Survivor recounts Costa Concordia cruise capsizing 10 years later

Table Of Content

• 'We all suffer from PTSD': 10 years after the Costa Concordia cruise disaster, memories remain
• Italy cruise ship Costa Concordia accident eyewitness accounts
• How the Wreck of a Cruise Liner Changed an Italian Island
• Wrecked Costa Concordia liner makes its final journey
• Costa Concordia: Italian tragedy that reflected state of a nation

’ ” With three passengers now aboard, Nemo 1 wheeled into the night sky and headed to the town of Grosseto to refuel. "We were on the same level as the water so some people started to swim because they weren't able to get on the lifeboats," said Mr Costa. Mr Ordona said his colleagues and passengers were waiting to use lifeboats but the change in the direction the boat was sinking prompted them to seek lifeboats on the other side of the ship. It happened on Friday evening and marked the start of hours of panic among the 4,000 people on board the cruise ship. Ortelli was later on hand when, in September 2013, the 115,000-ton, 300-meter (1,000-foot) long cruise ship was righted vertical off its seabed graveyard in an extraordinary feat of engineering.

'We all suffer from PTSD': 10 years after the Costa Concordia cruise disaster, memories remain

"We told the guests everything was ok and under control and we tried to stop them panicking," cabin steward Deodato Ordona recalled. Those on board said the boat suddenly tilted to the left. But after eight years in the US and then Italian court system, they lost their case.

Italy cruise ship Costa Concordia accident eyewitness accounts

“I could feel the ship creaking, and we were already leaning halfway over,” she later told a Buenos Aires newspaper. Costa Concordia was declared a "constructive total loss" by the cruise line's insurer, and her salvage was "one of the biggest maritime salvage operations". On 16 September 2013, the parbuckle salvage of the ship began, and by the early hours of 17 September, the ship was set upright on her underwater cradle. In July 2014, the ship was refloated using sponsons (flotation tanks) welded to her sides, and was towed 320 kilometres (200 mi) to her home port of Genoa for scrapping, which was completed in July 2017.

How the Wreck of a Cruise Liner Changed an Italian Island

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. Ortelli was later on hand when, in September 2013, the 115,000-ton, 1,000-foot long cruise ship was righted vertical off its seabed graveyard in an extraordinary feat of engineering. During this time, work also began to remove the vessel in what was the largest maritime salvage operation in history. It was not until September 2013 that the 114,000-ton Concordia was finally righted. The 19-hour process involved specially built underwater platforms, cranes, and some 500 people.

An investigation focused on shortcomings in the procedures followed by Costa Concordia's crew and the actions of her captain, Francesco Schettino, who left the ship prematurely. He left about 300 passengers on board the sinking vessel, most of whom were rescued by helicopter or motorboats in the area. Schettino was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Despite receiving its own share of criticism, Costa Cruises and its parent company, Carnival Corporation, did not face criminal charges. 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.

“From the happiness and wonder of being on a cruise, we passengers became panic stricken and fell over. It was dark and no one helped us … no one told us what to do. Instead, he said he did it as a favour to the ship’s head waiter, who was a native of Giglio, and to give his passengers a beautiful view of the island. A Hungarian violinist, Sandor Feher, helped several children put on life jackets before heading back to his cabin to pack his instrument; he drowned. One of the most heartbreaking stories involved the only child to die, a five-year-old Italian girl named Dayana Arlotti, who drowned with her father, William. He had severe diabetes, and the two may have gone back to their cabin to retrieve medicine.

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The ship will set off with around 1,500 passengers on board - a quarter of its full capacity. The flagship Costa Smeralda set off from the port of Savona after being landbound since December when the Italian government banned cruises due to the coronavirus crisis. In the meantime, large boats are being instructed to dock at the industrial port of Marghera. Protesters say the huge vessels damage and pollute the city.

Several of the ship’s crew, notably Capt. Francesco Schettino, were charged with various crimes. 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. For the next half-hour or so, lifeboats shuttled people into the harbor. When a few returned to the starboard side, scores of passengers marooned on the port side sprinted through darkened passageways to cross the ship and reach them. Amanda Warrick, an 18-year-old Boston-area student, lost her footing on the slanting, slippery deck and fell down a small stairwell, where she found herself in knee-deep water. “That was pretty scary.” Somehow, carrying a laptop computer and a bulky camera, she managed to scramble 50 feet across the deck and jump into a waiting boat.

He didn’t bother trying any of them; they all opened from the inside. He had just stepped on a door outside the Milano Restaurant when, to his dismay, it gave way. He slammed into a wall about 15 feet down, then tumbled down what felt like half the ship, finally landing, ominously, in seawater up to his neck.

“We’re all looking at the ship, trying to figure out what happened,” he recalls. “We thought it must be an engine breakdown of some kind. Then we saw the lifeboats dropping down, and the first ones began to arrive in the port.” Local schools and the church were opened, and the first survivors were hustled inside and given blankets.

The hulking mass of the capsized 115,000-tonne cruise ship, which for 900 days lay seemingly unmovable and partly submerged in the Mediterranean, became a metaphor for the political and economic ills of an entire nation. When the lifeboat was finally stabilized, the crewmen slowly helped the others off the rope. The first lifeboats limped into the harbor a few minutes after 11. Claudio Masia, a 49-year-old Italian, waiting with his wife, their two children, and his elderly parents, lost patience.

Minnesota couple among 5 identified from cruise ship disaster - MPR News

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Posted: Tue, 17 Apr 2012 07:00:00 GMT [source]

The passengers, whose infections were found through random testing, were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms, according to the Port of San Francisco. "I think it’s the panic, the feeling of panic, is what’s carried through over 10 years," Ian Donoff, who was on the cruise with his wife Janice for their honeymoon, told Cobiella. But after eight years in the U.S. and then Italian court system, they lost their case. Ten years ago the Costa Concordia ran aground off the Tuscan island of Giglio, killing 32 people and entwining the lives of others forever. 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. “I did that to calm the passengers down, I feared that otherwise there would be panic,” Schettino said in his defence at trial.

Later, a passenger would claim he saw Schettino and his friend polish off a decanter of red wine while eating, but the story was never confirmed. Around nine Schettino rose and, with Cemortan in tow, returned to the bridge. All passengers and crew were tested for coronavirus and mask-wearing is mandatory throughout the trip. Italian cruise line Costa Cruises took to the seas on Saturday for the first time in more than four months, buoying an industry capsized by the COVID-19 pandemic. 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. 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.

"The boat started shaking. The noise - there was panic, like in a film, dishes crashing to the floor, people running, people falling down the stairs," said survivor Fulvio Rocci. The passenger said people were told there were electrical problems. Italian cave-rescue divers are painstakingly checking thousands of debris-filled cabins on the Italian liner Monday for more than 20 people still unaccounted for out of the 4,200 who were on board.

But the night of the disaster, a Friday the 13th, remains seared in his memory. Ortelli was later on hand when, in September 2013, the 115,000-ton, 300-metre long cruise ship was righted vertical off its seabed graveyard in an extraordinary feat of engineering. The dinner plates that flew off the tables when the rocks first gashed the hull. The blackout after the ship’s engine room flooded and its generators failed.