Costa Concordia Capsizes in Europe's Largest Marine Park

(Dive Travel Business News - January 16, 2012) -- Scores of Italian cave-rescue divers from the coast guard, navy and firefighting service are racing against time to find survivors in the debris-filled partially sunken Costa Concordia since it ran aground on rocks off Italy's west coast. Divers are searching the miles of submerged corridors and more than 1000 cabins for 25 passengers and 4 crew members still unaccounted for after 3200 passengers and 1000 crew were rescued from the hull-torn ship off the coast of Isola del Giglio. The waters off Giglio, popular with scuba divers and snorkelers, form part of the Tuscan Archipelago National Park - a marine protected area for dolphins, porpoises and whales.

The Costa Concordia left the Italian city of Civitavechia on Friday January 13, 2012 at 7pm local time on a Mediterranean cruise with scheduled calls to Savona, Cagliari and Palermo, Italy; Marseilles in France; and Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca in Spain. The ship approached the island of Giglio off the Tuscan coast "the wrong way" and was four miles off course when it hit a reef at approximately 9:30pm. With a 160-foot gash in its hull, the luxury liner ran aground somewhere around 10:30pm Friday night. Between the time the vessel hit the reef and the time it ran aground, the ship had listed to the left and then to the right, causing great panic onboard.  The Costa Concordia eventually keeled over, to rest at an 80 degree angle near shore of Isola del Giglio. 

Many of the passengers were sitting down to eat in the ship's restaurants when they heard a loud bang, followed by a 'terrible groaning' noise and the lights went out.  The Captain made an announcement that the ship had an electrical problem. Diners were instructed to remain seated even as the ship began listing. Reports from passengers indicate it was 45 minutes or more before an announcement was made to abandon ship. By this time, the liner had begun to list more than 20 degrees and life boats had difficulty being launched. Passengers were being thrown down hallways as the boat turned on its side. Unable to get on lifeboats, some passengers flung themselves into the cold water as the ship capsized.

Most of the part of the grounded Costa Concordia that is still above water has already been searched but specially-trained cave divers continue the task below the waterline.Their mission is a dangerous one. Lodged on rocks yards from the coast, the three football field-long vessel lies half-submerged and resting on its starboard side in 37 metres of water. But only 30 metres away is a drop off where the depth is 70 metres; There is a distinct possibility the ship might suddenly be dislodged off the shelf and plunge into deeper waters. Already choppy seas caused the huge ship to slip on the rocky slope on today, forcing a two-hour suspension of rescue operations.

Cave divers are used to diving in dark and enclosed spaces. The ship's hallways, cabins and dining rooms are similar to caves -- but caves do not have floating furniture or doors that may be jammed shut. The divers wear wetsuits reinforced with Kevlar -- the same material used to make bullet-proof vests -- and have a guide line to open water, just as they do when exploring caves. The divers hope to find survivors living in air pockets in the submerged areas. They will also carry out the grim task of locating corpses of those not rescued in time.

The rescuers celebrated on Sunday night on finding a Korean newlywed couple trapped in their cabin above the waterline. The ship's cabin service director, 57-year-old Manrico Giampetroni, had already been discovered in an air pocket in a flooded restaurant Sunday afternoon. Also on Sunday, the bodies of two elderly men were found in a submerged section, still wearing their life-vests. A third corpse was discovered floating inside early today. As of this post, six bodies have been found.

Costa Concordia, operated by Costa Cruises, is owned by parent company, Miami-based Carnival Cruise Lines, the world's biggest cruise ship operator. The liner is 290.20 metres (952 ft 1 in) long, about 21 metres (68 ft 11 in) longer than RMS Titanic, with a beam of 35.50 metres (116 ft 6 in) and a draught of 8.20 metres (26 ft 11 in). She is propelled by six diesel engines of 101,400 hp, which could propel her at 19.6 knots (36.3 km/h). The 17-deck ship is the largest cruise ship in Europe and the 26th largest in the world. Its maiden voyage was in July 2006.

In a statement Costa Cruises said:  "While the investigation is ongoing, preliminary indications are that there may have been significant human error on the part of the ship's master, Captain Francesco Schettino, which resulted in these grave consequences. The statement continued: "The route of the vessel appears to have been too close to the shore, and the captain's judgment in handling the emergency appears to have not followed standard Costa procedures."

