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During the 19-month trial, prosecutors claimed that he was an “idiot,” while Schettino countered that his actions had saved lives and that he was being scapegoated. In addition, he noted the steering error by the helmsman, but a maritime expert testified that regardless of the mistake, the collision was unavoidable. In February 2015 Schettino was convicted on all charges and sentenced to more than 16 years in prison. He appealed the verdict, but it was upheld in May 2017; Schettino began serving his sentence shortly thereafter.
Ten years on, survivors haunted by Italy cruise ship disaster
The court ordered Costa to pay Carusotti 77,000 euros (about $87,300) in damages plus 15,692 euros (about $17,800) in legal fees. Rose Metcalf, a dancer who had been performing on the ship, was one of the last people to be winched to safety by a helicopter after clinging to the stricken vessel. "Usually there are 700 people on the island at this time of year, so receiving 4,000 people in the middle of the night wasn't easy," she said.
Regulatory and industry response
Ananias and her family declined Costa’s initial $14,500 compensation offered to each passenger and sued Costa, a unit of US-based Carnival Corp., to try to cover the cost of their medical bills and therapy for the post-traumatic stress they have suffered. But after eight years in the US and then Italian court system, they lost their case. “Every one of us here has a tragic memory from then,” said Mario Pellegrini, 59, who was deputy mayor in 2012 and was the first civilian to climb onto the cruise ship after it struck the rocks near the lighthouses at the port entrance. The calamity caused changes in the cruise industry like carrying more lifejackets and holding emergency drills before leaving port.
years later, Costa Concordia disaster is still vivid for survivors
In July 2014 the Concordia—outfitted with a number of steel containers serving as flotation devices—was towed to Genoa, Italy, where it was dismantled for scrap. The Costa Concordia was owned by Costa Crociere, a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & PLC. When launched in 2005, it was Italy’s largest cruise ship, measuring 951 feet (290 metres) long with a passenger capacity of 3,780; by comparison, the Titanic was 882.5 feet (269 metres) long and could accommodate up to 2,435 passengers. It featured four swimming pools, a casino, and reportedly the largest spa on a ship. In July 2006 the vessel undertook its maiden voyage, a seven-day cruise of the Mediterranean Sea, with stops in Italy, France, and Spain.
Wrecking Near the Shore
Through the confusion, the captain somehow made it into a lifeboat before everyone else had made it off. A coast guard member angrily told him on the phone to “Get back on board, damn it! The flagship Costa Smeralda set off from the northwestern port of Savona at 6pm after being landbound since December 20, when the Italian government banned cruises during the holiday season due to the coronavirus crisis. Dozens of passengers were taken off a cruise ship in Genoa, Italy, after testing positive for COVID, the operator said. "Everybody was trying to get on the boats at the same time. When people had to get on the lifeboats they were pushing each other. It was a bit chaotic. We were trying to keep passengers calm but it was just impossible. Nobody knew what was going on."
Passenger Who Suffers PTSD After Deadly Crash of Costa Concordia Cruise Ship Awarded $105K
Then the ship rolled again, now listing to the right, and the captain ordered the ship to be abandoned. "He was still helping them when the ship tilted over sharply, and people fell into the water. No-one saw him after that." The body of Russel, a 32-year-old waiter, was recovered three years after the disaster, when the rusting wreck was dismantled. Magnotta, who has written a book called "The Pianist of Costa Concordia", said he did as he was trained to do, and reassured passengers the captain would make an announcement. People in the Vienna Bar were listening to pianist Antimo Magnotta, who fell off his stool as the ship lurched.
UK ponders using retired cruise ships to process asylum seekers offshore
The captain, Francesco Schettino, is serving a 16-year prison sentence for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning a ship before all the passengers and crew had evacuated. Whether or not Captain Francesco Schettino was trying to impress his girlfriend is debatable. The wreck was not the fault of unexpected weather or ship malfunction—it was a disaster caused entirely by a series of human errors.
None of the survivors who spoke with Cobiella have been on a cruise since that day. "I felt like (my daughters) were going to get trampled, and putting my arms around them and just holding them together and letting the sea of people go by us." As the Costa Concordia made its final journey out of the port of Giglio, some survivors and families of victims looked on as a final farewell. “From the happiness and wonder of being on a cruise, we passengers became panic stricken and fell over.
Costa Concordia captain hands himself into prison - The Guardian
Costa Concordia captain hands himself into prison.
