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It’s easy to remember the salacious details of the disaster – the Concordia cruise disaster, if you will – but as a witness and chronicler of these events, my focus has always returned to the environmental impact. The work done by salvage teams was not just a technical achievement but a concerted effort to preserve a vulnerable ecosystem that had the misfortune of being the stage for this tragedy. My involvement in the Costa Concordia scrapping process allowed me to witness first-hand the sophistication and the scale of operations required to counteract the damage.
Passengers and personnel
More than a year after it ran aground with 4,252 people aboard, shocking viewers worldwide, the cruise ship Costa Concordia remains wedged on rocks near the Italian island Giglio. Its owner, the Carnival Corporation, is spending $400 million on one of the largest salvage operations ever attempted, the Parbuckling Project. The Costa Concordia calamity, one of Italy’s most devastating cruise ship crash events, sparked an urgent overhaul in what we now call cruise safety.
How many people died in the Costa Concordia tragedy?
Submerged in the Mediterranean’s depths, the vessel no longer traverses the world’s waters but has embarked on an eternal, anchored existence. On 22 November 2008, Costa Concordia suffered damage to her bow when high winds over the Sicilian city of Palermo pushed the ship against its dock. There were no injuries and repairs started soon after.[16][17][18]Initial repairs were completed by the December following the incident, but dents were still visible. Girotto said the cameras did not, however, reveal any sign of the two people who were not recovered among the 32 killed in the initial incident.
Collision and rescue
Once upright, the scale of damage to the submerged starboard (right) side - ground into a reef and crushed under the weight of the hull - became clear. The ship had been resting on five huge metal platforms, constructed and lowered to the sea bed, since being rolled upright in September 2013. Parbuckling is a centuries-old method that winches a sunken or listing ship upright while it is anchored at a pivot point known as the “deadman.” Sounds simple, right? To hoist it, nine enormous rectangular compartments, called sponsons, will be bolted to the ship, each equipped with a hydraulic pulley; the pulleys lead to 36 steel cables as thick as lampposts that attach to six underwater platforms. The echoes of the catastrophe stretch into the present, as each anniversary passes with the gravity of loss undiminished.
Where is the Costa Concordia Now?
As the capsizing was so fast, no radio distress call was made but an EPIRB was hydrostatically released and automatically activated[10] when the vessel sank. As a result, "appropriate action" – including reducing sail, changing course or sealing water-ingress points – was not taken before the squall hit. Five others, including two bridge officers and the ship’s hotel director, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and negligence in July. Salvage workers will continue to look for the bodies of the two missing people, an Italian and an Indian unaccounted for since the disaster, with underwater cameras combing the seabed.
Concordia Maritime’s application for delisting has been approved
The sponsons will be filled with seawater to act as a counterweight as the ship is lifted. Few of the 500-odd residents of the fishermen’s village will ever forget the freezing night of Jan. 13, 2012, when the Costa Concordia shipwrecked, killing 32 people and upending life on the island for years. GIGLIO PORTO, Italy — The curvy granite rocks of the Tuscan island of Giglio lay bare in the winter sun, no longer hidden by the ominous, stricken cruise liner that ran aground in the turquoise waters of this marine sanctuary ten years ago.
Prosecutors blamed the delayed evacuation order and conflicting instructions given by crew for the chaos that ensued as passengers scrambled to get off the ship. The captain, Francesco Schettino, is serving a 16-year prison sentence for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning a ship before all the passengers and crew had evacuated. GIGLIO, Italy — Ten years have passed since the Costa Concordia cruise ship slammed into a reef and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio. An investigation focused on shortcomings in the procedures followed by Costa Concordia's crew and the actions of her captain, Francesco Schettino, who left the ship prematurely. He left about 300 passengers on board the sinking vessel, most of whom were rescued by helicopter or motorboats in the area. Despite receiving its own share of criticism, Costa Cruises and its parent company, Carnival Corporation, did not face criminal charges.
