Author Topic: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy  (Read 349240 times)

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #15 on: January 14, 2012, 05:19:39 PM »
"Local prosecutors said Francesco Schettino was being investigated for manslaughter and abandoning ship following reports his stricken vessel failed to raise a mayday alert as the disaster unfolded."

http://www.travelagentcentral.com/newscred?guid=f27b37392d0cda35614404cbfe859a81

"Sky Italia reported Saturday that investigators based in the Tuscan city of Grosseto confirmed Francisco Schettino was detained for investigation of alleged manslaughter, abandoning his ship while people were still aboard and causing a shipwreck."

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/national_world&id=8505362

"The captain and the crew were the last ones to leave the ship, said a Costa Crociere spokesman, who declined to be named, citing company policy when reached before the report of Captain Schettino’s detention. The rocks weren’t on the map, Schettino said in an interview broadcast by TGCOM24. The ship was at least 300 meters from the island when it hit the rocks, and he was the last one to leave the ship, he said."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-14/carnival-corp-cruise-ship-runs-aground-off-italy-killing-at-least-three.html
« Last Edit: January 14, 2012, 05:53:44 PM by Host Mike »

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #16 on: January 14, 2012, 05:38:09 PM »
"The collision caused mass panic, not helped by the decision to delay the order to evacuate for 45 minutes. Some passengers jumped into the water and tried to swim to shore as lifeboats could not be launched or were full. At least one passenger is thought to have died when he hit the water and suffered a heart attack.

There were fears that others, including some crew, may have drowned after becoming trapped on lower decks which flooded as the ship tilted.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9015744/Cruise-disaster-It-was-just-like-Titanic.html

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #17 on: January 14, 2012, 05:40:44 PM »

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #18 on: January 14, 2012, 05:49:02 PM »
"Prosecutor  Francesco Verusio said the Concordia had approached the tiny island of Giglio ‘the wrong way’, while sources said that the 52-year-old captain, from Naples, had abandoned the ship at around 11.30pm local time – about an hour after it struck a rocky outcrop and started taking in water – while the last passengers were not taken to safety until 3am yesterday morning.

As the liner lay virtually flat on its starboard side last night, a 160ft gash visible on its upturned hull, rescue workers raised the possibility that there may still be bodies in the submerged section."



The captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, Francesco Schettino is taken into custody in Grosseto, Italy.




Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #19 on: January 14, 2012, 06:00:21 PM »
This was not the first accident involving the Costa Condordia, however. On November 22, 2008, the ship was pushed along the dock by high winds at Palermo in Sicily, causing damage to her bow. No injuries were reported.

"Rosenker said one of the first priorities for investigators will be to examine the ship's "black box" voice recorder.

"It actually would have recorded the voices of the people - the officers and crew that were on the bridge - and you'll be able to hear their discussion about what happened, and the decisions that they made after the vessel struck the rocks.

"The investigation will really delve into the captain's thinking, and the timing in which he made decisions, both into communicating what was going on to the passengers, ordering them to go back to their cabins to get their life preservers, and then to the final decision where you would evacuate the ship," Rosenker said."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57359299/fact-sheet-the-costa-concordia-cruise-liner/

"Coastguards meanwhile said divers had recovered the ship's "black box" which should contain records of the precise route and conversations among the crew. The search for survivors was called off for the night late on Saturday."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/thousands-rescued-41-still-missing-from-cruise-ship-costa-concordia-near-italy/story-e6frg6so-1226244612374
« Last Edit: January 14, 2012, 06:11:15 PM by Host Mike »

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #20 on: January 14, 2012, 06:05:05 PM »
"The passengers described scenes of chaos and confusion on board the vessel after it struck the reef and said there seemed to be no leadership from the ship’s senior crew. Some have warned they are prepared to take legal action against the vessel’s owners.

Monique Maurek, 41, an undertaker from Holland, said: “There was no evacuation drill at any point after we set sail. Nobody had any idea where the lifeboats were or where the life jackets were kept, so when it came to having to evacuate the ship it was chaos. Most people didn’t even have any idea of what the evacuation warning sound would be.

“It was only because some of us had already been on a cruise that we recognised that seven blasts of the horn was a signal to abandon ship.”

Mrs Maurek added: “What scandalised me most was when I saw the captain spending much of the evening before we hit the rocks drinking in the bar with a beautiful woman on his arm.”(Former Costa dancer and passenger rep. Domnica Cemortan is said to be the 25 year old beautiful women on the Captain's arm.)

Takayuki Yabumoto, 52, a business consultant from Tokyo, who was sitting down to dinner when disaster struck, said: “There was an announcement saying the situation was under control. We left the restaurant and went on deck. Some women and children were crying; there was panic.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9015762/Cruise-disaster-passengers-anger-at-ship-crew.html

Italian police said he is accused of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship. There are reports he had been drinking.


http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/italian-cruise-ship-captain-committed-errors-4688893
« Last Edit: January 20, 2012, 02:48:53 PM by Host Mike »

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #21 on: January 14, 2012, 06:08:17 PM »
"It is not correct to say that the boat was off its route," Gianni Onorato, managing director of Costa Crociere told reporters on Porto Santo Stefano, near the site of the accident.

