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751
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: August 02, 2012, 09:35:57 PM »
"This fall, Gladstone Gallery’s 21st street location will host a large-scale, boat-themed installation by Thomas Hirschhorn.

From the press release:

    At our 21st Street location Thomas Hirschhorn will create a large-scale installation inspired by the sinking of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, which ran aground off the coast of Italy in January 2012. The exhibition, “Concordia, Concordia” explores the conceit of the modern disaster, and turns the aphorism “too big to fail” on its head, exploring the notion that something that is too big is in fact destined to inevitable failure. The gallery space will be filled with a reconstruction of the sunken ship, with its displaced architecture, caught in a state of collapse. The exhibition will be on view from September 14 to October 20, 2012."

http://galleristny.com/2012/08/gladstone-plans-thomas-hirschorn-installation/


752
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: July 29, 2012, 04:20:49 AM »
"The former skipper of the Costa Concordia sunned himself off the Amalfi Coast yesterday, far from the Italian courthouse where a judge was weighing whether to indict him for his role in the shipwreck that killed 32 crew members and passengers."

Source:: The Daily on the iPad

753
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: July 28, 2012, 02:02:19 PM »
"Nearly six months later, Andrea and Laurence are returning to Giglio, inspired by the warmth and empathy of the islanders that rescued them that night.

The Calgary couple is leaving for Giglio on July 5th and returning to Calgary on July 23rd, after cruising from Amsterdam.

“None of us could speak a word of each other’s language, and they were just so unbelievably amazing to us.”

“They are what brought us home. They are our reason for survival,” Andrea told the Herald on Friday.

Andrea recalls that after they and other survivors swam frantically from the sinking ship and climbed to safety on a rock, locals were the first to show up and take them to a school on the island.

Her feet, stung by coral, were in searing pain, while the rest of her body shivered uncontrollably, her damp clothes “like ice packs” on her body, she recalled.

But within moments, she said the attentive islanders had bathed her feet and removed the coral, fed her and dressed her in clean, warm clothes.

“After a couple of hours, I just had this feeling of safety and survival come over me,” she recalled.

Andrea said she wanted to thank them, but in her exhausted state, the only Italian word she could remember was “vino.”

“So I stood up and I started clapping my hands, saying ‘Vino! Vino!’” she recalled with a laugh. “And honestly, within minutes, this man came in with this case of wine.”

It was 4 a.m., but the cruise ship passengers and their Italian rescuers sipped on the wine and relished their new friendship.

“There isn’t a word between us,” she described the scene. “We can’t communicate, but it’s a language of love.”

Andrea, who has struggled to put the traumatic incident behind her, still gets emotional when she recounts the events of that night.

“We keep on hearing the noise of the crash,” she said, her voice breaking as she paused to collect herself. “Hearing all the glass shattering and bodies flying and people falling like ten pins and people being thrust into walls and chandeliers falling.”

Andrea said she gets angry when she remembers the lack of instruction from the ship’s captain, and how long it took her and her husband to get to safety."

http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/Costa+Concordia+survivors+returning+Italy+thank+rescuers/6864941/story.html



754
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: July 28, 2012, 01:52:39 PM »
"LONDON, July 25 (Reuters) - British insurer Lancashire said it expected to return cash to shareholders this year as it reported a 33 percent drop in its quarterly profit, blaming bigger payouts related to the Costa Concordia shipwreck and dwindling investment returns."

"The widening Costa Concordia loss was driven largely by a $20 million payout on an industry loss warranty, a reinsurance contract that entitles the buyer to a payout if total insured losses from a claims event exceed an agreed threshold.

The ILW was triggered when estimated overall losses from the Concordia disaster exceeded $1 billion, forcing Lancashire to pay an unnamed reinsurance counterparty $20 million, said Jonny Creagh-Cohen, Lancashire's head of investor relations."

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/07/25/lancashire-results-idINL6E8IP20M20120725


755
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: July 23, 2012, 12:27:10 PM »
"Bookings for Costa Cruises have rebounded significantly since the Costa Concordia accident earlier this year.

Costa's parent company Carnival Corp. said on Friday that booking volumes at Costa were up 25% compared with the same time one year ago."

"Carnival Corp. COO Howard Frank said during a conference call about Carnival Corp.'s second-quarter earnings that Costa had suffered a "significant loss" in bookings right after the accident.

