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931
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: January 16, 2012, 10:45:37 AM »
"The search for 16 people still missing after the capsizing of the cruise liner Costa Concordia has resumed following an earlier suspension after the ship moved, according to a fire brigade spokesman.

The vessel hit an underwater reef off the coast of Tuscany on Friday, tearing a 70-metre hole in the hull and causing it to tip onto its side.

The Costa Concordia has been balanced on the rocks since the accident but the weather earlier took a turn for the worse causing it to begin to slip, fire brigade officials said.

However, as the weather improved, officials said their search could resume.

Uncertainty over the stability of the vessel means search operations will now only be conducted in daylight hours, fire service spokesman Luca Cari added."

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16150043

"Lodged on rocks yards from the coast, the vessel stands in 37 metres of water. But only 30 metres away the rock shelf drops abruptly, and the depth is 70 metres; there was a distinct possibility the ship might suddenly be dislodged off the shelf and plunge into the deep."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/16/costa-concordia-divers-search-life?newsfeed=true


932
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: January 16, 2012, 10:32:50 AM »
"The captain of the cruise ship that capsized off Tuscany made an unauthorized, unapproved deviation from its programmed course, a "human error" that led to the grounding of the vessel, the chief executive of the ship's Italian owner said Monday. At least six people died in the incident."
"Costa ships have their routes programmed, and alarms go off when they deviate, the chief executive said in a press conference.

"This route was put in correctly. The fact that it left from this course is due solely to a maneuver by the commander that was unapproved, unauthorized and unknown to Costa," he said.
Questions have been swirling about why the ship had navigated so close to the dangerous reefs and rocks that jut off Giglio's eastern coast, amid suspicions the captain may have ventured too close while carrying out a maneuver to entertain tourists on the island.

Residents of Giglio said they had never seen the Costa come so close to the dangerous "Le Scole" reef area."

http://www.newsday.com/news/world/costa-concordia-ceo-captain-francesco-schettino-made-unauthorized-maneuver-1.3454773

933
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: January 16, 2012, 08:14:13 AM »
"The ship was insured for €405m (£335m) with around a dozen companies, led by the XL Group, which operates in the Lloyd's of London market. Britain's RSA Insurance and Italy's Generali are also on the hook. RSA's exposure is thought to be for less than €10m. Aon was the insurance broker.

Carnival's cover includes hull and machine insurance as well as protection and indemnity cover for crew and passenger injuries, shipwrecks, damage to third parties and pollution. However, it has in the past, like many large companies, chosen to self-insure part of its cover – effectively taking on the risk itself. Filings last year suggest it did not have cover for the loss of revenues from an incident like the Concordia disaster."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/disaster-liner-was-insured-for-405m-6290244.html

"Carnival Corp. fell the most in more than 10 years in London trading after saying the grounding of the Costa Concordia off Italy’s Tuscan Coast that killed at least six people will cost the company as much as $95 million."
The insurance loss could be $500 million to $1 billion depending on liability claims, exceeding the loss from the Exxon Valdez disaster including pollution, said Joy Ferneyhough, insurance analyst at Espirito Santo Investment Bank."

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-16/carnival-falls-as-cruise-ship-disaster-may-cost-95-million.html

"U.K.-listed shares of Carnival (CCL: 34.28, -0.86, -2.45%) plunged almost 20% Monday morning as the markets fret about the financial impact of the Costa Concordia cruise-ship disaster off the coast of Italy over the weekend.

Analysts warned the disaster, which has caused at least six deaths, could hurt bookings, lead to a flurry of lawsuits and reduce the company’s ship capacity. Sixteen other people are believed to be missing."

http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2012/01/16/carnival-sees-0m-impact-from-costa-accident/

934
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: January 15, 2012, 07:42:38 PM »

935
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: January 15, 2012, 07:32:17 PM »
"The theory being examined by prosecutors last night was that Capt Schettino's attempt to honour the Concordia's long-standing tradition of the Giglio salute could be to blame for the tragedy. Reports suggested that one of the ship's senior crew members has a friend in the Italian Merchant Navy who lives on the island, and wanted to get extra close before sounding the traditional greeting.

There were also claims that a similarly close "sail-past" last year had prompted the local mayor to send a congratulatory email to the captain for helping entertain the island's tourists.

Sergio Ortelli, the mayor of Giglio, explained: "Costa ships often pass close to the island – tourists and locals gather on the jetty to see the ships go by. We light up the Saracen tower [a stone tower built to spot pirate raids during medieval times]. It's a great sight."

But Italo Arienti, a 54-year-old sailor who has worked on the ferry service between Giglio and the Italian mainland for more than a decade, said: "This was too close, too close."

