Raising of the Costa Concordia

This is what the Costa Concordia looks like after the raising (parbuckling) operation. Apparently this whole endeavor may cost around $800 million!

Salvage crews finished pulling the Costa Concordia wreck upright on Tuesday, more than 20 months after the cruise ship capsized off the coast of Italy's Giglio Island. The parbuckling operation to right the ship was the largest ever undertaken, and the AP notes that engineers will now prepare the wrecked cruise liner to withstand winter so it can be towed and scrapped in 2014. Take a look at the impressive time lapse video that condenses the 19-hour operation into just one minute. 

 

Survivors fume as ship captain's trial starts

The crippled Costa Concordia lies on its side off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, a stubborn reminder of the 2012 shipwreck that claimed 32 lives. On Tuesday, the luxury cruise liner's captain went on trial here as the sole defendant in a case that may take months or longer to resolve - making an end to the drama even more elusive.

Francesco Schettino is charged with manslaughter, abandoning ship and causing the shipwreck. He took his place at the defendant table at the edge of the orchestra pit in Grosseto's Teatro Moderno, a 1,000-seat theatre that is serving as a more spacious substitute for the courtroom of this Tuscan provincial capital because so many survivors and victims' relatives were expected to attend.

Instead, aside from journalists and a panel of judges, at a table on the stage, the theatre was virtually empty. A nationwide, eightday lawyers' strike had generated wide expectations that Judge Giovanni Puliatti would immediately adjourn the opening hearing. It didn't quite happen that way: Puliatti intoned a nearly hour-long roll call of lawyers' names before calling it a day - setting the next session for July 17.

It was the latest example of Italy's slow-moving justice system. But what has riled survivors even more is the lack of any other defendants in the trial, frustrating hopes of learning why the sophisticated ship struck the jagged reef, and why everyone wasn't safely evacuated.

One of the lawyers representing survivors, Daniele Bocciolini, said what his clients wanted was simple: "We are asking for justice," he told Sky TG24 TV.

Schettino "is the only defendant, but he is not the only one responsible," said Bocciolini. "There is still a need to shed light on what happened."

Read More

Captain Coward fled from sinking cruise liner Costa Concordia leaving 300 passengers and crew to their fate

Schettino (centre) faces 20 years in prison for his part in the maritime disaster off the island off Giglio. Others were also at fault, the report found

Three hundred passengers and crew were still on the sinking cruise ship Concordia as its captain made his escape, the official report on the tragedy has revealed.

Among other damning revelations in the 176-page dossier is that the coastguard were not alerted to the incident until they were phoned by a passenger’s mother.

Half an hour after the collision, Captain Francesco Schettino had yet to put out a distress signal.

Captain Francesco Schettino was at the command of the cruise liner in January 2012 when it hit rocks off the coast of Tuscany and sank, killing 32 people

Captain Francesco Schettino was at the command of the cruise liner in January 2012 when it hit rocks off the coast of Tuscany and sank, killing 32 people

But by this time a mother of one of the passengers had informed police of an accident, after receiving a call saying that the ship was in blackout, a ceiling had collapsed and those on board were putting on their life jackets.

Some 32 people died when the Costa Cruises liner ran aground off the Italian island of Giglio in January last year, hours after leaving Civitavecchia on the first leg of a cruise round the Mediterranean.

A catalogue of errors by 53-year-old Schettino are documented in the dossier into the disaster by the Italian maritime authorities.

The captain caused the collision by sailing too fast, too close to shore, and he was distracted by people who had no business on the bridge, it found.

He had failed to consult large-scale maps, and used the wrong landmark on the island to turn the ship. He then delayed sounding the general alarm, and when he did eventually speak to the coastguard, downplayed the seriousness of  the incident.

The report appears to demolish Schettino’s claim that he saved thousands of lives by steering the ship into shore, saying the crash caused the rudder to fail. Instead, a detailed chronology reveals how he left his 4,228 passengers to fend for themselves.

Read More

 

Cruise captain Francesco Schettino at sea as five request pleas

Costa Concordia captain back in court FIVE suspects in the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster asked for plea bargains, which could leave only captain Francesco Schettino facing trial.

 

The five include Roberto Ferrarini, the director of ship owner Costa Crociere's crisis unit, and Jacob Rusli Bin, the luxury liner's Indonesian helmsman, as well as three other crew members.

Captain Schettino's lawyers also asked for a plea bargain but the request was immediately turned down by the prosecutor's office, leaving only five plea bargain requests before the pre-trial judge.

The requests came during indictment hearings in Grosseto, the city closest to the January 2012 tragedy in which 32 people died, and a judge is only expected to rule when they wrap up in July.

"This is double standards. Schettino at this point risks being the only person on trial,'' the captain's lawyer, Francesco Pepe, told reporters in Grosseto, Italian media reported.

Plaintiffs in the case, who are suing for compensation, protested against the plea bargains.

"It is as if the trial ends here and we have been excluded from it without a debate,'' said Cesare Bulgheroni, a lawyer in the group "Justice for the Concordia'' which represents dozens of survivors.

Captain Francesco Schettino may be the only one on trial as five suspects in the Costa Concordia wreck ask for plea deals.

Lawyer Massimiliano Gabrielli said: "These plea bargains are ridiculous, they are an escape route.''

Capt. Schettino's lawyer had asked for the former captain to serve three years and four months but prosecutor Francesco Verusio said the sentencing request was "ridiculously low''.

