Last voyage for Costa Concordia cruise ship

I read that the ship is now scrap metal. The" Don Pedro ", at the mouth of Ibiza harbour, was never raised

 

A first hand account from an Australian passenger aboard who took to posting this on a forum:

"Sitting here in the Hilton Garden Inn, Rome Airport waiting for passports and a flight home. We have nothing just the clothes on our back, ( evening wear with a hurried coat thrown over the back, my 12 year old is dressed in a short halter neck dress with a windcheater and the temps here are very cold but we have been given nothing else by Costa our embassy have given us cash and are taking us shopping for essentials. Costa have put us up in this hotel but told us nothing and given us no further help than that. They left the hotel yesterday afternoon abandoning us here alone dazed bruised and confused.

After the ship Hit it listed people rang and panicked we were told to go to our rooms, glad ours was the 6th deck and not below. The announcements were that we had electrical problems everything was under control, the english was announced by our international host. We were told this twice. and then by the staff numerous times, I think they believed it as well. We could not go into our cabin as our welcome spumante and glasses was shattered all over the floor and there were no lights, we could see the island was close from the balcony window so did not panic thinking everything would be okay. Cabin staff told us not to get our life jackets it was not necessary we sat on stools and the floor joking with them, this went on for what seemed like an hour, the boat struck just after 9pm I think. Then a message came over the speakers all of the staff left immediately.

We were left alone as the abandon ship sirens screamed, we grabbed a coat and shoes in place of high heels our life vests, put them on and headed for the lifeboats. We stood on the deck for ages before the cabin staff told us to enter the lifeboats. We got into the boats we had a waiter in the drivers seat and some boys in white overalls, the lifeboat filled to capacity and they shut the door, people screamed the door was purshed open and people continued to enter the boat overflowing it the waiter in the drivers seat trying repatedly to get an answer form the bridge to drop the lifeboat. I don't believe that message ever came eventually an Indian engineer came who said he should be the driver the gate was sealed and they started to drop the boat, it was horrifying the boat was too heavy it lurched all of as standing were thrown to the floor the boat stuck on the side of the ship with men desperately trying to lever it off the side of the boat.

Eneutally we got to the sea the waiter was too short to see out the top of the boat to steer they circled around the boat for ages and ages, eventually the engineer steered with the waiter on his shoulders we just kept circling with the shore so close and all those people still on the boat and we kept circling. Lifeboats crashed into each other they were empty but they were not going back to the boat they had no orders no instructions. Eventually we tried to dock but crashed into the wharf circled a bit more and docked.

We got of the ship dazed and confused trying to find a toilet for my 12 year old, a shopkeeper let people use his a long line for one toilet. The locals on the island gave us everything they had souvenir tshirts tops blankets. We were herded to the school, some to the church, here we sat on cold floors on our life vests this was about midnight when we got there. No one spoke English everyone was talking and we had no idea where we were or what was happening the staff were the waiters etc and no time did we see an officer. I saw the International english speaking host and asked him what was happening he said he had no idea and was as dazed and confused as me, I told him where we were and to come back and tell us, he never came back, from time to time we ventured out of the school to look and see what was happening as the ship submerged on its side where our cabin was. Eventually a lady in a shop or meeting place of some kind spoke english, she told me there was a queue for the ferry to the mainland. We joined the queue, and gave our names ( the first time) and got on the next ferry.

1 hour later we arrived on the mainland, we were given warmer blankets and pushed towards a tent we went through and had our names taken again we were then pushed through to a bus and taken to a school and told to stand in a corner for the port where we embarked, there were not enough chairs. We sat there for three or four hours we were then called to a bus, but when we got there we were told this bus was only for people who had cars at Civitivecchia, we had to wait for the airport bus.

We were then bussed to the Hilton Garden Inn and given a room, we were still told nothing given nothing by Costa, constantly I asked them and was always told to wait while they spoke to people in more common languages, Costa have done nothing but give us the room."

 

Is there a picture of these lifeboats' visibility problem? I guess no one thought of having to see to steer the lifeboat ???

 

Here are some pictures...


Number of evacuees on a single deck


Lifeboats - they do look high


Liferafts, still stuck...


The Rock


Happy Fun Slide

 

Cat- thanks.

I find it absolutely incredible that active, direct measures were not being taken to direct the ships operations in what was obviously a very dangerous event.

Starting with effectively communicating with the CG about the problem:

CG: "Costa Concordia, is everything okay?".
CC: "Yes, Compamare Livorno, only a technical failure."
CG: "Costa Concordia, are you sure that is a technical failure? We know that there are passengers on board wearing life jackets."
CC: "Compamare, confirm: it is a technical failure."

Incredible
Absolutely incredible.

What if the ship had rolled over in deep water- we would have perhaps thousands of fatalities.

It's bad enough to hit the rock- the criminal act follows in how the ship was handled.

Did the ship ever even send out a distress signal?
If the captain broke under the pressure, isn't there a next in line who could step in to manage the disaster?

 

What a wreckless fool the captain of this ship was. The ship is way too close to this rocky shore. He will be on the wall of shame for life, and hopefully spend the rest of his life in prison. He's taken the lives of who knows how many people. Reliance on auto-pilot or not, the captain is always responsible for safe navigation.

 

A picture of the ship before the final u-turn and before listing.


.

 

Thanks CatBuilder. When I read that above, it sounded almost comedic the guy having to sit on the other guy's shoulders to see. That larger lifeboat appears to have a large window in the front and door on the side, but I can see the guy out the top hatch and the guy on the side for better spotting. I wonder if the front window was hard to see thru. Low boats or people astern wouldn't be seen from the helm or backing. That smaller lifeboat doesn't have much visibility aft at all and I can't see what it has for visibility over the bow.

 

I don't know what to make of this AIS track:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4zTRiXnWhw&feature=endscreen&NR=1

 

So the rules for liferaft construction will have to be revised too, in the aftermath of this incident. Ad Hoc was right, this will become a major rule changer.

There is a series of interesting videos on this page of Repubblica newspaper. Some are shot by rescue teams, so you can see what it looks like for them, having to work on an 80° heeled ship: http://video.repubblica.it/edizione...a-concordia-affondata/85878?video=&ref=HREA-1

 

Good video link - thanks daiquiri.

 

It's not that useless... It confirms the reconstruction in the post #140. The ship has stopped at around 20:56 and then nothing happens until 21:56, when all the surrounding vessels start to rush towards the island.
It is interesting to observe how massive the traffic towards the island becomes after 22:56. Looks like an video about antibodies massively rushing towards a point where an infection was detected.

 

Perhaps, when someone from the crew said "maybe we should bow before the island", the captain misunderstood the meaning of that phrase...

 

I am wondering why he didn't run her into shore there?

My instinct would have been to drive her bow in, into the northwest corner of that harbor.

She might have stayed upright and not be perched as she is so precariously off that point.
He knew she was sinking- why drop the anchor and risk not swinging into the shallows when she could have been run in...





I know, I know... monday morning quarter backing..

 

According to that chart and where I saw the point of impact on a previous post, it is one km from the resting place to POImpact.

-Tom