Kukri
Well-known member
Thanks; that was a good article.
Costa Concordia (Titanic 2012)
- Thread starter RichardTaylor
- Start date
Metabarca
Well-known member
An audio transcript of the call between the coastguard (on the mainland in Livorno) and the captain has just been released, in which the coastguard lays down the law: "Get back on board. There are passengers being evacuated. You must go back on board. That's an order".
Later: "There are corpses".
Captain: "How many?"
CG: "How many? I don't know; one at least. You're supposed to tell me that..."
Later: "There are corpses".
Captain: "How many?"
CG: "How many? I don't know; one at least. You're supposed to tell me that..."
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Supine Being
Well-known member
If the allegations are correct, it sounds like he had a complete emotional meltdown. I'm not sure I'd be too chipper either if I had just wrecked a €350m liner with 4000 lives aboard in favour of a silly stunt. I'd still hope that I would react better than this though.
tony_lavelle
Active member
Gap in AIS track
The mystery gap in the AIS track is between these points approx 3 miles apart:
20:37 42N20'15.61" 10E57'57.58" 15.3kt/285T
20:53 42N22'03.28" 010E55'31.27" 2.9kt/351T
Other recorded positions before and after this unexplained 16 minute gap (so about 11kt) on the AIS track are shown every 3 or 4 minutes. This gap could be explained by (a) the ship passing so close to the rocky coast that its AIS antenna was out of sight of the receiving station (if that was on top of Giglio island) or (b) if the crew turned it off to hide their unauthorised manoeuvre even before the grounding.
Most likely scenario to me, from all the reports I've seen, is that the captain indeed took the Concordia very close to the Le Scole islet, possibly inside it, to give the head waiter's friends ashore a "fly-by" salute and hit the rock. This was the first bump heard by the passengers. He then coninued slowly as if to pass the port but as the ship started to list and suffer power failure (hence loss of GPS track) realised that he to make for shallow water to save lives and turned around. Some of the damage could have been caused by the final grounding on the ledge just N of the harbour entrance.
If the captain was using vector charts (most likely) and not zoomed in sufficiently, small features such as isolated rocks may not have been displayed. It's also possible that the chart was not corrected for WGS84 datum, a common problem with charts in the Med, resulting in errors of up to 200 metres.
Whatever the cause, the captain seems to have saved thousands of lives by getting the ship close to shore in the few minutes left to him. He almost got the ship into the port. A Mayday call may have seemed less useful at that awful moment of realisation.
Anyway it will be fascinating to know what the "black box" reveals. Could be a long wait...
The mystery gap in the AIS track is between these points approx 3 miles apart:
20:37 42N20'15.61" 10E57'57.58" 15.3kt/285T
20:53 42N22'03.28" 010E55'31.27" 2.9kt/351T
Other recorded positions before and after this unexplained 16 minute gap (so about 11kt) on the AIS track are shown every 3 or 4 minutes. This gap could be explained by (a) the ship passing so close to the rocky coast that its AIS antenna was out of sight of the receiving station (if that was on top of Giglio island) or (b) if the crew turned it off to hide their unauthorised manoeuvre even before the grounding.
Most likely scenario to me, from all the reports I've seen, is that the captain indeed took the Concordia very close to the Le Scole islet, possibly inside it, to give the head waiter's friends ashore a "fly-by" salute and hit the rock. This was the first bump heard by the passengers. He then coninued slowly as if to pass the port but as the ship started to list and suffer power failure (hence loss of GPS track) realised that he to make for shallow water to save lives and turned around. Some of the damage could have been caused by the final grounding on the ledge just N of the harbour entrance.
If the captain was using vector charts (most likely) and not zoomed in sufficiently, small features such as isolated rocks may not have been displayed. It's also possible that the chart was not corrected for WGS84 datum, a common problem with charts in the Med, resulting in errors of up to 200 metres.
Whatever the cause, the captain seems to have saved thousands of lives by getting the ship close to shore in the few minutes left to him. He almost got the ship into the port. A Mayday call may have seemed less useful at that awful moment of realisation.
Anyway it will be fascinating to know what the "black box" reveals. Could be a long wait...
