Parbuckling
Principles of righting
and refloating of Costa Concordia
(1) Funnel (chimney) is removed and a
submerged platform is built to support the ship. Steel sponsons are attached to
the port side and partially filled with water.
(2) Cables roll the
ship upright, helped by the water weight in the sponsons.
(3) Sponsons are
attached to the starboard side.
(4) Water is pumped
out of the sponsons to lift the ship so it can be towed away.
Preparatory work consisted of building an underwater metal
platform and artificial seabed made of sand and cement on the downhill side of
the wreck and welding sponsons to the side of the ship above the surface. Once
this was completed, the ship was pulled upright by cables over the course of
two days and settled on the platform, a method called parbuckling. Additional
sponsons would then be attached to the other side of the ship; both sets would
be flushed of water and their buoyancy would refloat the ship to allow it to be
towed away for demolition.
In June 2012, a barge was put in place, and the removal of
the Concordia's radar, waterslide and funnel began before stabilization of the
ship to prevent further slippage down the sloped seabed. Concordia's funnel was
cut off in December, and the salvage companies were in the process of building
the underwater support structure by mid-January 2013. On 16 September 2013, the
parbuckling of the ship began.
The operation to right the ship and free it from the rocks
began on 16 September 2013 but was delayed by bad weather. Once the ship had
been rotated slightly past a critical angle of 24° from its resting position,
valves on the sponsons were opened to allow seawater to flood into them and the
increasing weight of the water in the sponsons completed the rolling of the
ship to the upright position at an accelerated pace, without further need of the
strand jacks and cables. The ship was returned to a fully upright position in
the early hours of 17 September 2013, shortly before 3:00 a.m. CET. As of 16
September 2013 the salvage operation had cost over €600 million ($800 million).
The final cost of the salvage came to be $1.2 billion.
Refloating and
removal
Following the conclusion of the righting operation, the ship
was kept on the platform while further inspections were made and the starboard
sponsons attached. On 10 October 2013 a $30 million option was taken with
Dockwise for the use of the world's largest semi-submersible heavy lift vessel,
Dockwise Vanguard, to transport Costa Concordia as an alternative to
conventional towing, but ultimately the Concordia was indeed refloated and
towed to Genoa in July 2014.
In December 2013, invitations were issued by Costa to 12
companies to tender for the dismantling of Costa Concordia, in France, Italy,
Norway, Turkey and the UK. On 30 June 2014 the Italian Government endorsed
Costa's decision to have the vessel dismantled at Genoa by Italian companies
Saipem, Mariotti and San Giorgio.
On 1 February 2014 a Spanish diver working on the Costa
Concordia wreck died after cutting his leg on a sheet of metal. He was brought
to the surface alive by a fellow diver, but later died. This was the only death
to occur during the Costa Concordia salvage operation.
On 14 July 2014 salvage operators re-floated Costa Concordia
off its submerged platform and towed the ship laterally a short distance from
the coast. On 23 July 2014, Costa Concordia began its final journey to the Port
of Genoa.
Scrapping
On 27 July 2014, Costa Concordia arrived in Genoa where it
was moored against a wharf that had been specially prepared to receive the
vessel for dismantling. On 11 May 2015, Costa Concordia was towed to the
Superbacino dock in Genoa to remove the upper decks and superstructure. The
last of the sponsons were removed in August 2016 and the hull was taken into
Genoa drydock No. 4 on the 1 September for final dismantling. Final scrapping
of the ship was completed on July 7, 2017, with 53,000 tons of material having
been recycled.
Site remediation
After the wreck of Costa Concordia was towed away, Costa
Crociere put Micoperi in charge of the salvage site remediation. This project is
also known as phase WP9. Initially, $85 million was assigned to the project,
which was to start at the end of 2014, and take about 15 months for its
completion. The main activities included ocean floor cleaning, anchor block
removal, grout bag removal, and platform removal. The project continued into
May 2018. The entities involved regularly published details of the activity.
Ship remnants and
artifacts
The entirety of Costa Concordia was recycled during her
scrapping. The first phase of this effort, which began on 16 October 2014,
centered upon the removal of all the furniture and interior structures within
the ship, as well as waste found in the secured parts of the ship.
