Costa Concordia Cruise Ship Disaster Part I

 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 who 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 kilometers (200 mi) to her home port of Genoa for scrapping, which was completed in July 2017.

The total cost of the disaster, including victims' compensation, refloating, towing and scrapping costs, is estimated at $2 billion, more than three times the ship's $612 million construction cost. Costa Cruises offered compensation to passengers (to a limit of €11,000 per person) to pay for all damages, including the value of the cruise; one third of the survivors took the offer.

Impact

Costa Concordia (call sign: IBHD, IMO number: 9320544, MMSI number: 247158500), with 3,206 passengers and 1,023 crew members on board, 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. The port side of the ship struck a reef at 21:42 or 21:45 local time. The reef is charted as an area known as Le Scole ('the rocks' in the local dialect), about 800 meters (870 yd) south of the entrance to the harbor 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'), 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. The impact sheared two long strips of steel from the ship's hull; these were later found on the seabed 92 to 96 meters (302 to 315 ft) from the main island. 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 meters (115 ft) through which water entered and submerged the generators and engines.

Without propulsive power and no emergency electric power, Costa Concordia moved through inertia and the settings of her rudders, and continued north from Le Scole until well past Giglio Porto. Schettino has said various instruments were not functioning. Reports differ whether the ship listed to port soon after the impact and when she began listing to starboard. At 22:10, Costa Concordia turned south. The vessel was then listing to starboard, initially by about 20°, coming to rest by 22:44 at Punta Gabbianara in about 20 meters 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 and it may have simply drifted in the prevailing winds that night.

Situation on the bridge

Schettino said that, before approaching the island, he turned off the alarm system for Costa Concordia's computer navigation system. "I was navigating by sight, because I knew those seabeds well. I had done the move three, four times." He told investigators that he saw waves breaking on the reef and turned abruptly, swinging the side of the hull into the reef. Admitting to a "judgment error", Schettino acknowledged ordering the ship's turn too late. 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. 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.

Schettino claimed that Costa Cruises managers told him to perform a sail-past salute on the night of the disaster. The ship had taken a similar sail-past route on 14 August 2011, but not as close to Le Scole. The 2011 sail-past was approved by the cruise line and was done in daylight during an island festival. The normal shipping route passes about 8 km (5 mi) offshore.

Costa Cruises confirmed that the course taken in 2012 was "not a defined [computer programmed] route for passing Giglio". In an interview with the Italian television channel Canale 5 on 10 July 2012, Schettino said this was a contributing factor to the accident. In addition, at the captain's invitation, the maître d'hôtel of the ship, who was from Isola Del Giglio, was on the ship's bridge to view the island during the sail-past. 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.

Situation on deck

Passengers were in the dining hall when there was a sudden, loud bang, which a crew member (speaking over the intercom) ascribed to an "electrical failure". "We told the guests everything was [okay] and under control and we tried to stop them panicking", a cabin steward recalled. During this time, "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic was playing in the dining hall. The ship lost cabin electrical power shortly after the initial impact. "The [ship] started shaking. The noise—there was panic, like in a film, dishes crashing to the floor, people running, [and] falling down the stairs," reported a survivor. Those on board said the ship suddenly tilted to the port side. Passengers were later advised to put on their life jackets.

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." 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.

Rescue

Evacuation

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. 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. No mandatory lifeboat passenger evacuation drill had taken place for the approximately 600 passengers who had just embarked prior to the voyage. Around the same time, a patrol boat of the Guardia di Finanza made a call to Costa Concordia, but no answer came. Schettino participated in three telephone calls with the cruise line's crisis management officer.

At 22:26, Schettino told the Harbormaster that the ship had taken water through an opening in the port side and requested a tugboat. 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. Some passengers jumped into the water to swim to shore, while others, ready to evacuate the vessel, were delayed by crew members up to 45 minutes, as they resisted immediately lowering the lifeboats. 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. In contrast, one expert stated that a delay might be justified considering the hazards in launching lifeboats while a ship is still moving. 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. 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".

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.

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." 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." 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.

Rescued passengers huddle ashore

Three people reportedly drowned after jumping overboard, and another seven were critically injured. The local fire chief said his men "plucked 100 people from the water and saved around 60 others who were trapped in the boat". Five helicopters from the Italian Coast Guard, Navy and Air Force took turns airlifting survivors still aboard and ferrying them to safety.