All six are accused of manslaughter and Capt. Schettino is also suspected of abandoning ship before all the passengers were evacuated.

"There is no way,'' the prosecutor said.

Asked outside the court whether he would be the only one to go on trial, Capt. Schettino told reporters: "It looks like it,'' Italian media reported.

A judge still has to decide whether or not the trial will go ahead and when it could begin.

32 people died when The Costa Concordia, a luxury Italian cruise liner, struck rocks off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio.

Under the plea bargain requests filed on Tuesday, the highest sentence would be two years and 10 months for the company executive Mr Ferrarini.

Manrico Giampedroni, the cabin service director, would face two years and six months in prison.

Capt. Schettino's deputy, Ciro Ambrosio, would get a year and 11 months, while the Indonesian helmsman would get a year and eight months and officer Silvia Coronica would get a year and six months.

Costa Crociere, the biggest cruise ship operator in Europe, has accepted limited responsibility as the employer of all the suspects and was ordered to pay a fine of 1 million euros ($1.3 million) in a controversial decision by a judge in April.

The Costa Concordia crashed into the Italian island of Giglio on the night of January 13, 2012 with 4229 people from 70 countries on board, keeling over and sparking a panicky evacuation.

Carnival suffers court setback

The class-action suit filed by Costa Concordia passengers will proceed in Florida state court, not Italy, representing a major legal blow Carnival.

The cruise giant has sought to argue Costa Concordia cases at the US federal court level, where it can then ask that the suits be transferred to the Italian legal system. Last year, it successfully deployed this strategy to move a class action filed by Giglio Island residents from a US federal court to the Italian jurisdiction.

Carnival has subsequently attempted to use this legal strategy with the primary class-action suit filed by passengers. That suit is seeking at least $2M/passenger plus $590M in punitive damages. The class action was originally filed in Florida state court. Carnival sought to have it shifted to federal jurisdiction last September.

However, on 15 February US District Court Judge William Dimitrouleas ruled against Carnival and sent the suit back to Florida State Court.

In a statement, plaintiff’s counsel Marc Jay Bern affirmed: ”We are thrilled that we can now turn in our attention to litigating the facts of this case before a Florida state court where the plaintiff s can expect their interest will be protected, rather than in Italy, where the courts are notoriously slow and cases for mass torts such as shipwrecks have taken as long as 30 years without final decisions.

Costa Concordia To Be Removed By September

Removing the cruise ship will take longer and cost more than planned, officials say on the eve of the tragedy's first anniversary.

The stricken ship Costa Concordia will be removed from the Italian coast between June and September - later than originally planned, officials have said.

The vessel has been resting on its side off the Tuscan coast since it capsized last year, killing 32 people.

Speaking on the eve of the first anniversary of the disaster, officials highlighted the difficulties of the salvage operation, including the huge size of the vessel and environmental concerns.

Franco Gabrielli, the chief of Italy's Social Defence Department, said officials were looking to remove the ship between June and September, depending on weather conditions.

... The salvage efforts will also require 400m euro (£331m) - up from the 300m euro originally estimated.

Sky's Europe Correspondent Robert Nisbet says the delays and overspending are linked to the technical complexities of an unprecedented operation involving a ship the length of 11 football fields and weighing twice as much as the Titanic.

Officials want to remove it as opposed to breaking it up on the site because the waters surrounding Giglio are of particular environmental significance - part of a marine sanctuary and a favourite spot for scuba divers. Read More

Captain’s Last Supper on Board Costa Concordia

Cruise disaster: Captain ordered dinner as ship sank

One of the cooks aboard the stricken cruise ship which capsized off the coast of Giglio, Italy says the captain ordered him to make his dinner after the ship had crashed into rocks.

 A Filipino crew member from the stricken cruise liner said the captain seemed unconcerned about the crash which happened around nine thirty on Friday night.

Rogelio Barista, a cook on board the Costa Concordia said: "The captain wanted us to cook for him around ten or ten thirty, and I saw him with a woman we did not recognize. I asked the other cook, Jason Velasco, what the captain was thinking. That time, everything was falling apart, including our cooking.

"I couldn't believe what was happening. I've had plenty of experiences in my years as a cook with catastrophes like fires inside the ship, even inside Costa Concordia, and I willed myself not to get scared. I peered outside to see the captain and saw him still waiting for his drink.

"I asked myself why he was still there waiting for his companion's dessert with what was happening.”

The captain, Francesco Schettino, was arrested and accused of manslaughter and abandoning his ship before all those on board were evacuated. Prosecutors say he also refused to go back on board when requested by the coastguard.



Read More

What Really Happened ... Costa Concordia captain’s admission caught by black box moments after ship hit rocks

The revelation comes after Captain Francesco Schettino’s first full TV interview since the January 13 accident. During the talk on Italy’s Canale 5, Schettino claimed another officer was steering the ship when the accident occurred.

“At that moment, I went up to the deck and ordered the ship to be put on manual navigation and I didn’t have command, that’s to say being in charge of sailing the ship, that was the officer,” he said. The black box transcript published by the Corriere della Sera newspaper shows the panic that ensued immediately after the trouble began.

 “Our ass is dragging along the seabed!” one officer yelled.

 “What did we hit?” Schettino asked.

 “The reef.” “It was the salute that he wanted,” said a third officer.

 “The salute” was a maneuver Schettino allegedly agreed to perform to acknowledge a former crew mate on the island. 

  National Post staff, Agence France-Presse
Read More