or after heading towards the island hit the rocks????

[Davyjonesrugrat]

(( I'm not sure if you are referring to her or me, but I want to clarify that I am NOT a member of the US Coast Guard. I used to work WITH USCG as a contractor filing eNOADs, but I am not an officer and have never been one. Just wanted to make sure that was clear if you had thought that I was saying that. :) ))

Apologies thought you were one, must have misread it, looks like im on my own lol....:):)

[maddie2312]

statement from Costa on their webpage.

 

http://www.costacruises.co.uk/B2C/GB/Info/concordia_statement.htm

[RBCL]

Not sure if anyone has noticed, but Costa Concordia has been removed from the website.

[ObscureAllure]

Apologies thought you were one, must have misread it, looks like im on my own lol....:):)

 

 

 

No prob - I might not have made it clear enough so the fault may not be yours, friend! :)

 

I'll be looking for that journal article - I'm curious to see what others say. I know it doesn't stop me from wanting to cruise. I'm ready to book now - it's my boss approving the time off that's holding me up. :rolleyes:

 

 

 

EDIT: WHOA - RBCL - that was fast, huh? They sure seem to be trying to distance themselves from this is quickly as possible, first with the throwing the captain under the buss/boat and now this.

[run4rain]

Again, I point to how Carnival handled the fire. They took extraordinary measures for both their passengers and their crew. There is video of the company heads thanking their staff that brings a tear to my eye and proud to sail with them. I wrote them as such and booked a cruise with them as a result.

 

Just because Costa is in the Carnival umbrella does not mean their top brass will react the same way as CCL did. Sad for the passengers because those interviewed on TV here in Germany are NOT impressed and are being very public about how badly they were treated once getting to land.

 

I'm glad you've had great experiences with Carnival! I didn't see a lot of the videos about the fire incident, but I'm glad to hear they handled it to everyone's satisfaction. When compared to all the cruisers who have an excellent, problem-free vacation with Carnival/Cost/HAL/Princess, I know those who do have issues are vastly outnumbered. However, an overall increasing trend of corporate nonchalance is what I'm observing when these incidents do occur. Maybe I'm the only one seeing this? It wouldn't be the first time.;)

[CruiseBoyzGermany]

Then you have not been reading the thread closely enough. Deck Officer has been offensive towards many international nations and their marine laws, and has indeed advertised his website in this thread on multiple occasions, which is downright horrible in light of this tragedy.

 

I have made my position clear, thanks. I can read. Have a nice day.

[cubella59]

I am wracking my brain trying to think if he tried anything of the sort when we left Civi, but I can't recall hearing the horns blast. Of course, that day in Rome, I took a nasty spill and almost broke my kneecap. So when we returned to the ship, we changed and went straigh to dinner (which is where the Capt was with the wife and kid- the private Samsara Restaurant), had a quick meal and hobbled to bed. I do remember thinking wow we're close to land, but certainly nothing as close as that sail-by video shows.

 

BBC News have just reported Costa have said the Captain ''committed errors'' which had ''serious consequences'', and also ignored the lines emergency procedures.

 

I think he just got too close to the island for a little sail-by, and likely struck the rocks near where she lies now. That corresponds to the sharp starboard turn shown on the AIS tracking, and then did a 180 to try and get back into the harbour. This caused the water to shift inside the ship, causing it to capsize in the position it's in now.