The line introduced deep discounts to try and get some of that business back.

"The picture has improved" at Costa, Frank said. "Costa's booking volumes, stimulated by significant pricing initiatives as part of their re-marketing campaign introduced in April, have shown considerable strength."

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/post/2012/06/costa-cruises-bookings-concordia-/789874/1

756
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: July 22, 2012, 10:06:28 PM »
http://afr.com/p/opinion/chivalry_ends_when_the_ship_sinks_BT50wozjZYB2AHldbmJ2JJ


757
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: July 22, 2012, 09:53:42 PM »
"ROME — The Italian cruise ship which crashed in January killing 32 people was sailing with its sealed doors open, unapproved maps and faulty instruments, a newspaper reported on Tuesday citing investigators.

Some of the technical apparatus on board the Costa Concordia had been broken since January 9 -- four days before the tragedy off the Italian island of Giglio, Corriere della Sera said, citing leaked documents from the inquiry.

Ship owner Costa Crociere responded to the report saying that the ship's black box "had in fact only issued an error code, which in no way meant that the device was out of service, as is demonstrated by the fact that the data it contained were perfectly in line with engineers' expectations".

"There is no international regulation or convention that prohibits a ship from sailing in a similar situation," it said in a statement.

"The Vdr (Voyage Data Recorder) has broken down for the umpteenth time... The situation is becoming unbearable," Costa Crociere's technical director Pierfrancesco Ferro is quoted as telling a repair firm in an email.

An officer on board questioned by investigators also reportedly said watertight doors were open at the time of the impact as "this was a practice used during the navigation to ease the flow of people who were at work."

Costa Crociere, Europe's biggest cruise operator, said the doors were not open due to electric malfunctioning as asserted by Corriere della Sera.

It also said that the ship had "all the paper and electronic nautical charts needed to complete the voyage planned".

"It is the duty of the master (captain), based on the voyage plan he himself establishes, to verify that the ship is provided with any further nautical charts," it said.

"The ship should have never sailed so close to the coast," the company said."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jdrf0L4qzQGqGtanuq00WZQchhMw?docId=CNG.a91adb0c35fe9ca85bfac4221561429b.931


758
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: July 22, 2012, 09:47:32 PM »
A US law firm said Tuesday it is suing Carnival, the American owner of the cruise liner shipwrecked off Italy this year, for allegedly leading its designers to sacrifice safety for profits.

The Eaves law firm said it was suing for punitive damages in California over the design of the doomed luxury Costa Concordia and hoped that a win would see all similarly designed cruise ships declared unseaworthy.

"This morning we filed a claim for punitive damages against Carnival and the architects who designed the Concordia, for purposefully ignoring safety to maximise profit," lawyer John Arthur Eaves told a Rome press conference.

Eaves, who said he is part of a collective of lawyers representing around 150 claimants from the liner, said the ship's design was fatally flawed "because it was top-heavy and had a propensity to roll".

"The sad tragedy is the race to build the biggest ship with the shallowest hulls and room for the most passengers. When will it stop? We decided we must file this complaint to stop a race which is destroying safety," he said.

The firm alleges Carnival "controlled or at least heavily influenced the design of the MV Costa Concordia to suit its commercial needs as opposed to best or even good marine practices."

It also brought legal proceedings against the architects, named simply as "John Does", for "designing the vessel to maximize passenger carrying capacity, but at the expense of seaworthiness, and passenger safety."

"The ship's shallow draught, the area below the waterline, made it unstable, so that it tilted quickly over and many lifeboats became useless," Eaves said.

http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-incidents/concordia-owners-sued-over-wrecked-ships-design-flaw-20120628-213ql.html

759
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: July 22, 2012, 09:38:14 PM »
"London: The disgraced captain of Costa Concordia, whose luxury-liner shipwreck killed 32 passengers in January this year, is said to be negotiating the price for his interviews with the media.

Captain Francesco Schettino, who is suspected of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship ahead of his passengers, is negotiating two EUR 50,000 interviews, one with a TV channel and another with a news magazine.

Schettino's lawyer, Paul Bastianini, confirmed to La Stampa, that lucrative deals were currently being brokered on behalf of his client, The Independent reports.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/costa-concordia-captain-negotiating-%E2%82%AC50-000-deals_786049.html


760
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: July 22, 2012, 09:30:30 PM »
"The family of the Costa Concordia disaster's youngest victim has received a seven-figure payment from the liner's owner, Costa Cruises.