An Italian cruise ship captain, who did not want to give his name, said: "During the summer it is easy to see the rocks because they are illuminated by a small tourist resort. But in winter, all the lights are off."

Franco Verusio, the procurator of Grosseto who is leading the investigation into the disaster, said questions remained as to why the ship had been so close to shore. "It was a deliberate but carelessly clumsy manoeuvre," he said.
Some maritime experts also criticised the captain for attempting to turn the ship around and bring it into port once he realised the vessel was taking on too much water and could be in trouble. Within 15 minutes of the collision, the ship had started to list badly and Capt Schettino made the decision to change course and head into Giglio port. But before the ship was able to reach safety, the stricken Costa Concordia ran aground on a rocky shelf.

Modern design means that even if the vessel is holed beneath the waterline, it can still stay afloat. But in grounding the Costa Concordia, further damage to the hull appears to have been caused, resulting in the catastrophic capsizing.
However, Dr Richard Shaw, a specialist in Maritime Law at the University of Southampton, said the captain's actions could have helped save many of the 4,000 people on board. He said: "It looks like the captain has tried to beach the ship in shallower water. If the ship had not been brought into shallower water, there would have been a much greater loss of life."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9016774/Italy-cruise-ship-disaster-did-island-sail-past-put-ship-on-course-for-disaster.html   

936
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: January 15, 2012, 07:13:45 PM »
"A risky practice by cruise ships of close-passing the island of Giglio in a foghorn-blasting salute to the local population appears to have contributed to the Costa Concordia disaster, officials and witnesses said Sunday.
Some witnesses said the ship was indulging the local population with a spectacular parade past the island in what is known locally as an "inchino" or reverent bow, with its upper decks ablaze with light as many of the passengers sat down to dinner.

Adding weight to the theory, the daily La Stampa on Sunday published a letter dated last August in which Giglio's mayor Sergio Ortelli thanked the Concordia's captain for the "incredible spectacle" of a previous close pass.

The mayor told journalists on the island on Saturday that the normal route for cruise ships heading north from the port of Civitavecchia near Rome takes them to within three to five kilometres (1.8 to 3.1 miles) of Giglio. "Many of them pass close to Giglio to salute the local population with blasts from their sirens."
"It's a very nice show to see, the ship all lit up when you see it from the land. This time round it went wrong," said the mayor.

On Sunday however, Ortelli denied that it was a regular practice to come so close to the island.

"It's not the practice, or in any way a programmed salute but always in safe conditions," he said.

Ortelli said some skippers of Costa cruise liners liked to "pay tribute" to former colleagues who have retired to the island but that this always occurred in "safe conditions".

Francesco Verusio, the Tuscany region's chief prosecutor, said the ship's captain "should not have been sailing so close to the island" and had him arrested for multiple homicide and abandoning his ship before all the passengers were off.

He said that the captain had "approached Giglio in a very awkward manner", which led the ship to "hit a rock that became embedded in its left side, causing it to list and take in an enormous amount of water in the space of two or three minutes."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jPK42cOKRUNVdbW18Y1hun9uMWRQ?docId=CNG.5cc787e57e8731d4ebf300c0b391aad6.511

937
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: January 15, 2012, 07:00:59 PM »
About two hours into the trip, the ship took a detour from its "usual" route to give passengers an up-close view of Giglio's port town by night, according to officials there.

Upon approaching the port, the ship hit a rock that wasn't marked on nautical maps, Mr. Schettino, the captain, would later tell reporters. Instead, the ship struck Le Scole, a well-known rock formation, that skirts the coast of Giglio, according to Italian officials.
On the Italian mainland, the coast guard began receiving scattered complaints from passengers aboard the ship, but the ship's command hadn't yet issued an SOS, according to an Italian official briefed on the matter. At 10:14 p.m., the coast guard made its first call to ship's command to check on the vessel and was told the situation was "under control," the official said. That was hardly the case, passengers said.
"Gross human error" was to blame, Italian Defense Minister Giampaolo Di Paola, an admiral himself, said on state television.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204468004577162540796139040.html


938
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: January 15, 2012, 06:34:44 PM »
Survivors alleged that panicked crew members did little to help as the Costa Concordia's 3,206 passengers tried to abandon the listing ship.

"They were incompetent," said Giuseppe Lanzafame, 42, a former sailor who was on board with his wife and two daughters. "They made us stay on deck for an hour and a half without telling us anything. I saw immediately the lack of preparation of the crew members, who didn't know how to lower the lifeboats. Many didn't know how to communicate with us because they did not speak Italian or English," he said.

"At one point I had to explain to one of them how to manoeuvre the lifeboat and I had to take charge of it because they didn't know what to do and were more scared than we were," he added.