Loss and compensation
Passengers and
personnel
Passenger nationality
A majority of the passengers on board were Italian, German,
or French nationals. The crew consisted of citizens of around 40 countries.
Some were Italians (including the captain and all the officers), but 296
Filipinos and 202 Indians made up approximately half of the personnel. Other
nationalities include 170 Indonesians, six Brazilians, and an unspecified
number of Britons, Chinese, Colombians, Hondurans, Peruvians, Russians, and
Spaniards. 32 people are known to have died, and 64 others were injured. Three
people (a South Korean newlywed couple and one crewman) trapped inside the ship
were rescued more than 24 hours after the accident. The body of the last
missing person, Indian crew member Russel Rebello, was recovered on 3 November
2014.
On 27 January 2012, Costa posted the compensation package
offered to uninjured passengers on its website. The compensation comprised a
payment of €11,000 per person to compensate for all damages (including loss of
baggage and property, psychological distress, loss of enjoyment of the cruise)
and reimbursement for a range of other costs and losses, including
reimbursement for the value of the cruise, for all air and bus travel costs
included in the cruise package, for all travel expenses to return home, for all
medical expenses arising from the event, and for all expenses incurred on board
during the cruise.
Costa also promised the return of all property stored in
cabin safes, to the extent recoverable, and to grant passengers access to a
programme for "psychological
assistance". Costa stated that these payments would not be offset
against or impacts any amount an insurance policy pays to the passenger. The
offer to uninjured passengers was effective until 31 March 2012; as to the
families of the dead and missing, separate proposals were to be offered "based on their individual
circumstances." For a time, Costa permitted its customers to cancel
any future cruises booked with them, without penalty, One-third of the
passengers accepted the offer of €11,000 compensation. The trade union
representing the crew negotiated compensation packages. Crew members were paid
wages for a minimum of two months or, if longer, their full contract term. They
also received reimbursement for expenses and up to £2,250 for lost personal
property.
As well as compensation, survivors of the Concordia disaster
have called for safety improvements to be made. A lawyer heading the team
representing the victims said that it was "clear
that the initial grounding of Costa Concordia could have been avoided and that
subsequent failings in carrying out the evacuation process made a very bad
situation far worse".
On 23 February 2012, the Environment Ministry announced it
would be "taking legal action"
against Costa Cruises regarding a "possible"
claim for "possible
environmental damage" and the cost of salvage.
Ship
Industry experts believed the ship to be a constructive
total loss early on in the salvage efforts, with damages of at least US$500
million. Pier Luigi Foschi, CEO of Costa, told an Italian Senate committee
hearing "we believe that the wreck
can no longer be put in use". Shares in the Carnival Corporation, the
American company that jointly owns (with Carnival plc) Costa Cruises, initially
fell by 18% on 16 January 2012 following a statement by the group that the
grounding of the ship could cost Carnival Corporation up to US$95 million (€75
million, £62 million). Carnival Corporation later increased the estimated
financial impact in fiscal year 2012 to include a reduction in net income of
$85 million to $95 million, an estimated insurance excess of an additional $40
million, and $30–40 million in "other
incident-related costs".
The insurance excess on the vessel was $30 million (€23.5
million, £19.5 million). The group of cruise lines jointly owned by Carnival
Corporation and Carnival plc constitutes 49 percent of the worldwide cruise
ship industry and owns 101 ships, of which Costa Concordia represented 1.5% of
capacity. Booking volume for Carnival's fleet, excluding Costa, in the 12
post-accident days was down by "the
mid-teens" as a percentage of year-earlier bookings.
Investigations
The Italian Marine Casualty Investigation Central Board
(Commissione centrale di indagine sui sinistri marittimi, CCISM), a unit of the
Corps of the Port Captaincies – Coast Guard, conducts the technical
investigations of maritime accidents and incidents within Italian-controlled
waters. On 6 February, the International Chamber of Shipping, representing
shipowners' associations, called for the "earliest
possible publication of the Italian accident investigations". International
experts said that it was too early to speculate on why the vessel partially
sank despite its watertight compartments but that the size of the vessel is
unlikely to have been an issue. Tuscany's prosecutor general said that the
investigation would seek to find causes for various aspects of the event, and
beyond Schettino to other persons and companies. By January 2013 the technical
investigation report had not yet been released. Lloyd's List said that the
casualty investigation board "roundly"
received criticism for not having released the investigation yet. The board
said the investigation was delayed because the Italian prosecuting team had
seized important information, including the voyage recorder.
