Last Friday the 13th of January 2012, the world was stunned by an accident off the island of Giglio near the coast of Tuscany. The Costa Concordia cruise ship hit a reef and partially capsized off the coast of Italy. According to Italian news reports, six people are confirmed dead and 29 people are missing of the 4,200 passengers and crew. A lot of questions were unanswered about the accident.

• Why did it happen?
• Did the captain do it on purpose?
• Was there any power failure that caused the ship to vere off course?
• Why did no one inform the passengers that there was an emergency and they needed to abandon ship?

Modern Day Titanic Disaster

Mark Rosenker, CBS News transportation safety analyst, said “These are extremely well-built vessels, particularly these new vessels with new technologies,” and an accident such as this is very rare.

The Costa Concordia cruise ship was built in 2004 at the Fincantieri Sestri shipyard in Italy and at a cost of 450 million Euros. Owned by Genoa-based Costa Cruises and believed to be the biggest cruise ship holding the Italian flag. A 952 foot long luxury liner which has a maximum speed of 23.2 knots. Many foreigners, including elderly and wheel-chair bound passenger were on board enjoying the luxurious life on the ship. Some ammenities on the boat included:

1. A casino
2. Floating resorts
3. Spas
4. Pools
5. Discotheques and theaters

The environment was much like on the “Titanic,” which was the largest passenger steamship in the world that sank on April 15, 1912.

The passengers on board the ship said that they heard a terrible, loud noise as the ship struck rocks at around 10:30pm on Friday. People started to panic and were scared as the ship started to list. The Captain of the ship steered the vessel near the coast of Giglio island where it now lies on its side sinking. Some of the crew and passengers jumped and swam for land to save their lives.

Rescue workers found at least 6 bodies so far who were confirmed dead in the disaster. There are still over 29 people missing (25 passengers and 4 crew members). Divers are still on the hunt to find more survivors hoping that some of the missing people are still alive.

Human Error or Electrical Failure?

The Costa Concordia cruise ship is powered by diesel engines that generates electric energy to power lights and propellers of the vessel. There is a possibility that a short circuit may have led to an explosion of the engines. This might have caused a shut down of the steering stopping everything from working. 

Investigators said that there is a bigger chance that the real possibility of the disaster is a human error. Capt. Schettino is being detained as a suspect on manslaughter charges due to the disaster. He defended himself and said that the ship was sailing on its regular course when it suddenly struck a large rock near the Island of Giglio. He further said the reef was not marked on their maritime charts of the area. Capt. Schettino was also accused of abandoning his ship before the last of the passengers on board had been evacuated. Here is a graphic comparing Friday’s sailing route with a previous sailing by the Costa Concordia cruise ship.

As seen on the picture above the Costa Concordia had deviated far from its normal course either on purpose or due to electrical failure

According to Pier Luigi Fosch, Costa Crociere chairman and CEO, “This route was put in correctly. The fact that it left from this course is due solely to a maneuver by the commander that was unapproved, unauthorized, and unknown to Costa.”

Captain Schettino said that he tried everything that he could do to save lives. Right now everything is under investigation to find out what really happen. Electrical failure or is it really the Captain’s fault?

The Survivors

On this very tragic disaster, the most important thing was the safety of the passengers. There are a lot of stories from the survivors of the Costa Concordia about their experiences. Many of them said that the staff who had served them for dinner are the ones who helped them get to the safety of the life boats. No sailors or even the Captain informed them about what was going on. So many people were screaming and crying and it was the most terrifying experience of their lives.

Many of the survivors jumped to swim to the nearby land for safety. The Titanic-like tragedy affected a lot of honeymooners and elderly. One of the survivors Nicole Servel, 61, said that she owes her life to her husband Francis. Her husband gave her the only life jacket they had and that saved her from drowning. She never found her husband and it’s believed that he drowned in the tragedy.

Did you have any friends or family on the ship? Did you witness the terrifying accident? Are you one of the survivors? Send us your comments and tell us your story about this tragic disaster.