The compensation to relatives of five-year-old Dayana Arlotti, whose body was found inside the wrecked liner next to her dead father, Williams Arlotti, is the first big individual settlement to be confirmed.

Lawyer Torquato Tristani, representing the parents of Mr Arlotti and his partner, Michela Arlotti Maroncelli, said the agreement with Costa Cruises had been made quickly, adding: "I can say that the compensation was very satisfactory and fair to all parties."

Compensation for Dayana's mother, Susy Albertini, was confirmed by her lawyer, Davide Veschi. A confidentiality clause ensures that the amounts paid to the parties cannot be revealed, although reports indicated that it ran into seven figures."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/huge-payout-for-family-of-costa-concordias-youngest-victim-7960123.html


761
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: July 22, 2012, 09:22:11 PM »
"Costa had offered each Concordia passenger who returned home 11,000 euros or roughly $14,000 in compensation.

"That's a slap in the face. Shame on Costa," Miami attorney Gabrielle Lyn D'Alemberte, who represents the Warricks, said Wednesday.

D'Alemberte said Costa's offer, which the Warricks refused, would not have covered their out-of-pocket expenses, much less emotional damages.

The siblings "suffered and will continue to suffer severe discomfort, injuries and sickness, severe mental anguish, pain and loss of enjoyment of life," because of their ordeal, according to court papers.

D'Alemberte asserts the Warricks have a right to file a lawsuit here and not in Italy as the cruise ticket contract dictates, because they purchased their cruises on Costa's U.S. website.

It also would be prejudicial to take it to Italy as they'd be barred from litigation there since there's no contingency for personal injury in this case, she noted."

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-07-19/business/fl-costa-concordia-broward-lawsuit-20120719_1_concordia-passengers-concordia-survivors-costa-concordia

762
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: July 22, 2012, 09:17:20 PM »
“This will be the biggest wreck removal ever undertaken,” said Mark Hoddinott, general manager of the International Salvage Union. “Technically, it’s going to be very challenging.”

Preliminary steps started in June, and the rest of the delicate operation will unfold in stages until the ship is towed to an Italian port by the end of January -- if everything follows the schedule.

“The main enemy is winter weather and sea conditions,” said Pier Donato Vercellone, the project’s media consultant in a statement. “If sea conditions will not allow us to stabilize and upright the vessel according [to] schedule, the risk will increase.”

For now, workers from Pompano Beach-based Titan Salvage and Italian marine firm Micoperi are performing inspections that will wrap up by the end of the month. Exterior portions of the ship have been cut off, and the rock stuck in the ship’s port side is also being removed.

Before attempting to move the ship, the companies will attach heavy cables that are connected to poles in order to keep it from sliding, according to a plan that was released publicly in May.

Once the ship is stabilized, an undersea platform will be built and anchored to the sea floor. Watertight boxes that, like the platform and holdback system will be specially made for the operation, will be attached to the side of the Concordia that is out of the water. The installation of those platforms and boxes, called caissons, is scheduled to be finished by Nov. 15.

On December 1, one of the most sensitive steps of the process is scheduled to start. Two cranes that are fixed to the undersea platform will pull the ship to an upright position in one piece. The boxes on the ship’s side will be filled with water to help it roll.

Once the ship is up, a set of caissons will be attached to the other side as well. Both will be emptied of water and filled with air to help the vessel float again — which is expected to happen by Jan. 15.

If all goes as planned, Concordia will be delivered to an Italian port by Jan. 31. The ship has been declared a constructive total loss, which means the cost of repairing the Concordia would be greater than its value.

Once the ship is gone, the sea floor will be cleaned and flora will be replanted. Work should be fully finished by April 30.

Between 30-200 people will be working on the project at any given time, depending on the phase, Vercellone said."

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/15/2897054/raising-the-costa-concordia-is.html

763
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: July 22, 2012, 09:12:58 PM »
GROSSETO, Italy — An Italian court on Saturday postponed until Oct. 15 a preliminary hearing seeking to determine charges against those responsible for the Costa Concordia shipwreck that killed 32 crew and passengers.

