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On 13 January 2012, the seven-year-old Costa Cruises vessel Costa Concordia was on the first leg of a cruise around the Mediterranean Sea when she deviated from her planned route at Isola del Giglio, Tuscany, sailed closer to the island, and struck a rock formation on the sea floor. This caused the ship to list and then to partially sink, landing unevenly on an underwater ledge. Although a six-hour rescue effort brought most of the passengers ashore, 33 people died: 27 passengers, five crew, and, later, a member of the salvage team.
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.
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.
Costa Concordia (call sign: IBHD, IMO number: 9320544, MMSI number: 247158500), with 3,206 passengers and 1,023 crew members on board,[1] was sailing off Isola del Giglio on the night of 13 January 2012, having begun a planned seven-day cruise from Civitavecchia, Lazio, Italy, to Savona and five other ports.[2] The port side of the ship struck a reef[3] at 21:42 or 21:45 local time.[4] The reef is charted as an area known as Le Scole ('the rocks' in the local dialect),[5][6] about 800 metres (870 yd) south of the entrance to the harbour of Giglio Porto, on the island's east coast.
The point of initial impact was 8 metres (26 ft) below water at Scola Piccoia ('little rock'),[7][8] the most seaward exposed rock of Le Scole, which tore a 35-metre (115 ft) gash in Costa Concordia's port side below the waterline.[9] The impact sheared two long strips of steel from the ship's hull; these were later found on the seabed 92 to 96 metres (302 to 315 ft) from the main island.[7][10] A few minutes after the impact, the head of the engine room warned the ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, that the hull had an irreparable tear of 35 metres (115 ft)[11] through which water entered and submerged the generators and engines.[12]
Without propulsive power and no emergency electric power, Costa Concordia moved through inertia and the settings of her rudders,[13] and continued north from Le Scole until well past Giglio Porto. Schettino has said various instruments were not functioning.[14] Reports differ whether the ship listed to port soon after the impact and when she began listing to starboard.[15][16] At 22:10, Costa Concordia turned south. The vessel was then listing to starboard, initially by about 20, coming to rest by 22:44[17] at Punta Gabbianara in about 20 metres[18] of water at an angle of heel of about 70. Schettino attributed the final grounding of the ship at Punta Gabbianara to his own effort to manoeuvre it there; in contrast, on 3 February, the chief of the Italian Coast Guard testified that the final grounding of the ship may not have been related to any attempts to manoeuvre the ship[19] and it may have simply drifted in the prevailing winds that night.[20]
Schettino said that, before approaching the island, he turned off the alarm system for Costa Concordia's computer navigation system.[21] "I was navigating by sight, because I knew those seabeds well. I had done the move three, four times."[22] He told investigators that he saw waves breaking on the reef and turned abruptly, swinging the side of the hull into the reef.[23] Admitting to a "judgment error",[23] Schettino acknowledged ordering the ship's turn too late.[24] The captain initially said the ship was about 300 metres (330 yd) from the shore (about the length of the vessel) and hit an uncharted rock.[25] The ship's first officer, Ciro Ambrosio, told investigators Schettino had left his reading glasses in his cabin and repeatedly asked Ambrosio to check the radar for him.[26][27]
Schettino claimed that Costa Cruises managers told him to perform a sail-past salute on the night of the disaster.[28] The ship had taken a similar sail-past route on 14 August 2011, but not as close to Le Scole.[29] The 2011 sail-past was approved by the cruise line and was done in daylight during an island festival.[22] The normal shipping route passes about 8 km (5 mi) offshore.[30][31][p 1]
Costa Cruises confirmed that the course taken in 2012 was "not a defined [computer programmed] route for passing Giglio".[34][p 2] In an interview with the Italian television channel Canale 5 on 10 July 2012, Schettino said this was a contributing factor to the accident.[36] In addition, at the captain's invitation, the matre d'htel of the ship, who was from Isola del Giglio, was on the ship's bridge to view the island during the sail-past.[37] A further person on the bridge was a Moldovan dancer, Domnica Cemortan, who testified that she was in a romantic relationship with Schettino and had boarded the ship as a non-paying passenger.[38]
