Author Topic: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy  (Read 349337 times)

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #105 on: January 21, 2012, 11:17:14 PM »
"Schettino may be a culpable scapegoat, but what is emerging from the testimony of passengers and rescuers is that many of the crew were also seemingly at fault, as there appears to have been no properly co-ordinated attempt to get people safely off the ship.

The deputy mayor on the island of Giglio says he couldn’t find any officers on board to give direction to the panicking passengers.

‘After 20 minutes I couldn’t find anybody... there were a lot of people who wanted help but there was no one guiding them.’

It sounds horrendous: terrified people, water rising around them, fighting to climb up a slippery rope.

All of us like to think we would do the right thing should we ever be in a dire situation. Some suggest Schettino’s response was a classic ‘fight or flight’ response that he was not fully in control of.

In the conversation with the coastguard, he sounds distracted. Some even say his instinct to turn the ship back on to a rocky ledge ultimately saved many lives."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2090111/SUZANNE-MOORE-Could-calm-carry-like-Rose.html

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #106 on: January 22, 2012, 01:50:41 PM »
Unregistered passengers might have been aboard the stricken cruise liner that capsized off this Tuscan island, a top rescue official said Sunday, raising the possibility that the number of missing might be higher than the 20 previously announced.

"There could have been X persons who we don't know about who were inside, who were clandestine" passengers aboard the ship, Franco Gabrielli, the national civil protection official in charge of the rescue effort, told reporters at a briefing on the island of Giglio, where the ship, with 4,200 people aboard rammed a reef and sliced open its hull on Jan. 13 before turning over on its side.

Gabrielli said that relatives of a Hungarian woman have told Italian authorities that she had telephoned them from aboard the ship and that they haven't heard from her since the accident. He said it was possible that a woman's body pulled from the wreckage by divers on Saturday might be that of the unregistered passenger.

But the identity of that body and of three male bodies, all badly decomposed after days in the water, have yet to be established. Gabrielli said they have identified the other eight bodies: four French, an Italian, a Hungarian, a German and a Spanish national."

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0122/Costa-Concordia-Stowaways-the-latest-uncertainty

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #107 on: January 22, 2012, 01:57:29 PM »
"'Disaster day-trippers' have flocked from all over Italy, many driving for hours, to see the 1,000ft-long, 14-storey luxury liner wedged at an angle of 90 degrees, ten days after it ran aground off the Tuscan island of Giglio.

But their curiosity has been criticised as "morbid" by islanders, who say they are being overwhelmed by the influx.

Ferries which run from the mainland port of Porto Santo Stefano to the island were full on Saturday and yesterday, with families and couples drinking beer and eating pizza on the smooth sandstone rocks and patches of sand opposite the capsized ship."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9030910/Costa-Concordia-stricken-cruise-ship-becomes-tourist-spectacle.html

We got the bubbleheaded bleach-blonde, comes on at 5
She can tell you about the [ship] crash with a gleam in her eye
It's interesting when people die, give us dirty laundry

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #108 on: January 22, 2012, 02:04:15 PM »
GIGLIO, Italy, Jan 22 (Reuters) - The captain of the cruise liner that capsized off Italy's coast has told prosecutors the vessel's operators, Costa Cruises, instructed him to perform a maneuvre that brought it too close to shore, according to leaked transcripts of his questioning."

Costa Cruises have said they were not aware of the dangerous practice of bringing the ship so close to the shore and have suspended the captain, saying he was responsible for the disaster.

But in a sign of the growing confrontation between Schettino and the ship owners, the captain told investigating magistrates Costa had instructed him to do the salute, according to transcripts of his hearing published by Italian media.

"It was planned, we should have done it a week earlier but it was not possible because of bad weather," Schettino said.

"They insisted. They said: 'We do tourist navigation, we have to be seen, get publicity and greet the island'."

He also said that the black box on board had been broken for two weeks, and that he had asked for it to be repaired, in vain.