Judge Valeria Montesarchio summoned survivors to testify at
a hearing convened on 3 March in Grosseto. The captain tested negative for drug
and alcohol use, but one group that sued Costa Cruises and that leaked the test
results disputed the tests as unreliable. On 24 February 2012, prosecutors
alleged that Schettino had "slowed
down the ship so that he could finish dinner in peace" and, to
compensate for lost time, increased the speed to 16 knots (30 km/h) just before
the sail-past.
On 2 February 2012, the prosecutor's office in Paris, France
opened a preliminary inquiry to question survivors to establish any criminal
liability and "assess psychological
damage".
Germany stopped cooperating with Italy in investigating the
accident in December 2015 after the Federal Bureau for Maritime Casualty
Investigation was prevented from carrying out a proper investigation by Italian
public prosecutors and courts.
Criminal proceedings
against officers
Francesco Schettino (born 1960 in Meta, Naples), who had
worked for Costa Cruises for 11 years, and First Officer Ciro Ambrosio were
arrested. The captain was detained on suspicion of manslaughter and for
violations of the Italian Penal Code and Code of Navigation on three
specifications — of his having caused the shipwreck "owing to ... imprudence, negligence and incompetence"
resulting in deaths; having abandoned about 300 people "unable to fend for themselves"; and "not having been the last to leave" the shipwreck. They
were questioned on 14 January.
At the validation hearing of 17 January 2012, the Court of
Grosseto charged Schettino and Ambrosio with the results from the records of
investigation compiled immediately after the event, including the first report
of the coast guard of Porto Santo Stefano of 14 January 2012, the summary
testimonial information given by the members of the ship's crew, the chronology
of events of the Harbour Office of the Port of Livorno, the AIS recording on
record, and the PG Annotation[clarify] of the Harbour Office of the Port of
Livorno.
Schettino was released from jail on 17 January but was
placed under house arrest. The house arrest order included an "absolute prohibition against going
away or communicating by any means with persons other than his
cohabitants". On 7 February, the Court decided to continue Schettino's
house arrest. On 23 February, two additional charges, of "abandoning incapacitated passengers and failing to inform
maritime authorities" were levied against Schettino. His pretrial
hearing was scheduled for 20 March. On 5 July 2012, Schettino was released from
house arrest but mandated to reside in Meta di Sorrento.
Officials were initially trying to determine why the ship
did not issue a mayday and why it was navigating so close to the coast. The delay
in the evacuation request was also unexplained.
On 11 February 2012, TG5 broadcast a video of the commotion
on the bridge following the impact with the reef. In the video, when one
officer said, "Passengers are
getting into the lifeboats", Schettino responded "vabbuò" (a Neapolitan
colloquialism which stands for "whatever",
"fine", or "ok").
The magistrate in charge of the inquiry remarked, "This is new to us—I've just seen it for the first time."
On 19 February, the Associated Press reported that traces of
cocaine had been found on Schettino's hair samples, "but not within the hair strands or in his urine—which would have
indicated he had used the drug". A 2015 report indicated that the ship
had been carrying a large amount of mafia-owned cocaine when it sank, although
senior officers were likely not aware it was on board.
On 22 February 2012, four officers who were on board and
three managers of Costa Cruises were placed formally "under investigation" and "face charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and failing to
communicate with maritime authorities".
Recorded evidence
One of the ship's voyage data recorders (VDRs), which were
designed to float, was recovered. Another, containing different data, was
located on 17 January. A third was in a submerged part of the ship, difficult
to reach. On 19 January 2012, all the data storage devices from the ship's
control panel, including hard disks, were recovered. One of the hard disks
contained videos from cameras located near the control board, which were expected
to reveal the movements of the ship's captain and officers. The chief
prosecutor received from the Guardia di Finanza a video, taken from their
patrol boat, which filmed the ship between 22:30 and 23:10 or at 23:20.