But according to Giorgio Fanculli, the only journalist on the island of Giglio, off which cruise ship ran aground, the vessel was too close to land.

"It was the classic passage, the cruise liners do it often, all lights lit up... but here, he went too close, a lot more than usual," said Fanculli, who saw the vessel sink and also witnessed the rescue operation.

http://www.vancouversun.com/Italian+prosecutors+detain+captain+Costa+Concordia+cruise+ship+report/5997276/story.html

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #22 on: January 14, 2012, 06:53:55 PM »
Consular officials wore bright green or orange emergency vests to identify themselves to their co-nationals, offering help in how to obtain emergency passports, since many non-Europeans had to turn them in to cruise officials upon boarding.

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Nations-hunt-for-info-on-Italy-cruise-accident-2528978.php

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #23 on: January 14, 2012, 06:56:30 PM »
"Six people were confirmed dead and another 69 were missing, potentially lost on the capsized ship, the largest vessel ever to sink."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/tragedy-mediterranean-cruise-ship-runs-aground-capsizes-coast-italy-70-feared-dead-article-1.1006114?localLinksEnabled=false

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #24 on: January 14, 2012, 07:12:42 PM »

"Officials confirm to news that they will tell a Grosseto magistrate that Francesco Schettino is allegedly to blame for both the Costa Concordia accident and the rising death toll."

http://news.lalate.com/2012/01/14/francesco-schettino-costa-concordia-captain-abandoned-italian-cruise-ship-prosecutors/

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #25 on: January 14, 2012, 07:25:29 PM »
"Then, said a man who would give only his surname, Schmitz, passengers were left alone to queue for the lifeboats: "For more than three hours, we did not see any member of the crew."

and

"We had to scream at the controllers to release the boats from the side. We were standing in the corridors and they weren't allowing us to get on to the boats."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/14/italian-cruise-ship-disaster-titanic

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #26 on: January 14, 2012, 07:40:09 PM »
"The chief prosecutor in the Tuscan city of Grosseto, Francesco Verusio, was quoted by the ANSA news agency as telling reporters that the captain “very ineptly got close to Giglio.”

“The ship struck a reef that got stuck inside the left side, making it (the ship) lean over and take on a lot of water in the space of two, three minutes,” he said.

Schettino was at the command, and it was “he who ordered the route, that’s what it appears to us. It was a deliberate” choice to follow that route, ANSA quote him as saying.

It quoted Schettino’s lawyer, Bruno Leporatti as saying his client understands why he was being detained but that “as his defender, I’d like to say that several hundred people owed their life to the expertise that the commander of the Costa Concordia showed during the emergency.”

ANSA quoted Francesco Schettino’s sister, Giulia, as saying her brother called their mother, 80-year-old Rosa, at five in the morning, saying “Mamma, there has been a tragedy. But stay calm. I tried to save the passengers. But for a while, I won’t be able to phone you.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/italian-media-captain-in-cruise-case-detained-for-investigation/2012/01/14/gIQAxbh7yP_story.html

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #27 on: January 14, 2012, 07:45:31 PM »
"About 40 are still unaccounted for. Late on Saturday, two people were found alive trapped several decks below on the half-submerged vessel.

Rescuers have reached a man and a woman stranded in a cabin two decks down on the half-submerged ship, according to Italian media reports.

Meanwhile, divers are continuing to comb submerged parts of the ship, which is lying on its side close to a coastal island.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16564789

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #28 on: January 14, 2012, 08:14:46 PM »
"Malcolm Latarche, editor of maritime magazine IHS Fairplay Solutions, said a loss of power coupled with a failure of backup systems could have caused the crew to lose control.

"I would say power failure caused by harmonic interference and then it can't propel straight or navigate and it hit rocks," Latarche said."

"Miriam Vitale, a hostess on the cruise liner who disembarked earlier this week in Palermo, told SkyTG24 the ship conducts a drill every 15 days. She said that since passengers on the Concordia embark or disembark every day, some passengers could miss it depending on which day they begin the trip."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jNJvaWIRLSRsS8WzGh7rmy_uH57Q?docId=8434585cc2fc4938a809c41ab73d24cc
« Last Edit: January 14, 2012, 08:17:27 PM by Host Mike »

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #29 on: January 14, 2012, 08:22:51 PM »
The president of Costa Cruises, Gianni Onorato, said the main task for the company was now to assist survivors and help repatriate them.

He said it was difficult to determine what had happened, but that the ship had experienced a blackout after  hitting "a big rock".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16564789