In the hearing, Schettino insisted he had informed Costa's headquarters of the accident straight away, and his line of conduct had been approved by the company's marine operations director throughout a series of phone conversations.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/22/costa-concordia-captain-ordered-salute_n_1221918.html

Schettino has denied the charges, saying that the ship hit a rock that was not on his map and that he was continuing to direct the ship's evacuation from a lifeboat.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/costa-concordia-may-have-had-unregistered-passengers/articleshow/11599372.cms
« Last Edit: January 23, 2012, 04:32:16 AM by Host Mike »

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #109 on: January 22, 2012, 02:16:27 PM »
He told prosecutors and the investigating judge, in documents leaked by the Italian media, that the company planned the salutes to time with local public holidays on the islands they were due to cruise past.

Schettino's latest claims were a direct contradiction of what Costa chief Pierluigi Foschi said last week at a press conference where he said a 'sail by had been authorised just once before' in the summer of 2010 off the island of Procida, close to Naples.

His version of events in the 135 page judicial document now raises serious questions over just what Costa Cruises knew the night of the disaster and it may explain why Schettino waited for more than an hour to raise the alarm and why he made a series of phone calls to company chiefs at their HQ in Genoa.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2090214/Costa-Concordia-captain-Francesco-Schettino-claims-bosses-knew-sail-salutes.html?ito=feeds-newsxml


Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #110 on: January 22, 2012, 02:29:09 PM »
"A BALLERINA seen dining with the captain of the doomed Costa Concordia was the first person to reach a lifeboat, it was claimed yesterday.

While most passengers and crew fled with nothing, dancer Domnica Cemortan, 25, was on a lifeboat with a packed bag 30 minutes before the cruise liner finally ran aground off the Italian coast.

Her quick escape has prompted claims she was given early warning the vessel was going down before the order was give to abandon ship."


http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/2012/01/22/costa-concordia-disaster-captain-s-dinner-guest-was-first-passenger-to-get-to-lifeboat-86908-23712516/



Offline NSWP

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #111 on: January 22, 2012, 06:10:21 PM »
"A BALLERINA seen dining with the captain of the doomed Costa Concordia was the first person to reach a lifeboat, it was claimed yesterday.

While most passengers and crew fled with nothing, dancer Domnica Cemortan, 25, was on a lifeboat with a packed bag 30 minutes before the cruise liner finally ran aground off the Italian coast.

Her quick escape has prompted claims she was given early warning the vessel was going down before the order was give to abandon ship."


http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/2012/01/22/costa-concordia-disaster-captain-s-dinner-guest-was-first-passenger-to-get-to-lifeboat-86908-23712516/



Mmm, strange that, she must have known somebody !
CHEERS..Les from Batemans Bay, NSW, Australia

Princess Elite Cruiser, (480 days,) also cruised with Celebrity, P&O Australia and P&O UK, HAL, Carnival, Cunard and Sitmar. Plus Sydney Harbour Ferries !!

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #112 on: January 22, 2012, 07:20:23 PM »
"Italian prosecutors are hunting for the laptop Capt. Francesco Schettino took with him when he abandoned his sinking luxury liner and slipped to a mystery blonde moments before he was arrested, Italian newspapers reported.

La Repubblica said Sunday prosecutors are especially hot to find the laptop “given the haste with which it changed hands.”

The paper said prosecutors had identified the woman as a lawyer, but that it was unclear if she was working for the cruise line or not.


Witnesses said Schettino had the laptop in a colorful plastic bag when he says he “tripped into a lifeboat” and fled the Costa Concordia after running the luxury liner onto rocks off the Tuscan coast Jan. 13, killing at least 30 people.

He claims the voice data recorder quit recording conversations that would show that higher ups had asked him to sail close to the island of Giglio as a form of swaggering “advertising” for the cruise line, La Repubblica reported.

“The Giglio salute on January 13 was planned with the company before we departed from Civitavecchia,” he said, according to excerpts from his 135-page statement leaked to the Italian press and published Sunday.

“We had meant to do it the week before, but it was not possible because of bad weather,” he said. “They insisted. They said, ‘We can be seen and we can get some publicity.’ So I said ‘okay.’”

Cruise line Costa Crociere, a subsidiary of Carnival Cruise Lines, has said Schettino deviated from the regular route without permission in an attempt to impress passengers.

In his statement, he also denied that the young blonde Moldovan dancer with whom he had dinner that night, Domnica Cemortan, was on the bridge proper when he ordered the “sail-by” of Giglio.