Posted: Fri, 12 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The anniversary comes as the cruise industry, shut down in much of the world for months because of the COVID-19 pandemic, is once again in the spotlight because of virus outbreaks that threaten passenger safety. Thirty-two people died when the ship slammed into a reef and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio. Few of the 500-odd residents of the fishermen’s village will ever forget the freezing night of Jan. 13, 2012, when the Costa Concordia shipwrecked, killing 32 people and upending life on the island for years. The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, had been performing a sail-past salute of Giglio when he steered the ship too close to the island and hit the jagged reef, opening a 230-foot gash in the side of the cruise liner. The Costa Concordia began to drift and, investigators later explained, list as a result of water in the damaged hull.
Ernesto Carusotti, the passenger suing the cruise line owned by U.S.-based Carnival Cruise Lines, was represented by the Italian consumer group Codacons. Captain Schettino will remain free in the meantime; under Italian law, the appeals process can take years to resolve. Rescue teams searched for survivors and helicopters evacuated the last 50 people on the deck. Some people decided it was too difficult to get on to a lifeboat and chose to swim, with a number safely reaching the nearby island of Giglio. "It was difficult to walk. First it moved once, then to the left and then more on the right. The boat was tipping one side. You could see the ship was sinking more and more. In half an hour it sank halfway into the water," she said.
The final mad scramble to evacuate the listing liner and then the extraordinary generosity of Giglio islanders who offered shoes, sweatshirts and shelter until the sun rose and passengers were ferried to the mainland. Ultimately, it took more than an hour for Schettino to give the order to abandon ship. By that point, the vessel was already tilted at a 30-degree angle, complicating some of the rescue effort. About 20 minutes later, even as hundreds of passengers continued to await rescue, Schettino abandoned his post and left his second in command in charge of the evacuation.
His firm, part of the US Carnival group, returned to the ocean again last September, limiting calls to Italian ports, only to suspend operations again in December. "A year and a half without going anywhere is a long time. It was about time we set off again for the sea, the atmosphere, the views. We've been missing all that," said Jean-Pierre Faux, a 74-year-old pensioner from Belgium holidaying with his wife Martine. Passengers boarded a little hesitantly at first after completing their battery of health tests before settling down in the knowledge that they could finally begin their holiday. The cruise industry has been smashed by the pandemic, suffering a shortfall of 64 billion euros and shedding 518,000 jobs between just mid-March and September last year, according to the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA). Other positive passengers will be disembarked in Civitavecchia, a port that serves Rome, or in Palermo, Sicily, it added. Schettino, who was accused of misleading the cruise line and Coast Guard about the severity of the accident while requesting assistance, said months after the accident that he was on the phone when the crash occurred.
Cruise ship captain may have made ‘significant’ error, company says - CNN
Cruise ship captain may have made ‘significant’ error, company says.
Posted: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:00:00 GMT [source]
For Concordia survivor Georgia Ananias, the COVID-19 infections are just the latest evidence that passenger safety still isn’t a top priority for the cruise ship industry. Passengers aboard the Concordia were largely left on their own to find life jackets and a functioning lifeboat after the captain steered the ship close too shore in a stunt. He then delayed an evacuation order until it was too late, with lifeboats unable to lower because the ship was listing too heavily. In the final days of a trial, which began in July 2013 and included more than 69 hearings, attorneys for Schettino described him as a scapegoat who had been vilified but deserved to be treated like a hero. Schettino argued that he fell into a lifeboat because of how the ship was listing to one side, but this argument proved unconvincing.
Twelve minutes later, the latter also abandoned his post, with about 300 passengers still on board. It happened on Friday evening and marked the start of hours of panic among the 4,000 people on board the cruise ship. It took a massive operation and $1.5 billion to refloat the Costa Concordia cruise ship. The giant craft will now be towed 200 miles across open ocean before being scrapped.
GIGLIO, Italy (AP) — Ten years have passed since the Costa Concordia cruise ship slammed into a reef and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio. But for the passengers on board and the residents who welcomed them ashore, the memories of that harrowing, freezing night remain vividly etched into their minds. Ten years have passed since the Costa Concordia cruise ship slammed into a reef and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio. GIGLIO, Italy — Ten years have passed since the Costa Concordia cruise ship slammed into a reef and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio. Prosecutors blamed the delayed evacuation order and conflicting instructions given by crew for the chaos that ensued as passengers scrambled to get off the ship.
Italian media reported there were 150 positive cases on board the cruise ship. Monica, a German passenger who was in the cruise liner's theatre when the ship began to suffer problems, said it was hard to reach the lifeboats. Eyewitnesses have described scenes of chaos on board the Italian cruise ship the Costa Concordia, which has run aground off Italy, killing at least five people. "I imagine it like a nail stuck to the wall that marks that date, as a before and after," he said, recounting how he joined the rescue effort that night, helping pull ashore the dazed, injured and freezing passengers from lifeboats.
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