According to investigators, Schettino had left the ship by 23:30. 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). One of these calls took place at 01:46. Despite this, Schettino never returned to the ship from the lifeboat into which he claimed he had fallen.

At 01:04, an Air Force officer who was lowered on board by helicopter reported that there were still 100 people on board. Father Raffaele Malena, the ship's priest, said he was among the last leaving the ship at around 01:30. The deputy-mayor of Isola del Giglio, Mario Pellegrini, who went on board as part of the rescue operations, praised the ship's doctor and a young Costa Concordia officer, Simone Canessa, the only officer he met on board, for their help. He and Canessa were "shoulder to shoulder" until 05:30. One of the missing crewmen, a waiter, was last seen helping passengers.

At 03:05, 600 passengers were evacuated to the mainland by ferry. At 03:44, the Air Force officer reported that 40 to 50 people were still on board. At 04:46, the evacuation was noted as "complete" on the Port of Livorno's Harbor Master log. The next day, the survivors were transported to Porto Santo Stefano, where the first center for coordination and assistance was established. Prime Minister Mario Monti announced his intention to propose to the President of the Republic to grant the gold medal for civil valor to the common people of Isola Del Giglio and Monte Argentario for their conduct during the rescue.

Search for missing people

Between 14 and 30 January 2012, rescue divers from the Italian Navy, Coast Guard, and Vigili Del Fuoco (fire and rescue service) searched within the ship for missing people. The head of the coast guard diving team described the conditions inside the ship, still perched on a 37-metre (120 ft) ledge, as "disastrous". Pitch-black conditions with large furniture drifting around made the rescue operation hazardous. Divers would find a path into the ship and tie down obstacles such as mattresses, before making noise to alert trapped people. The divers worked in pairs for safety (standard procedure for any diving operations, even for leisure) and searched each assigned area slowly in a zig-zag manner. The search dives were planned as 50 minutes in duration, with extra air tanks positioned within the ship in case of emergency. The divers had two headlamps positioned on their helmets because underwater visibility varied from approximately 80 to 10 centimeters (30 to 4 in). In addition, divers marked their route by trailing a line to be used to lead them back out in low visibility, similar to procedures used in recreational wreck diving.

On 14 January, divers searched the ship until nightfall. Divers and firefighters continued to search for survivors who might have been trapped in the ship, and rescued a South Korean newlywed couple who slept through the partial sinking, only to awake and find that they could not open their cabin's door, two decks above the water line, and the ship's purser, who had a broken leg.

On 16 January, violent waters shifted the ship about 1.5 centimeters (0.6 in), interrupting rescue work—trap doors were shut and debris fell on rescuers—and giving rise to fear that the ship could be pushed into 68-meter (224 ft) deep waters or that the fuel could leak. Operations resumed about three hours later. Throughout the process, rescuers set off explosives to create holes in the ship's hull to reach previously inaccessible areas. On 18 January, rescue efforts were suspended again when the ship shifted, but shortly afterward they were resumed.

On 20 January, the ship began shifting by 1.5 centimeters (0.6 in) per hour, but on 24 January, Franco Gabrielli, the Italian Civil Protection Agency head, said the ship was "stable". The same day, divers recovered the body of the 16th victim. On 29 January, the operation was suspended because the ship had shifted 3.8 centimeters (1.5 in) in six hours and because of high waves. Gabrielli said, "Our first goal was to find people alive ... Now we have a single, big goal, and that is that this does not translate into an environmental disaster." By the next day, operations resumed.

On 28 January, the 17th body, that of a female crew member, was recovered from a submerged part of the vessel. On 31 January, Italy's Civil Protection agency terminated the search in the submerged part of the ship because the deformed hull caused unacceptable safety concerns for divers. On 22 February, guided by information from passengers as to where bodies might be, divers found eight additional bodies in the wreck. A "special platform" was assembled to facilitate swift recovery of the bodies, four of which were recovered. On 22 February, the recovery was suspended by inclement weather. On 4 March, officials reported that they would use "sophisticated robot-like equipment" to find the bodies.

On 22 March, another five bodies were discovered between the wreck and the seabed.