Another passenger, Francesco Frontera, said: "The crew, who were mostly Indians, Filipinos, and Sri Lankans, had no thought for saving the old, the children and the disabled. They just ran to be first on the lifeboats."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/15/costa-concordia-purser-saved?newsfeed=true

939
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: January 15, 2012, 06:02:08 PM »
"But Schettino told reporters he was the last to leave the boat and said rocks had not been detected by the vessel's navigation system.

He said: "What happened is that while we were moving with a tourist navigation system, as you can see by the rip (in the ship) there was a lateral rock projection.

"Even though we were sailing along the coast with the tourist navigation system, I firmly believe that the rocks were not detected as the ship was not heading forward but sideways as if underwater there was this rock projection.

"I don't know if it was detected or not but on the nautical chart it was marked just as water at some 100-150m from the rocks and we were about 300m from the shore, more or less.

"We shouldn't have had this contact."

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16149523

Editor: A Tourist Navigation System seems to mean that the bridge was navigating for purposes of sightseeing.

940
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: January 15, 2012, 05:36:45 PM »
"Costa Crociere SpA, the Genoa, Italy-based cruise company, issued a statement late Sunday carried by Italian media saying it "seems that the captain made errors of judgment that had very grave consequences: the route followed the ship turned out to be too close to the coast, and it seems that his decision in handling the emergency didn't follow Costa Crociere's procedures, which are in line, and in some cases, go beyond, international standards."

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/divers-in-italy-ship-1303806.html

Editor comment:  It is very unusual that a company will almost immediately cast blame on an employee in light of the lawsuits against the company that are sure to follow.

941
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: January 15, 2012, 05:19:08 PM »
A French couple who boarded the Concordia in Marseille, Ophelie Gondelle and David Du Pays of Marseille, told the AP they saw the captain in a lifeboat, covered by a blanket, well before all the passengers were off the ship. They insisted on telling a reporter what they saw, so incensed that — according to them — the captain had abandoned the ship before everyone had been evacuated.

"The commander left before and was on the dock before everyone was off," said Gondelle, 28, a French military officer.

"Normally the commander should leave at the end," said Du Pays, a police officer who said he helped an injured passenger to a rescue boat. "I did what I could."

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/divers-in-italy-ship-1303806.html

942
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: January 15, 2012, 05:08:48 PM »
"The mother of a dancer from Blackpool who worked on the Costa Concordia cruise liner that ran aground off Italy said her daughter was in a magician's box when it crashed.

Her mother Claire said she had received a phone call from her daughter, telling her the ship was sinking.

She said: "Rosalyn was a bit hysterical, saying the ship was sinking. But seeing she's a dancer and they do drama, I just thought it was all a bit surreal.

"You don't hear about big ships sinking like that nowadays, so I said: 'You'll be fine. Just find your friends'."
Claire Rincon Claire Rincon said she was left "white as a sheet" by the news

Mrs Rincon, from Wayman Road, Layton, said her daughter then told her she had to go as the ship was leaning.

"She was in the middle of magic show [when it ran aground], inside a magic box. And then all the lights went out so she struggled to get out of the box.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-16568850

943
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: January 15, 2012, 05:03:01 PM »
"The coastguard said divers had found the bodies of two unidentified elderly men trapped in a flooded area.

Earlier three survivors were found, more than 24 hours after the ship ran aground near a Tuscan island.

Coastguard spokesman Filipino Marin said the two elderly victims were "found on the third floor in a meeting area section of the ship".

He said the bodies were being taken to the mainland for identification.

Shortly before they were recovered, Tuscan regional official Enrich Rossi said 17 people remained unaccounted for."



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16568760

944
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: January 15, 2012, 02:45:11 PM »
"Italian Coast Guard Cmdr. Francesco Paolillo says officers urged the captain, Francesco Schettino, to return to his ship and honor his duty to stay aboard until everyone else was safely off the vessel, but said Schettino ignored them."

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/story/2012-01-15/Prosecutor-says-captain-left-ship-early/52579406/1

945
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: January 15, 2012, 02:21:45 PM »
"The ship probably was on a wrong route, the prosecutor said. The so-called black box was retrieved, Verusio said. Investigators have determined the ship was only about 150 meters (492 feet) from the coast when it hit the rocks, Ansa said.

Captain Schettino said he was the last one to leave the ship, according to an interview broadcast by TGCOM24 before his arrest. The rocks weren’t identified on the navigation maps, Schettino said. The ship was at least 300 meters from the island when it hit the rocks, he said.

The accident was due to a “reckless maneuver,” news Ansa quoted Verusio as saying. Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera said the captain may have steered the boat closer to the coast to allow passengers a better view of the island’s lights."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-14/carnival-corp-cruise-ship-runs-aground-off-italy-killing-at-least-three.html

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