“Concordia a Modern Day Titanic” That’s what some are calling this tragedy. After all, this year is the Titanic’s 100th anniversary. Quite different ships and situations of course, with less loss of life this time, but never the less shocking!
Official statement from Costa owners Carnival Corporation & plc in Miami.
On January 13, 2012, Costa Cruises’ vessel, the Costa Concordia, departed from Civitavecchia, Italy with approximately 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members on a seven-day voyage. At approximately 10:00pm CET, the vessel struck rock off the coast of Isola del Giglio, Italy and sustained significant damage causing the ship to list severely. The order was given to abandon ship and deploy the lifeboats.
Tragically, there are reports of some deaths and injuries. This is a terrible tragedy and we are deeply saddened. Carnival Corporation & plc offers our sympathies and heartfelt condolences to all of the Costa Concordia guests, crew members and their families. Carnival Corporation & plc and Costa Cruises are committing our full resources to provide assistance and ensure that all guests and crew are looked after.
We want to express our deep gratitude to the Italian Coast Guard and local authorities and community members who have gone to extraordinary lengths to assist in the evacuation of the ship and provide support for our guests and crew.
We are working to fully understand the cause of what occurred. The safety of our guests and crew members remains the number one priority of Carnival Corporation & plc and all of our cruise lines.
Costa Concordia was sailing on a Mediterranean cruise from Civitavecchia (Rome) with scheduled calls at Savona, Italy; Marseille, France; Barcelona, Spain; Palma de Mallorca; Cagliari and Palermo, Italy.
(Reuters) – The captain of the Italian cruise ship which ran aground late on Friday appears to have taken the vessel very close to the shore in a dangerous manner, officials said on Saturday.
At least three people died in the disaster. The huge, 290 meter long vessel, carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew, ran aground in shallow waters off the Tuscan island of Giglio but the exact circumstances of the incident remain unclear.
“There was a dangerous close approach which very probably caused the accident, although it will be for the investigation to establish that fully,” coast guard spokesman Luciano Nicastro told SkyTG24.
He said the captain then attempted a safety manoeuvre, setting anchor and bringing the ship closer to the shore to facilitate a rescue.
“This was an operation which allowed thousands of people to be taken ashore quickly and in a reasonably safe manner,” he said.
The ANSA news agency quoted the state prosecutor of the town of Grosetto as saying that the captain brought the ship close to shore “very clumsily.”
(Reporting By James Mackenzie; Editing by Peter Graff)
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Tags: carnival corporation, costa concordia, Costa Cruises, cruise ship accident, cruise ship capsizes, cruise ship disaster, cruise ship sinks, deaths, italian cruise ship sinks, loss of life, Titanic
January 15, 2012 at 01:38
very shocking in this day and age. having worked on ships, I was saddened to see this happen, as you are told it would never happen to this extreme.