Introducing oil booms and proactive fuel extraction efforts displayed an unwavering commitment to environmental stewardship. As an observer and reporter, I’ve seen firsthand how a once vibrant vacation remnant is now a silent watchdog, ensuring the sanctuary’s safety. The sunken cruise ship, a convergence of human tragedy and ecological peril, has become an inadvertent monument to both. Ortelli was later on hand when, in September 2013, the 115,000-ton, 1,000-foot long cruise ship was righted vertical off its seabed graveyard in an extraordinary feat of engineering.
Concordia ship now lay crippled, its metallic carcass a stark contrast to the tranquil waters that it had disturbed. As a journalist, I stand amidst the remnants of what was once a testament to luxury, now a subject to one of Italy’s most impactful maritime rescues. Almost immediately questions were raised concerning the conduct of Schettino and other crew officers.
Cruise safety one year after Concordia - CNN
Cruise safety one year after Concordia.
Posted: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 08:00:00 GMT [source]
In July 2013 four crew members and Costa Crociere’s crisis coordinator pled guilty to various charges, including manslaughter. During the 19-month trial, prosecutors claimed that he was an “idiot,” while Schettino countered that his actions had saved lives and that he was being scapegoated. In addition, he noted the steering error by the helmsman, but a maritime expert testified that regardless of the mistake, the collision was unavoidable.
Costa Concordia: How cruise ship tragedy transformed an island paradise - CNN
Costa Concordia: How cruise ship tragedy transformed an island paradise.
Posted: Sat, 14 Sep 2013 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Perhaps the most complex and expensive maritime salvage operation ever attempted saw the 114,500-ton ship pulled upright by a series of huge jacks and cables and set on artificial platforms drilled into the rocky sea bed. Per transcripts released by the Washington Post, Captain Schettino confirmed abandoning ship while rescue efforts were ongoing, breaking the maritime tradition of the captain going down with the ship and leaving hundreds of passengers onboard. The final mad scramble to evacuate the listing liner and then the extraordinary generosity of Giglio islanders who offered shoes, sweatshirts and shelter until the sun rose and passengers were ferried to the mainland. The Costa Concordia began taking on water after it struck a reef, leading to a chaotic evacuation process to save the lives of passengers and crew members. Let’s delve into the specifics — the cruise industry witnessed the birth of new lifesaving protocols and evacuation drills that were now to be completed before a ship could even leave the harbor.
The wreck was not the fault of unexpected weather or ship malfunction—it was a disaster caused entirely by a series of human errors. Costa Concordia was declared a "constructive total loss" by the cruise line's insurer, and her salvage was "one of the biggest maritime salvage operations". On 16 September 2013, the parbuckle salvage of the ship began, and by the early hours of 17 September, the ship was set upright on her underwater cradle.
These vivid recollections paint a portrait of survival against staggering odds, framed by a backdrop of an Italian cruise ship accident that will forever be remembered. Today, the Costa Concordia cruise ship bears a tale of caution, a lesson submerged in the depths of nautical annals. Before the concordia shipwreck turned the vessel into a byword for disaster, let me guide you through its glory days—the triumph of engineering and luxury it once represented. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control last month warned people across-the-board not to go on cruises, regardless of their vaccination status, because of the risks of infection. Evidence introduced in Schettino’s trial suggests that the safety of his passengers and crew wasn’t his number one priority as he assessed the damage to the Concordia.
Crew members underwent extensive training, focusing on their assigned roles and emergency response techniques. It was evident that the prior status quo could no longer stand, with the cruise ship crash Italy event catalyzing change. Addressing the negligence that led to the catastrophic event, the Italian courts held crew members and the crisis coordinator accountable. Four crew members and the ship’s crisis coordinator pled guilty to various offenses in a critical Concordia cruise ship salvage update. Their sentences, marked by the gravity of the incident, were relatively short but underscored collective culpability. Reflecting on the Costa Concordia as it stands now, the remnants of the once majestic cruise liner continue to captivate and serve as a poignant emblem of a maritime catastrophe.
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