Costa Cruises boss Pier Luigi Foschi accused Capt Francesco Schettino of sailing too close to Isola del Giglio in order to show the ship to locals. The Captain denied wrong doing, stating the rocky outcrop was not on the navigational charts. Schettino is being held on suspicion of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship. 

There have also been reports that the 52-year-old Captain, an eleven year veteran of Costa Cruises, was eating dinner in the restaurant at the time of the incident.  One passenger claims to have seen him drinking in the bar.  Local media have reported that the Captain did the navigational version of a "fly by" the island as a favor to the chief waiter who is from Giglio and whose parents live on the island - and that this was not the first time the ship went off course close to the island.  There is also speculation that the Captain was not the last to leave the ship, after reports that the Captain had been seen ashore just after midnight, well before the last passengers were evacuated. More concerns surfaced last night about the tremendous chaos in evacuating the luxury liner. It was also suggested that the passenger manifest had not been kept up to date, which might account for some of those missing.

Prosecutors allege the crew mishandled the emergency, delaying the start of the evacuation until an hour after the accident.  At the time of the accident, the Concordia had yet to carry out an evacuation drill - a safety practice that, for cruiseships departing from North American ports, normally happens before the ship leaves the dock.

Investigators have recovered the Costa Concordia's "black box" system (similar to those used by aircraft), that records voices on the bridge, as well as radar position and other data, in hopes that the information will explain how the incident occurred.  The Port Authority is in charge of analyzing the black box contents. Preliminary transcript translations of the black box recorder are available here and indicate the Captain had indeed abandoned ship, and was later ordered by the Coast Guard to return to the ship to coordinate the evacuation. According to the Italian navigation code, a captain who abandons a ship in danger can face up to 12 years in prison.

What is clear is that even billion-dollar ships with state-of-the-art navigation technology can be sunk by a rock. Ship design has focused on building ever more upper deck cabins, shopping malls and pools that test stability compared to traditional ocean liners. Bigger is not safer.

According Andrew Linington, communications director at Nautilus International, the maritime professionals' union.  "The alarm bells have been ringing with many of us for well over a decade now. These ships are floating hotels – skyscrapers, really. The design has been extrapolated from that of smaller ships: they have high sides, a small draught (the depth below the waterline) and are very difficult to manoeuvre in high winds."

"We should re-examine the regulations on the safety of large passenger ships in the light of the findings of the casualty investigation," said Koji Sekimizu, secretary-general of  the International Maritime Organization, a UN agency.

Business-wise, the marine accident could not happen at a worse time - it occurred during the cruise industry’s most important month -- January is part of the so-called cruise Wave period, when travel agents make a large chunk of the year's cruise bookings. The cruise industry as a whole will be faced with yet another challenge since consumers will have the images of the Costa Concordia, tipped on its side and half submerged, in their minds for a while to come.

Salvage divers face months trying to patch the huge gash in the ship's side before floating it off to be broken up, possibly on a beach in India, or it may be decided to cut through its 3cm steel hull and break it up on the spot. Work will also start on emptying the thousands of tonnes of fuel on board that will take three weeks to complete.

Currently, there are grave concerns about an environmental disaster should the ship break up and leak fuel 500,000 gallons (1.9 million litres) into the pristine waters off Tuscany where environmentalists were already calling for restrictions on the passage of large ships in the Tuscan Archipelago National Park, a large marine park that includes the seven main islands of the Archipelago (Isola del Giglio, Elba, Capraia, Montecristo, Painosa, Giannutri, Gorgona) and some minor islands. The Tuscan Archipelago was the first marine park in Italy and is the largest marine protected area in Europe. Isola del Giglio and sister island Capraia are popular destinations for snorkeling and scuba diving.  Italian government will declare a state of emergency to release extra funding to remove the fuel and head off a potential catastrophe.

Meanwhile, the weather is forecast to worsen, with a high-sea warning for Thursday.

Additional Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Concordia
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/16/cruise-ship-crash-sixth-body
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/15/italian-cruise-ship-owners-c...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2086831/Costa-Concordia-cruise-s...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16576979
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16563562
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16561382
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Environmental-fears-mount-in-Itali...
http://www.parks.it/parco.nazionale.arcip.toscano/Epar.php
http://www.understandingitaly.com/tuscany-content/tuscan-islands.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuscan_Archipelago
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/17/costa-concordia-coastguard-c...
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/01/17/coastguard-begged-costa-concordi...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2086881/Costa-Concordia-captain-...
http://www.travelpulse.com/travels-first-responders.html
Photo: Courtesy Wikipedia

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