On 15 January 2013, the final two bodies were thought to have been located (those of a female passenger and a male crew member), but they reportedly could not be recovered; because their location near the stern made their recovery inaccessible until the ship could be rotated. However, the companies performing the refloating operation denied finding any bodies.

The search for the two still missing bodies continued after the ship was uprighted on 17 September 2013. On 26 September 2013, unidentified remains were found near the central part of the ship, where they were last seen. The remains were subjected to DNA testing to determine their identity. On 8 October 2013, the family of missing crew member Russel Rebello was informed that a body believed to be his was found near the third deck at the stern of the ship. Items on the body were reportedly identified as belonging to missing passenger Maria Grazia Trecarichi instead and on 24 October 2013 it was reported that DNA analysis confirmed it was her body. Additional bone fragments of unknown identity were found in the wreck a few days after the body was found.

On 23 October 2013, it was announced that the search for the missing while the wreck was still in the water was completed as far as was technically possible. Depending on the outcome of identification analyses of remains already found, it was stated that further search activities might be conducted in the wreck for the missing crew member Russel Rebello after it has been removed from the water.

On 6 and 7 August 2014, divers found human remains on the wreck which was then moored in the port of Genoa. On 3 November 2014, the final body was discovered in the wreckage of the ship.

Wreck

Looting

Numerous reports of the wreck site being infiltrated by looters and souvenir hunters were made following the disaster. Items stolen from the wreck include the ship's bell, cash registers, jewelry, furniture, artwork and various assorted smaller items. Sources at Costa Crociere indicated that the thieves may have gained access to the interior of the ship via entrances cut by search and rescue teams.

Securing wreck site and protecting environment

Authorities banned all private boats from Giglio Porto and excluded them from a one-nautical-mile (1,852 m) non-navigation zone around the ship.

Poor weather conditions could have caused a spill of oil from the ship. A floating oil barrier was put in place as a precaution. High winds on 1 February lifted the protective barrier, allowing an oily film into the surrounding waters that began spreading from the stern of the ship. The protective boom was redesigned for the weather conditions.

On 7 February, Civil Protection director Franco Gabrielli told the Italian Senate that the waters were not completely clear of oil but is "within the legal limits". Environment Minister Corrado Clini told the Parliament of Italy that the amount of diesel fuel and lubricating oil on board Costa Concordia was about the cargo of a small oil tanker. Clini said any oil leakage would be highly toxic for plant and animal life. In a first step to prevent pollution of the shore and assist in a refloat the ship, its oil and fuel tanks were emptied.

As part of the recovery effort, a group of about 200 giant fan mussels Pinna nobilis was manually relocated to a nearby area to avoid the threat posed by subsequent engineering work.

Isola Del Giglio lies within the Pelagos Sanctuary for Mediterranean Marine Mammals, one of the Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance. It is a popular scuba diving destination, with tourism being its leading business. Island residents were concerned that the wreck would have a negative impact on tourism and, by extension, the island's economy because of its effect on the view in the area. One resident explained, "Environmental damage is what concerns us most. If the oil pollutes the coast, we're ruined." Luigi Alcaro, head of maritime emergencies for Italy's Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), an agency of the Ministry of the Environment, stated that in a worst case, "[W]e could be talking years and dozens of millions of euros".

EMSA-contracted stand-by oil spill response vessel Salina Bay arrived at the site of Costa Concordia on 28 January and remained on station as a precautionary measure during the fuel removal operation. ISPRA's Oceanographic Ship Astrea arrived in Tuscany on 29 January to conduct environmental investigations. On 9 February, the CEO of Costa Cruises told residents of Giglio the company would have a plan by mid-March to remove the ship. He also promised to minimise harm to their tourism businesses.

The wreck came to rest on a rock ledge and there were concerns that it might slide into deeper water. The stability and deformation of the ship was monitored by satellite imagery and surface-based instruments. Although the ship was not in "immediate risk" of slipping from its grounded position into deeper water, Environment Minister Clini told the Italian Senate on 8 February that "the risk for a collapse is quite real ... The more time passes, the weaker the hull becomes. We cannot guarantee that it has not been compromised already." On 29 January 2012, scientists had become "very concerned" that the ship had moved 3.5 centimeters (1.4 in) over six hours that day. On 2 February, the ship shifted 8 centimeters (3 in) during seven hours. Shifts and any high winds and high seas caused suspension of recovery and salvage operations.

