Costa Concordia ran aground off west coast of Italy on 13 January 2012.
Italy marks 12 years because the Costa Concordia cruise ship ran aground off the Tuscan island of Giglio, leading to 32 deaths, in one of many worst maritime disasters in fashionable Italian historical past.
The accident occurred in calm seas on the night time of 13 January 2012 when the luxurious liner carrying 3,206 passengers and 1,023 crew deviated from its deliberate route throughout a seven-day Mediterranean cruise.
Captained by Francesco Schettino, the Costa Concordia was making its method between the port of Civitavecchia, 60km north of Rome, and Savona in Italy’s northern Liguria area, when catastrophe struck.
Giglio sail-past salute
In an act of bravado, Schettino steered the 292m-long vessel in the direction of the shore to “salute” Giglio, a small island off Italy’s west coast, operating the ship aground on jagged rocks in shallow waters at round 21.45.
The impression precipitated a 53-m lengthy gash within the port-side hull, alongside 5 compartments, together with the engine room.
The 114,500-ton cruise liner quickly started taking up water, leading to a lack of energy, propulsion and electrical techniques. The rudder was additionally out of motion, which means the ship couldn’t be steered.
A frantic passenger contacted her daughter on the mainland, and at about 22.15 the Italian coast guard telephoned Schettino, who downplayed the state of affairs, noting solely that there was a blackout aboard.
When the coast guard referred to as again 10 minutes later the crew admitted that the ship was taking up water, with Schettino requesting tugboats.
The primary rescue boat arrived at 22.39 and a chaotic evacuation operation ensued.
Some passengers mentioned that the sign to deploy the lifeboats and abandon ship was not given till almost 23.00.
Abandoning ship
Schettino left the bridge at round 23.20 and shortly afterwards he deserted ship.He would subsequently declare that he slipped off the Concordia and landed in a lifeboat.
The rescue effort was additionally reportedly hampered by the truth that some 600 passengers had not acquired evacuation drills and a big a part of the crew didn’t communicate Italian.
The final crew member left the bridge about quarter-hour after Schettino, though there have been nonetheless roughly 300 folks nonetheless on the ship.
By midnight the Concordia was itemizing severely, compromising the discharge of lifeboats and forcing many to flee by clambering down rope ladders over a distance equal to 11 tales.
Gregorio de Falco
At 12.40 an enraged coast guard captain, Gregorio de Falco, telephoned Schettino, who was in a lifeboat with different Concordia officers, ordering him repeatedly to return to his ship and oversee the evacuation.
Annoyed with Schettino’s excuses, de Falco shouted down the cellphone: “Vada a bordo, cazzo!” (Get on board, for fuck’s sake!).
Schettino refused.
The rescue operation at this stage comprised dozens of boats and quite a few helicopters.By daybreak 4,194 folks have been evacuated and brought on shore to Giglio, a vacation island whose everlasting inhabitants was lower than 1,000.
Seek for survivors
That day, 14 January, divers rescued the final three survivors trapped contained in the Concordia.Over the next two weeks rescue divers searched the ship for lacking folks and recovered a lot of the our bodies.
The physique of the final lacking individual, an Indian crew member, was not recovered till 3 November 2014.
“Captain Coward”
After the accident Schettino was vilified within the Italian media, known as “Captain Coward”, “Captain Calamity” and even “Italy’s most hated man”.
In 2015 he was convicted of manslaughter and inflicting the shipwreck, and was sentenced to 16 years in jail.
Schettino appealed the sentence, blaming members of his workforce for the crash, nonetheless in Could 2017 Italy’s highest court docket upheld the sooner verdict and Schettino started his jail time period shortly afterwards.
Salvage operation
The ship wreck was the topic of a advanced and unprecedented salvage operation, throughout which a Spanish diver misplaced his life, bringing the entire dying toll from the catastrophe to 33.
The ship made its last voyage in July 2014 when it was efficiently towed away from Giglio and taken to Genoa, the place it was dismantled for scrap in an operation accomplished three years later, in July 2017.
The Costa Concordia wreck restoration was one of the costly in historical past (about $2 billion), costing greater than 3 times the vessel’s constructing value in 2004 (about $612 million).
Cowl picture credit score: dvoevnore / Shutterstock.com.
