Tag: Costa Concordia

Schettino was repeatedly refusing to return to the sinking vessel A frantic Coast Guard officer berated the captain of the capsized Costa Concordia as he sat safe in a life raft, refusing to return to his ship and direct the evacuation order."You go on board! Is that clear? Do you hear me?" the Coast Guard officer shouted at Capt. Francesco Schettino."It is an order. Don't make any more excuses. You have declared 'Abandon ship.' Now I am in charge."A damning recording of Coast Guard Capt. Gregorio De Falco shouting at Schettino to return to the ship was posted online Tuesday by Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra. The Coast Guard authenticated the recording.In the radio exchange, Schettino can be heard repeatedly refusing to return to the sinking vessel from a lifeboat to help co-ordinate the frantic evacuation."I am here with the rescue boats. I am here. I am not going anywhere. I am here," he said. "I am here to co-ordinate the rescue.""What are you co-ordinating there? Go on board! Coordinate the rescue from aboard the ship. Are you refusing?" came the response from De Falco."You go on board and then you will tell me how many people there are. Is ...

Costa Concordia coast guard tape

Costa Concordia Environmental Impact As Italian rescue crews dealt with a major cruise ship wreck Tuesday, the tragedy of missing persons and rising casualties from the Costa Concordia were not their only concerns.The ship, which is foundering within Italy's largest protected marine area, also contains several thousand gallons of heavy fuel oil and diesel.Officials in the area say that a potential fuel spill from the ship "would be a disaster," reports BBC News.The waters and Tuscan Archipelago near the wrecked ship contain rare and important plants and animals, including the critically endangered Mediterranean monk seal.So far, no fuel has spilled from the wreck and officials are racing to keep it that way. According to The Guardian, booms have been staged around the wreck and a Dutch salvage firm has been hired to extract the ship's fuel.The salvage team may begin inspecting the ship on Wednesday and, according to The Washington Post, complete the fuel extraction within two to four weeks.The Washington Post reports the salvage company's manager of operations, Kees van Essen, said "The vessel is stable and we feel confident that removal can be done in a fairly rapid way." He added that a salvage operation won't "increase the ...

Costa Concordia tragedy

Costa Concordia Disaster Italian divers suspended their search of the capsized cruise liner Costa Concordia after the vessel shifted slightly on its resting place near the Tuscan island of Giglio, officials said on Wednesday.Fire services spokesman Luca Cari said the search was suspended at about 8.00 a.m (0700 GMT) after a shift of a few centimetres, posing a potential threat to diving teams operating in the submerged spaces of the ship.There was no word on when work might resume.Source: Reuters

Lloyd's List video David Osler and Liz McMahon speak to Lloyd's List Editor Richard Meade about the further implications of the grounding of Costa Concordia

Q&A re Costa Concordia accident One of Europe's largest cruise ships, the Costa Concordia, carrying 4200 passengers and crew, suffered a fatal and spectacular accident on Saturday. The vessel was holed on rocks off the Italian island of Giglio - and then quickly keeled over, preventing lifeboats on its port side from being lowered and trapping some passengers and crew in the bowels of the ship. At 12:00GMT today, six people had been confirmed dead and a further 15 were missing. So how stable and safe are these vertiginous floating multistorey hotels?Why was this massive ship so close to shallow rock outcrops?Mark Staunton-Lambert, technical director of the London-based Royal Institution of Naval Architects, says this is the main question investigators will want answering. GPS and sonar instruments should have warned of the danger, he says.Why might the Costa Concordia's depth-sounding sonar have been ignored?Like aviation, seafaring is in the midst of major computerisation, with bridges in modern ships like Costa Concordia becoming "glass cockpits". The transnational maritime trade union Nautilus International says that the technology at the heart of this - the Electronic Charts Display and Information System (ECDIS), which marries GPS and seabed sonar data in one screen - ...

Statement from Micky Arison The following statement is from Micky Arison, chairman and CEO of Carnival Corporation & plc, parent company of Costa Cruises:"We are deeply saddened by the reports of additional deaths following the grounding of the Costa Concordia. On behalf of the entire Carnival Corporation & plc team, I offer our heartfelt condolences to all of those families affected by this tragedy.Our immediate priority continues to be supporting rescue and recovery efforts and looking after our guests and crew members, along with securing the vessel to ensure there is no environmental impact. My senior management team and I have been in continuous contact with the Costa executive team in Italy and we have our senior level technical experts on the ground to provide additional support for this tragic and highly unusual incident.While this is a terribly sad time for everyone involved, we want to recognize the tremendous efforts of Concordia's crew, who along with the Italian Coast Guard and authorities, helped to evacuate more than 4,000 passengers and crew members from the ship in very difficult conditions. And we continue to offer our deep gratitude to the Italian authorities for their support and ongoing efforts."Source : Carnival Corporation ...

Nautilus International says The grounding of a cruiseship carrying more than 4,000 passengers and crew two weeks into the Titanic centenary year should serve as a wake-up call to the shipping industry and those who regulate it, says the maritime professionals' union Nautilus International.The union says the incident involving the Italian-flagged cruiseship Costa Concordia is the latest in a series that have highlighted its long-standing concerns over safety.'In this, the centenary of the loss of the Titanic, major nostalgia industry is already in full flow - but it is essential that everyone recognises that the Titanic offers lessons for today and that there are contemporary resonances that should not be lost,' said general secretary Mark Dickinson.In particular, Nautilus is concerned about the rapid recent increases in the size of passenger ships - with the average tonnage doubling over the past decade.'Many ships are now effectively small towns at sea, and the sheer number of people onboard raises serious questions about evacuation,' Mr Dickinson pointed out.'Nautilus is by no means alone in voicing concern at underlying safety issues arising from the new generation of "mega-ships" - whether they be passenger vessels carrying the equivalent of a small town or containerships with ...

Environmentalists push for preventive measures The 17-deck cruise ship that capsized smack in the middle of a marine nature reserve off Tuscany shows these ocean giants threaten the coastline and should be banned, Italian environmentalists said Monday.The Costa Concordia remains on its side less than 50 metres (55 yards) from the island of Giglio with more than 2,000 tonnes of diesel oil and slowly releasing objects ranging from refrigerators to cabin furniture and carpeting.Worried about the impact on the environment, some are calling for banning these colossal ships -- as big as a 10-storey buildings -- from sailing into these sensitive zones."That's enough, we have to stop treating these ships like they were simple vaporetti," said Italy's Environment Minister Corrado Clini, referring to the boats that ply the canals of Venice.He promised to act "to prevent these giant ships from getting close to sensitive zones" to protect the environment in an interview published Monday in La Stampa newspaper.Three senators from the leftist Democrat Party also demanded that the government issue an emergency decree to ban cruise ships and oil tankers from passing near sensitive areas, including the lagoon of Venice, protected marine zones and the waters around small islands.Italian environmental ...