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Roberto
Well-known member
here the "live" recording
http://video.corrierefiorentino.corriere.it/telefonate-il-comandante-capitaneria/cf-167017
Metabarca
Well-known member
And here's the transcription, translated (Google translation, slightly corrected - not got time to do it personally):
21.49
The coastguard radio makes contact with the bridge.
"Concordia is everything ok?".
"Positive," answer from the ship, "we only have a small technical problem."
The Concordia was already on the shoal where she is now. Five minutes later, the operations room of Livorno once again urges the Concordia: because the police in Prato had had contact with a passenger who spoke about the problems and said the word 'shipwreck'.
"Concordia, we wonder if everything is okay," is still the question of the commander on duty.
"Only a technical problem."
"You tell us your position?".
"We only have a technical problem and we can not, but as soon as we have fixed it, we'll tell you."
"How many people are on board?".
Answer: "two or three hundred."
Instead the ship would still be full, 40 minutes have elapsed from the order to evacuate. "I'll go back on deck, I see."
At 00:42 a second call, in which the coastguard asks: "How many people still to come down?".
"I called the owner and told him that I miss about forty people."
"How can there be so few people? Are you on board?"
"No, I'm not on board because the ship is down by the stern, we have abandoned."
"What, you've abandoned the ship?" Asked the Coast Guard.
"No, not abandoned, I'm here, I'm coordinating relief efforts."
"What are you coordinating there. Are you refusing? Go on board and coordinate relief efforts from there"
"No, no I'm not refusing"
1 .46 the third phone call, the more agitated. In a crescendo of tones.
"Am I speaking with the captain?" Said the officer of the captaincy.
After a few seconds pause. "Yes, I'm the captain. Schettino."
"Get back on board, up the bigaccina (ladder, ed.) Get back to the bow and coordinate the work, tell me how many people are there."
He is silent.
"Commander the ship is listing"
The officer insists. "You must go back and tell me how many people are there, how many passengers, women and children and coordinate relief efforts there."
Schettino, hesitatingly: "Captain, if you please."
"No, if you please you: get up and get back on board, I want to know that you are going on board. Captain, this is an order, now I'm in charge, you ordered the ship to be abandoned so go forward to coordinate relief efforts. There are already corpses, "said the official in Livorno.
Schettino: "How many?".
At the other end: "You should be telling me."
Schettino agitated retorts "Commander but you realize that it's dark and you cannot see anything here"
But the officer peremptorily insists "What do you want to do, you want to go home? Now get up there and tell me what can be done, how many people there are, and what they need. Now."
After further hesitation accepts Schettini, "Okay, I'm going." (but he didn't)
21.49
The coastguard radio makes contact with the bridge.
"Concordia is everything ok?".
"Positive," answer from the ship, "we only have a small technical problem."
The Concordia was already on the shoal where she is now. Five minutes later, the operations room of Livorno once again urges the Concordia: because the police in Prato had had contact with a passenger who spoke about the problems and said the word 'shipwreck'.
"Concordia, we wonder if everything is okay," is still the question of the commander on duty.
"Only a technical problem."
"You tell us your position?".
"We only have a technical problem and we can not, but as soon as we have fixed it, we'll tell you."
"How many people are on board?".
Answer: "two or three hundred."
Instead the ship would still be full, 40 minutes have elapsed from the order to evacuate. "I'll go back on deck, I see."
At 00:42 a second call, in which the coastguard asks: "How many people still to come down?".
"I called the owner and told him that I miss about forty people."
"How can there be so few people? Are you on board?"
"No, I'm not on board because the ship is down by the stern, we have abandoned."
"What, you've abandoned the ship?" Asked the Coast Guard.
"No, not abandoned, I'm here, I'm coordinating relief efforts."
"What are you coordinating there. Are you refusing? Go on board and coordinate relief efforts from there"
"No, no I'm not refusing"
1 .46 the third phone call, the more agitated. In a crescendo of tones.
"Am I speaking with the captain?" Said the officer of the captaincy.
After a few seconds pause. "Yes, I'm the captain. Schettino."
"Get back on board, up the bigaccina (ladder, ed.) Get back to the bow and coordinate the work, tell me how many people are there."
He is silent.
"Commander the ship is listing"
The officer insists. "You must go back and tell me how many people are there, how many passengers, women and children and coordinate relief efforts there."
Schettino, hesitatingly: "Captain, if you please."
