Princess Chatter

"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.

"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

"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

"Carnival will lose business from customers who were booked on future Concordia voyages, Zackfia said. There will be additional costs that are hard to estimate, she said. The company doesn’t have insurance that covers lost revenue or earnings from its ships or other operations, according to its most recent 10-K, filed in January 2011."

"Carnival carries insurance that covers a number of risks within certain limitations, according to the January 2011 filing. The coverage includes hull and machine insurance, as well as protection and indemnity policy that includes crew and passenger injuries, shipwrecks, damage to third parties and pollution.

The company also had practiced some self insurance in the past, according to Zackfia and to filings.

Carnival had no immediate response to requests for specifics of its coverage.

“This is a company that has a very strong, solid cash flow and balance sheet,” Zackfia said.

With U.S. markets closed tomorrow for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Carnival will trade for the first time following the incident in London. Carnival fell 2.5 percent in New York on Jan. 13, valuing the company at $27.8 billion. The shares declined 29 percent last year."

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-14/carnival-ship-mishap-s-timing-may-exacerbate-loss-of-business.html

"The full extent of Carnival’s liabilities as a result of the Costa Corncordia accident remains to be seen. The company’s insurance is a combination of self-insurance — a fund that it maintains for disasters — and policies with high deductibles, according to its financial disclosures.

“We are not protected against all risks, which could result in unexpected increases in our expenses in the event of an incident,” the company’s SEC filings say."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/industries/italian-disaster-unlikely-to-halt-growth-of-cruise-line-industry/2012/01/14/gIQAeMqDzP_story.html?tid=pm_business_pop

"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

"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