On 3 March 2012, in Grosseto, judges began a hearing open to
all survivors, other "injured
parties", and their lawyers, but closed to the general public and
media. Four specialists were ordered to review the VDR data and relate their
conclusions at a 21 July 2012 hearing. Prosecutor Francesco Verusio had stated
that it could take "a month, two
months, three months" for evidence analysis, including of recorded
conversations on the bridge, to be completed. The hearing also determined who
could "attach lawsuits to the
case". Inhabitants of Giglio and some environmental groups were denied
this ability.
Trials
On 20 July 2013, five people were found guilty of
manslaughter, negligence and wrecking: Roberto Ferrarini (the company's crisis
director) received the longest sentence at two years and 10 months, followed by
Manrico Giampedroni (the cabin service director) at two and a half years. Three
crew members—first officer Ciro Ambrosio, helmsman Jacob Rusli Bin and third
officer Silvia Coronica—were given sentences between one and two years. Ferrarini,
who was not on the ship, was convicted of understating the extent of the
disaster and delaying an adequate response. Giampedroni, the hotel director,
was convicted for his role in the evacuation, which was described as chaotic.
The helmsman Bin was convicted for steering the ship in the wrong direction
after Schettino ordered a corrective manoeuvre. Reuters cited judicial sources
as saying that none of these individuals would be likely to go to jail, as
sentences shorter than two years for non-violent offences are routinely
suspended in Italy, and longer sentences can be appealed or replaced by
community service. Lawyers for the victims declared the sentences as shameful
and said they might appeal to overturn the plea bargains that allowed reduced
sentences in return for guilty pleas. The company Costa Cruises avoided a trial
in April by agreeing to a €1 million fine. Ultimately, none of the five
officers were jailed because their sentences were suspended.
In a separate trial for manslaughter and causing the loss of
the ship, Captain Francesco Schettino sought a plea bargain agreement. When his
trial resumed in October 2013, Domnica Cemortan (a 26-year-old Moldovan)
admitted having been Schettino's lover and having been a non-paying passenger
on the ship, and after the prosecution alleged that her presence on the bridge "generated confusion and distraction
for the captain". Helmsman Jacob Rusli Bin failed to appear in court
in March 2014 to give evidence and was thought to be somewhere in Indonesia.
Roberto Ferrarini told the court in April that "Schettino asked me to tell the maritime authorities that the
collision was due to a blackout on the ship. But I strongly objected." Passengers
told the court in May that if they had followed the officers' orders to return
to their cabins, they would have drowned. In February 2015, Schettino was
convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Schettino appealed against the
sentence, which was initially upheld in May 2016, then finally in May 2017. He
is serving his sentence in Rebibbia Prison, Rome.
Reactions
Costa Cruises and its
parent companies
Costa Crociere S.p.A. also does business using the name "Costa Cruises". Costa Cruises
is jointly owned by a dual-listed company comprising the two separate companies
Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc. Carnival Corporation announced on 30
January 2012 that its board of directors would engage outside consultants in
various disciplines, including emergency response, organization, training and
implementation, to conduct a comprehensive review of the accident and the
company's procedures. Costa Cruises initially offered to pay Schettino's legal
costs, but decided later that they would not do so.
After the vessel was determined to be a constructive total
loss and would need to be scrapped, Costa Cruises ordered a replacement vessel
from Fincantieri, the same shipyard that built the Costa Concordia and her
sister ships. The new vessel was named the Costa Diadema and cost US$739
million to build. Costa Diadema was launched in November 2013 and entered
service for Costa in November 2014.
Regulatory and
industry response
Corrado Clini, Italy's Minister of Environment said that
sail-by salutes, a "custom that has
resulted in an outcome visible to all", should no longer be tolerated.
On 23 January 2012, UNESCO asked Italy to reroute cruise ships to avoid sailing
too close to "culturally and ecologically
important areas", and on 1 March, Italy excluded large ships from
sailing closer than 2 miles (3 km) from marine parks.
The European Maritime Safety Agency was in the process of
conducting a review of maritime safety when the accident occurred. On 24
January 2012, Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas told the Transportation
Committee of the European Parliament that lessons learned from the loss of
Costa Concordia would be taken into account. British MEP Jacqueline Foster
warned against "trial by television
and trial by newspapers", a view that was backed by fellow British MEP
Brian Simpson, who said that it was "good
practice to wait for the official report".