“She was on the threshhold,” he said. “She wasn’t on the bridge because I don’t let anyone there.”


The married skipper said he didn’t even know her last name. “She was our mutual friend who was on board, she had been part of the staff on other occasions,” he said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/death-toll-reaches-13-costa-concordia-tragedy-article-1.1009913




Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #113 on: January 22, 2012, 07:48:37 PM »

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #114 on: January 22, 2012, 07:58:03 PM »
"In the newspaper interview he (Schettino) gave last year, he was asked about what impact the sinking of the Titanic had on perceptions of ship safety at the time.

He said: ''Luckily, people quickly forget tragedies.''

http://www.smh.com.au/world/drama-on-the-decks-20120120-1qa4f.html





Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #115 on: January 23, 2012, 04:08:57 AM »
"Among other details that emerged from the transcripts, the captain said that the single-engine wooden lifeboat he was piloting to bring passengers ashore might have hit a few people's heads.

"It might also be that some people's heads were broken," he said, explaining that the boats were not easy to maneuver.


Schettino also said that the first person to die in connection with the shipwreck was a French passenger who had a heart attack soon after the ship ran aground."

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/costa-concordia-may-have-had-unregistered-passengers/articleshow/11599372.cms

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #116 on: January 23, 2012, 04:17:55 AM »
"The suggestion of clandestine passengers raises the possibility that either a crew member or a passenger smuggled a friend on board the ship. Passengers might have been invited on board by a crew member at the last minute," said Francesca Maffini, Gabrielli's spokesman.

Another possibility is that some crew members were not registered properly because they were working on the ship illegally. Many of the crew were from India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines."

http://www.theprovince.com/Firm+encouraged+sailpasts+Costa+captain+insists/6036349/story.html

The company, Costa Cruises, a division of Carnival Cruise Lines, denied Sunday that any unregistered passengers would have been on the ship and that it had condoned the close approach to this Tuscan resort island, where the 950-foot ship struck a rock on Jan. 13.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/costa-concordia-may-have-had-unregistered-passengers/articleshow/11599372.cms

« Last Edit: January 23, 2012, 04:28:42 AM by Host Mike »

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #117 on: January 23, 2012, 04:22:58 AM »
"A British journalist has revealed he booked a cruise on the doomed ship, received travel documents and was allocated a cabin number, two days after the liner ran aground."

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-incidents/cruise-survivors-offered-discounts-20120122-1qc4l.html

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #118 on: January 23, 2012, 04:39:17 AM »
"Victims' groups and compensation lawyers are now looking at comments made by the Costa Cruises chief executive, Pier Luigi Foschi, to the Corriere Della Sera newspaper, in which he said: "He [Schettino] may have the odd little character problem, although nothing has ever been reported formally. He was seen as being a little hard on his colleagues. He liked to be in the limelight."

Last night, Carlo Rienzi, the president of Italy's national consumer group Codacons, said: "These comments [by Mr Foschi] will form part of the basis for our class action." Codacons is seeking a minimum of €10,000 (£8,300) compensation for all passengers.

Kendall Carver, president of the US-based International Cruise Victims group, said: "It's astonishing that company officials were aware of these 'character problems' but allowed him to have responsibility for over 4,000 people."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/owners-of-stricken-vessel-admit-captain-had-character-problem-6293221.html

Offline Host Mike

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Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« Reply #119 on: January 23, 2012, 04:44:20 AM »
"Costa Cruises has transferred passengers with forward bookings on the Costa Concordia to a replacement ship it describes as "brand new" – but it is actually 20-years old and in dry dock in Genoa for a refit.

Anyone booked within the next two months is being offered a full refund, with a 30 per cent discount on a future cruise. From 24 March, Costa Concordia's place will be taken by "a completely new ship, Costa neoRomantica". In fact, the vessel was launched 20 years ago as the Costa Romantica. It is currently undergoing what the firm calls "an innovative total restyling". Customers who do not wish to sail aboard a ship 14 years older than Costa Concordia are being offered a refund, but only if they cancel within two weeks."

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/costa-offers-cruises-on-new-20yearold-ship-6293225.html