On 16 February, Civil Protection director Gabrielli "confirmed that the data registered is absent of anomalies". Another report based on sonar and laser measurements, and an ISPRA underwater video, indicated that the ship might collapse in its midsection because its weight was not supported between the rock spur supporting the bow and the rock spur supporting the stern, and said at the time that both of those rocks had "now started crumbling dramatically". Civil Protection director Gabrielli stated that report was reassuring in that "It shows that a part of the seabed has got into the hull, basically increasing the ship'[s] stability." It was also found that the hull was slowly collapsing under its own weight, making salvage more difficult and expensive.

Salvage

On 12 February 2012, after weeks of weather delays, Dutch salvage firm Smit International, acting jointly with Italian company NERI SpA, started removing the vessel's 2,380 tonnes of heavy fuel oil. The 15 tanks that contained about 84% of the fuel in the vessel were emptied first and this operation was expected to take about 28 days. The second phase involved the engine room, which had "nearly 350 cubic metres [12,000 cu ft] of diesel, fuel and other lubricants". The offloading process required fixing valves to the underwater fuel tanks, one on top, one on the bottom. Hoses were then attached to the valves and as the oil, warmed to make it less viscous, was pumped out of the upper hose and into a nearby ship, it was replaced with sea water pumped in through the lower hose to fill the space, so as not to affect the ship's balance, a technique known as "hot-tapping".

Removal and clean-up plan

The operation (from June 2013 onwards) was delineated by Costa's Cristiano De Musso, Head of Corporate Communications, according to the following plan:

Site inspections of the ship and its position;

Securing of the wreck to ensure on-going safety and stability;

Installation of sponsons on port side of vessel and construction of submarine platforms;

Parbuckling of the wreck, rotating it past a critical angle of about 24° from its resting position, beyond which the sponsons would be flooded and the ship would roll into a fully upright position on the underwater platforms;

Installation of sponsons on the starboard side of the ship;

Sponsons are dewatered to raise the ship from the bottom;

Ship delivered to an Italian port for processing according to regulations;

Cleaning and replanting of marine flora.

By 20 February 2012, the tanks in the forward part of the ship, which had held about two-thirds of the fuel, had been emptied, but the following day defueling was suspended because of poor weather conditions. On 3 March 2012, salvage workers cut a hole in the ship for access to the engine room, the location of the remaining fuel. On the morning of 12 March, defueling operations resumed and were completed on 24 March.

With defueling complete, removal of the wreck began. On 3 February, Franco Gabrielli, the head of the Civil Protection Authority, told a meeting of residents of Giglio that the ship would be "refloated and removed whole" and not cut up for scrap on site. The CEO of Costa stated that after the breaches in the hull were sealed, the ship could be refloated, with difficulty, by giant inflatable buoys and then towed away. The company invited 10 firms to bid for the contract to salvage the ship. Six bids were submitted in early March and the proposed removal plans were assessed jointly with the Civil Protection Scientific Committee. The salvage operation was expected to commence in the middle of May. The operation, one of the largest ever ventured, was predicted to take from 7 to 10 months, depending on weather and sea conditions.

By 12 April 2012, Costa Crociere had two consortia in mind: Smit and NERI, or Titan Salvage and Micoperi. On 21 April, it was announced that Florida-based marine salvage and wreck removal company Titan, with its partner company Micoperi, an Italian firm specializing in undersea engineering solutions, had been awarded the contract to refloat and tow Costa Concordia to a port on the Italian mainland. The salvage operation, using the port of Civitavecchia as its base was anticipated to begin in early May, take about 12 months and cost $300 million. Once in port, the ship would be dismantled and the materials sold as scrap. South African freelancer Nick Sloane was appointed as "salvage master" to lead the operation. The salvage plan included the following operations:

Secure the hull to the land using steel cables, to stop it falling deeper

Build a horizontal underwater platform below the ship

Attach sponsons, to the port side of the hull

Bring the hull to vertical, by winching (or parbuckling) the hull onto the platform

Attach sponsons to the starboard side of the hull

Refloat the hull and tanks

Recovery tow to an Italian port