Last voyage for Costa Concordia cruise ship

[daiquiri]

She went aground last night near the Giglio island in Italy: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16558910
The plating was torn by the rocks, leaving a 70 meters long breach in the hull, with the consequent flooding of the compartments:

The causes for the grounding are yet to be found, the only thing known at the present is that she was allegedly 3 miles off the planned course at the moment of impact.
I have no other comments to add, just a pic about what she looked like before:

 

[michael pierzga]

Certainly appears to be a huge navigation blunder. Nice rock inbedded in the hull.

Was the Concordia preparing to anchor off Giglio for a daytime excursions ashore or in transit.?

Looks like they had better airlift 10,000 pizzas to Giglio fast, bet those tourists are hungry.

And look at all those cute tug boats standing on !

Ill bet the VHF bridge to bridge traffic in the north central Tyrrhenian Sea is intense.

I couldn't track the Concordia's AIS pings. Do Cruise ships maintain stealth ?

 

[daiquiri]

Certainly appears to be a huge navigation blunder. Nice rock inbedded in the hull.
Was the Concordia preparing to anchor off Giglio for a daytime excursions ashore or in transit.?

No, she allegedly had to pass 3 miles off the Giglio island. Was heading north, to the port of Savona.
The extent of the damage is also due to relatively high cruise speed at the moment of the impact.

 

[michael pierzga]

Fantastic blunder. What flag is the ship ?

 

[daiquiri]

Fantastic blunder. What flag is the ship ?

Yeah, pretty incerdible.

Info about the ship: http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/shipdetails.aspx?mmsi=247158500

Current position (and will be for quite some time): http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?oldmmsi=247158500&zoom=10&olddate=1/13/2012 9:02:00 PM

 

[daiquiri]

Based on the published info, the planned course had to look like the one drawn with red dotted lines. The blue line shows the actual AIS-tracked course data:



It looks like the autopilot (or the helmsman) has commanded the course change about 4 miles too late. At the cruise speed of 15.5 kts (based on the AIS-recorded average), it means that the course change was delayed by about 15 minutes. The strange thing is that nobody apparently did nothing to avoid the grounding. No visible signs of efforts to get back to the planned course, or to avoid the island (which must have been signaled by the radar). Like there was no person on the watch on the command bridge for at least 15-20 minutes.

Very odd indeed.

 

[michael pierzga]

Very strange...A Cruise ships wheelhouse is staffed by senior, professional watch officers.

It will be an interesting salvage operation. The weather is light eastery wind for the near future, should give salvage gangs an opportunity to begin pumping her fuel load down to prevent catastrophe

 

[daiquiri]

Or could the apparent lack of action by the servicemen be due to the AIS tracking-line linearization?

A zoomed image indicates that perhaps the helmsman did try to correct the course, but the ship course was probably shown on the map as a single line:



Anyways, the action was performed too late, so the doubts from the previous post remain.

 

[daiquiri]

More info gathered: the point of impact was allegedly some 500 meters off the Port of Giglio (Giglio Porto in the previous picture). After the impact, the crew has performed the crash-stop maneuver, with a release of anchors in order to stop the ship as close as possible to the shore, to make the rescue operations easier.

The anchor pull has made the ship perform a 180° turn, and that explains the fact that published photos show the bow of the ship pointing towards south-east and the starboard side facing the island.

There will be a lots to investigate around this accident. Many passengers have referred that the crew did not manage the emergency properly. People was boarding the lifeboats randomly and in panic, with no guidance from the crew. Lifeboats were insufficient because many were unable to deploy due to the heel of the ship, so many persons had to jump in the cold water. Many of these claims will have to be verified, of course.

A short video of the grounded ship: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_lJbwofmJk

 

[daiquiri]

It turns out that it was a deliberate passage of the ship close to the Giglio island, and it has been done several times in the past for the joy of islanders. This is video shows the same ship doing the same thing last summer: http://video.corriere.it/nave-concordia-al-giglio-/9dfa5ea6-3e9b-11e1-8b52-5f77182bc574

Excess of confidence?

 

[DCockey]

Interesting that the ship capsized to the side opposite the visible tear in the hull.

 

[michael pierzga]

Interesting.. The cruise ship was just doing a drive by , rubber necking .

Many of the Tuscan Islands are national parks...nature reserves. Ive alway understood that close in navigation was prohibited ?

What is the status of Giglio ?

 

[daiquiri]

Interesting that the ship capsized to the side opposite the visible tear in the hull.

The dynamic of this grounding was pretty complex, as it involved an impact with the underwater rocks, the subsequent prolonged slow but heavy rolling from side to side (according to passengers testimonies), a huge mass of water sloshing inside, anchors pulling sideways and ship's fast 180° rotation around the yaw axis. And at some point the hull found a rocky bottom below.

The side on which she has ended her movements and found a stable position was probably mostly commanded by the dynamic behavior of the water mass inside the hull and the anchor pull, plus the moment when she sat on the bottom.

 

[daiquiri]

Many of the Tuscan Islands are national parks...nature reserves. Ive alway understood that close in navigation was prohibited ?
What is the status of Giglio ?

I believe that eastern coast (where the Port of Giglio is located) of Giglio is not a natural reserve. Don't know about the western coast.

I know that Giannutri Island (a nearby island located SE from Giglio) is a natural marine park, and has very limited areas for navigation and access.

 

[michael pierzga]

Sad...those are very beautiful islands. I remember sheltering in the lee of Giglio during a strong winter NE gale.

I expect to see new rules to navigation because of this accident.

Have they interviewed the captain or is he sequestered ?