Costa Concordia sinking on TV

[Kukri]

27 passengers and five crew died.

Useful summary here.

Costa Concordia disaster - Wikipedia

I’ll just say that if a wide body aircraft carrying 450 passengers crashes and four passengers die we consider that a good outcome.

 

[capnsensible]

Tragic and seemingly avoidable. For me, your wear the captains hat, you take the punishment.

Lots has been written about the salvage and the complexities resolved. It was an engineering triumph. But not in a million years worth 32 lives.

As a side note, several diver friends of mine made literally small fortunes from the salvage. But not a job I would want.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Tragic and seemingly avoidable. For me, your wear the captains hat, you take the punishment.

Lots has been written about the salvage and the complexities resolved. It was an engineering triumph. But not in a million years worth 32 lives.

As a side note, several diver friends of mine made literally small fortunes from the salvage. But not a job I would want.

And I understand that your diver friends saved at least one young couple who were trapped in their cabin.

 

[Kukri]

One diver was killed so 33 lives were lost in all.

 

[mjcoon]

One diver was killed so 33 lives were lost in all.

But that diver may be presumed to have had a better understanding of his risks than the passengers or perhaps even of the crew. And a potential benefit of a "small fortune"?

 

[capnsensible]

And I understand that your diver friends saved at least one young couple who were trapped in their cabin.

I think that was the early response guys. My oppos were on the salvage team for more than a year.

One, a dive crew supervisor, was on the trip where it was towed away to the breakers. He found that a rather weird experience.

 

[capnsensible]

But that diver may be presumed to have had a better understanding of his risks than the passengers or perhaps even of the crew. And a potential benefit of a "small fortune"?

Diver Dies On Costa Concordia Salvage

Commercial diving is not without risk. That's why it pays well. Enough, after 2 years on that salvage to buy a house. Cash. With plenty left over....

 

[Thistle]

https://www.mitma.gob.es/recursos_mfom/2012costaconcordia.pdf

I hope the investigation was of a higher quality than the translation.

 

[Bilgediver]

If Kukri is correct with the facts, then it was a miracle there were not more casualties. If there had been an offshore wind and the ship had not drifted onto the shore then I suspect many hundreds, if not thousands would have died.

I believe he is as they reflect exactly what came through the grapevine to Scotland at the time.

It was only by the grace of god that the ship did not sink in deep water. I am pretty sure as I think are others here that the return to a convenient ledge was not instigated by anyone on board.

 

[Davy_S]

I watched both episodes, the passengers must have been terrified to find that they ended up in a panicking free for all scramble to the lifeboats, they should have expected crew members who are supposedly trained in evacuation, to take firm control and calm the situation down, reassure the passengers and safely guide them to the lifeboats, although the captain should be responsible for the outcome, the plea bargaining should not have been allowed, other senior crew members should also have been jailed for their part in what seemed to be abandonment of the passengers.

 

[dgadee]

I anchored there and had to be quite far in for useful depth. If you look at the chart on Navionics web app you will see just how close the ship had to be in in order to hit a rock.

 

[Bilgediver]

I watched both episodes, the passengers must have been terrified to find that they ended up in a panicking free for all scramble to the lifeboats, they should have expected crew members who are supposedly trained in evacuation, to take firm control and calm the situation down, reassure the passengers and safely guide them to the lifeboats, although the captain should be responsible for the outcome, the plea bargaining should not have been allowed, other senior crew members should also have been jailed for their part in what seemed to be abandonment of the passengers.

Unfortunately many of those crew members at lifeboat stations may not be mariners but hotel staff trained to procedures that rely on instructions from above. In this case it seems they received no instructions and so the system failed.

 

[Bajansailor]

Just a couple of observations re memories that have stuck with me.

Costa is part of Carnival - I went on a Carnival cruise from here about 15 years ago.
When we did our boat drill (4 days after joining the ship) the Cruise Director was in charge of proceedings, as the officers were all Italian, and they only had a basic command of English.
However the Cruise Director was an Aussie, with a very broad accent, and it was very difficult to under stand what he was saying (combined with the PA system having a lot of distortion).
I remember thinking that the boat drill was a complete shambles - and I have witnessed quite a few boat drills over the years, on cruise ships and cargo vessels, with my surveyor's hat on. It was in complete contrast to the usual boat drills I used to see on cruise ships which were polished efficiency. (They do not do boat drills for passengers any more now, because of the rules re Covid).

Another time I had a survey job on a Costa vessel to look at some damages sustained. I was taken initially to the Master's day room, and met the Master, who asked if I wanted coffee? I said yes please.
I then saw why he was so keen on ordering coffee - when the young female steward arrived with the coffee, she had to serve it while sitting on his lap, and his hands were busily groping her.
I was gobsmacked - especially as he was doing this openly in front of me.
It was very nice coffee though.
Re the damages, this was to the shell plating and the access inside the ship was through one of the galleys. And I was again gobsmacked by the dirty condition of this galley, and the floor was like an ice rink re spilled oil.