The court decided to delay the hearing, which will decide whether to indict Concordia's captain and others, in order to examine an expert assessment of audio evidence from the black box data recorder.

Capt. Francesco Schettino's lawyer told reporters outside the courthouse that the audio evidence from the black box confirms his client's version of events.

"Schettino has felt relieved since he had the chance to tell his version of the facts to the judge, but he is also relieved because the audio evidence from the black box confirm his version," Bruno Leporatti said.

Schettino said recently in a TV interview that he was distracted by a telephone call just before the Jan. 13 accident, and that he believed his decision to move the ship closer to shore to shallow waters instead of immediately ordering an evacuation potentially saved lives. Prosecutors allege he sailed too close to an island in a publicity stunt, ramming it into a reef.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/21/costa-concordia-hearing-delayed_n_1691614.html


764
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: July 18, 2012, 11:04:04 AM »
"The husband of an Italian woman who died when the Costa Concordia cruise liner rammed a reef and capsized has left a memorial plaque on the sea bed near the reef.

Accompanied by Italian Coast Guard divers, Elio Vincenzi plunged into the pristine waters off Giglio island in scuba diving gear Saturday to place the plaque 25 meters (82 feet) deep. A cross and photos of Maria Grazia Trecarichi, whose body has never been found, decorate the plaque.

Vincenzi told Sky TG24 TV that during the dive he experienced overwhelming emotion, which he'll remember for as long as he lives."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2018684983_apeuitalyshipaground.html


765
Princess Chatter Archive / Re: Carnival owned cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy
« on: July 18, 2012, 10:52:40 AM »
"Evidence gathered from the black box data recorder of the Costa Concordia appears to contradict his insistence that he was not in charge of the ship when it smashed into the rocky outcrop off the Tuscan island of Giglio.

In his first media interview since the disaster, Francesco Schettino insisted on Tuesday that he was not in command of the cruise ship when it careered into the reef on Jan 13, tearing a huge gash in its hull and leading to the deaths of 32 people, including a five year old girl.

He had dinner with friends, including an ex-dancer from Moldova, then went up onto the bridge, he said.

But he maintained that he did not immediately take charge, telling an Italian television channel that at the time of the collision the 1,000ft ship was being steered by another officer.

“I went up to the bridge. I ordered the navigation to be manual, and I didn’t have the command. The navigation was being directed by another officer,” Mr Schettino said.

But data recovered from the black box by forensic investigators showed that the captain disabled the automatic pilot and took control of the ship at 9.39pm that night – six minutes before the collision at 9.45pm.

He allegedly veered off the ship’s previously agreed route, steering the Concordia perilously close to Giglio so that he could perform a “salute” or sail-past for the benefit of a former colleague, a retired sea captain who lived on the island.

Audio recordings from the black box, leaked to Corriere della Sera on Wednesday, revealed the panic and drama on the bridge as officers realised that the giant ship was ramming into the rocky reef, a few yards off Giglio’s coast.

“Our a— is dragging along the seabed!” an unidentified officer yelled. He then swore and gave the order for watertight doors in the stern to be immediately closed.

A few moments later Mr Schettino asked: “What did we hit?” to which an unidentified officer replied: “The reef.”

Another officer said: “It was the salute that he wanted,” an apparent reference to the sail-past that the captain had agreed to perform.

At 9.56pm Mr Schettino telephoned Roberto Ferrarini, an officer who was on duty in the emergency unit of Costa Cruises, the Genoa-based company that owns the Concordia.

“Roberto, I f—– up!” he said, according to the transcript. “Look, I’m dying here, don’t tell me anything.”

He tried to shift the blame onto the retired sea captain, Mario Palombo, saying that it was he who had encouraged him to sail so close to the island.

“It was Palombo who said to me ‘pass close by, pass close by’. I did pass close by and I hit shallow water with the stern. I did it to keep him happy. I’m really devastated.”

The ship began to list as it took on massive amounts of water but the captain still delayed giving the order to evacuate its 4,200 passengers and crew.

He finally gave the order to abandon ship at 10.51pm, by which time it was redundant – his officers had overridden him and already begun the evacuation.

The black box data, recovered by a special unit of the Carabinieri, will be presented to a judge at a hearing in Grosseto on the Italian mainland on July 21.

http://skift.com/2012/07/12/first-honest-words-concordia-captain-i-f-d-up/


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