Half an hour before the abandon-ship order, one crew member was recorded on video telling passengers at a muster station, "We have solved the problems we had and invite everyone to return to their cabins."[42] When the ship later turned around, it began to list approximately 20 to the starboard side, creating problems in launching the lifeboats. The president of Costa Cruises, Gianni Onorato, said normal lifeboat evacuation became "almost impossible" because the ship listed so quickly.[43]
In the first contact, made at 22:12, between the Port of Livorno's harbormaster, a 37 year old Coast Guard Petty Officer named Alessandro Tosi, and Costa Concordia after the impact on the reef, an unidentified officer on board the cruise ship insisted they were suffering only from an electrical "black-out" from a blown electrical generator.[4] [45] A passenger's video recorded at 22:20 showed panicked passengers in life jackets being told by a crew member that "everything is under control" and that they should return to their cabins.[46] No mandatory lifeboat passenger evacuation drill had taken place for the approximately 600 passengers who had just embarked prior to the voyage.[47] Around the same time, a patrol boat of the Guardia di Finanza made a call to Costa Concordia, but no answer came.[48] Schettino participated in three telephone calls with the cruise line's crisis management officer.[16]
At 22:26, Schettino told the Harbormaster that the ship had taken water through an opening in the port side and requested a tugboat.[49] Port authorities were not alerted to the disaster until 22:42, about an hour after the impact, and the order to evacuate the ship was not given until 22:50.[50] Some passengers jumped into the water to swim to shore,[51] while others, ready to evacuate the vessel, were delayed by crew members up to 45 minutes, as they resisted immediately lowering the lifeboats.[52] Some sources report that the ship did not list until 23:15 and, therefore, if Schettino had given the order to abandon ship, the lifeboats could have been launched earlier, allowing the passengers to reach safety.[7][16] In contrast, one expert stated that a delay might be justified considering the hazards in launching lifeboats while a ship is still moving.[53] Staff or 2nd captain Roberto Bosio is said to have coordinated some of the deck officers in much of the evacuation. He began to evacuate the ship before Schettino's order.[54] Many junior officers and crew members who were aware of the severity of the situation also began readying lifeboats and moving passengers from their cabins before the abandon ship orders were given, a move that has been characterised as a "mutiny".[7][12]
While the vast majority of the ship's multinational personnel held positions that did not require a seaman's qualifications (as they handled services like laundry, cooking, entertainment, cleaning, minding children, and waiting tables), according to a senior shipping official, they had received mandatory training in basic safety to be able to help in situations like this. Although all of them spoke at least basic English, most spoke no Italian.[55]
Several passengers asserted that the crew did not help or were untrained in launching the lifeboats. This allegation was denied by the crew, one of whom stated, "The crew members, whether Filipino or Colombians or Indians, tried to the best of our ability to help passengers survive the shipwreck. Comments by some of the passengers that we were unhelpful have hurt us."[56] A third engineer officer from the ship's engine room also pointed out that "Unlike the captain, we were there until the end. We did all we could to avoid catastrophe."[12] Costa Cruises CEO Pier Luigi Foschi praised the crew and personnel, despite difficulties resulting from the apparent lack of direction from the ship's officers and problems in communication.[55]
Three people reportedly drowned after jumping overboard, and another seven were critically injured.[57] The local fire chief said his men "plucked 100 people from the water and saved around 60 others who were trapped in the boat".[58] Five helicopters from the Italian Coast Guard, Navy and Air Force took turns airlifting survivors still aboard and ferrying them to safety.[59]
According to investigators, Schettino had left the ship by 23:30.[60] In one telephone call from the Coast Guard to Schettino, Captain Gregorio de Falco, a captain from Livorno, repeatedly ordered Schettino to return to the ship from his lifeboat and take charge of the ongoing passenger evacuation. At one point in the call, de Falco grew so angry at Schettino's stalling that he raised his voice and told Schettino, "Vada a bordo, cazzo!" (variously translated as "Get the fuck [back] on board!", "Get [back] on board, for fuck's sake!" or "Get on board, damn it!", depending on the source).[61][62][63][64] One of these calls took place at 01:46.[65] Despite this, Schettino never returned to the ship from the lifeboat into which he claimed he had fallen.[66][67]
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