"No, if you please you: get up and get back on board, I want to know that you are going on board. Captain, this is an order, now I'm in charge, you ordered the ship to be abandoned so go forward to coordinate relief efforts. There are already corpses, "said the official in Livorno.
Schettino: "How many?".
At the other end: "You should be telling me."
Schettino agitated retorts "Commander but you realize that it's dark and you cannot see anything here"
But the officer peremptorily insists "What do you want to do, you want to go home? Now get up there and tell me what can be done, how many people there are, and what they need. Now."
After further hesitation accepts Schettini, "Okay, I'm going." (but he didn't)
Kukri
Well-known member
Thanks for posting that. However, may I turn the vector chart observation on its head, for a moment?
Let's assume that the ship carries full type approved ECDIS (highly likely!) The chart on maximum resolution can give no more data than the surveys (probably initially leadline, sextant and station pointer surveys) on which it is based, so the vector chart can give a spurious sense of accuracy.
If the ship had overlaid the radar plot over the chart, any WGS 84 datum issues would have been immediately apparent. Of course, we don't know if they did.
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Metabarca
Well-known member
According to the Italian press, they've found bits of metal from the ship just east of the outermost rock (Le Scole). Which would have put the ship 92 metres from the shore, inside the area in which powered craft are forbidden...!
Kukri
Well-known member
nigel1
Active member
I dont think these public AIS sites can be relied on.
For a start, Marine Traffic shows a vessels filtered speed made good, and course made good. Look at your own GPS while alongside and note the CMG, not much use for anything, so at a SMG of 1.1 kts, how accurate is that COG of 013.
And what is the acuracy of google maps, what datum is used, and what projection, disregarding that soundings are not shown, its not something I wouild contemplate for use in navigation.
I feel quite sorry for the Capitano, he's been tried and judged already by a sensationalist press, hysterical public, and no doubt greed driven compensation lawyers. What ever happened to the concept of innocent until proven guilty. Can hardly see him getting something like a fair trial.
Ah well, at least they can get a movie out of it, Sandra *******s and Tom Crud desperately trying to save the ship with the handamatic bow thrusters
Erik C
Active member
Are you aware of the facts mentioned in this thread?
chewi
Active member
That article implies (says?) that a similar flyby took place on 6th jan, yet Costa are reporting 13th jan an unauthorised deviation from the 6th jan route, which is portrayed as a very safe distance pass.
Costas CEO may have to answer to whether they knew about the multiple evidences of this and other flybys, if not, why not, and what did they do to suppress them, or they will be accessory to this practice.
nigel1
Active member
I am aware of whats in the thread, but its all based on press reports and heresay. Facts will be determined by maritime investgation/inquiry.
chewi
Active member
They will be reported in the press too, will you ignore all them as well?
Yes there is some bull conjectured in here, but some of it can be seen to be nonsense.
Capitanos only hope as far as I can see is that Costa knew of and tacitly approved the "impressive" flybys, and that they obliged him to do it as close as he dared, but his behaviour post grounding probably tips him past that unlikely redemption.
![[32511]](https://ybw-data.community.forum/avatars/m/32/32511.jpg?1576058889){kind=avatar}
[32511]
...
Sky News reports five more bodies found; confirmed total now 11.
stillwaters
New member
And either way he's damned. As the rest of us well know ,even with our much smaller craft,even if we don't do anything stupid ourselves,if we are the skipper and our boat hits something else we are responsible. I,for one,have no problem with that because when aboard everyone needs to know where they stand and who to call on if things go pear-shaped,like this undoubtedly did. In other words,even company orders would not be an excuse for the captain,he was in charge of the ship not them and such orders would therefore surely just compromise them as well.
stillwaters
New member
Thanks for the updates and transcripts from your end. All quite unbelievable until you see the result of someone's apparent abuse of responsibility to so many people who surely deserved far better care than this.
Conachair
Guest
For those who know about these things..
Do these monster ships not have constant telemetry links with nav & engine etc data back to head office?
Must be plenty sat capability to do this.
Do these monster ships not have constant telemetry links with nav & engine etc data back to head office?
Must be plenty sat capability to do this.
SailorBill
New member
chewi
Active member
Quite.
He might not be alone is his perhaps self-inflicted plight, he could take some of Costa with him.