On 18 January 2012, the Chairman of the United States House
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure announced that it would hold a
hearing, conducted jointly with the committee's Maritime Transportation
Subcommittee, to "review the events
of this specific incident, current safety measures and training
requirements". Testimony and statements at the 29 February hearing
primarily promoted North American cruise ships as being safe.
The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the
European Cruise Council (ECC) and the Passenger Shipping Association adopted a
new policy requiring all embarking passengers to participate in muster drills
before departure. On 29 January 2012, at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Holland
America Line made one passenger disembark from the cruise ship MS Westerdam for
"non-compliance" during a
mandatory muster drill. On 24 April, the CLIA and the ECC introduced new
policies: bridge officers must agree on the route before departing; ships must
carry more lifejackets; and access to the bridge must be limited.
In an action some parliamentarians said was a reaction to
the wrecking of Costa Concordia, the Italian government withdrew proposed
legislation that would have reduced current restrictions on mineral exploration
and production. On 8 July 2012, CNN reported that the disaster changed the
cruise industry's safety and evacuation procedures. Carnival, the parent line
of Costa, and several other cruise lines now require safety instruction,
referred to as muster drills, before leaving port. The new muster policy
consists of 12 specific emergency instructions, which include providing
information on when and how to don a life jacket, where to muster and what to
expect if there is an evacuation of the ship.
Media
Coverage of the shipwreck dominated international media in
the days after the disaster. The New York Times called the incident "a drama that seemed to blend tragedy
with elements of farce". Phillip Knightley called it the "most significant event in modern
maritime history" because "every
single safety procedure designed to make sea travel safe failed
miserably".
The parbuckling was a major media operation, and the
righting was well-documented in video and photographs. News Agencies Getty
Images and AP had an extensive coverage, from the day of the disaster to the
removal of the wreck with the photographers Laura Lezza, Marco Secchi and
Andrew Medichini documenting and capturing all phases.
In 2014, National Geographic produced a documentary called
The Raising of the Costa Concordia about the raising and salvaging of the ship.
In 2014, the Smithsonian Channel broadcast Cruise Ship Down:
Saving Concordia, detailing the efforts to right the Costa Concordia before it
collapsed under its own weight.
In Italy
Newspaper Corriere della Sera stated that Italy owed the
world a "convincing
explanation" for the wreck and called for harsh punishment of those
found responsible. Il Giornale said the wreck was a "global disaster for Italy". Il Messaggero said there was
"anguish over those still
missing". La Repubblica called the event "a night of errors and lies". La Stampa criticized the
captain for not raising the alarm and refusing to go back on board the ship.
Italian commentators reflected on the contrast between
Schettino and de Falco (the on-duty Italian Coast Guard) and what it said about
the national character. They represented "the
two souls of Italy", according to Aldo Grasso in Corriere della Sera. "On the one hand a man hopelessly lost,
a coward who shirks his responsibility as a man and an officer, indelibly
stained. The other grasps the seriousness of the situation immediately and
tries to remind the first of his obligations."
Some saw parallels between the incident and the country's
recent political upheavals. "To see
someone that in a moment of difficulty maintains steady nerves is consoling
because that is what we need", another Corriere della Sera columnist,
Beppe Severgnini, told The New York Times. "Italy
wants to have steady nerves because we've already done the cabaret route".
De Falco's exasperated order to Schettino, "Vada a bordo, cazzo!" ("Get
the fuck on board!", or "Get
back on board, you prick!"), became a catchphrase in Italy. T-shirts
with the phrase were soon printed and sold across the country. It has also been
used on Twitter and Facebook.
Honors and memorial
In September 2012, recognizing the best navigation and
merchant marine professionals, Lloyd's of London awarded the title of Seafarers
of the Year to the Costa Concordia crew for their exemplary behaviour during
the shipwreck which saved most of the ship's passengers. In January 2013, the
municipalities of Isola Del Giglio and Monte Argentario were decorated with the
highest Italian Civil award: the Gold Medal of Civil Merit granted by the
President of the Republic for the commitment of citizens, administrators and
local institutions in the rescue of the survivors of the ship Costa Concordia.
The mayor of Giglio, Sergio Ortelli, and Costa Cruises
agreed that a large boulder that was wedged in the hull would be removed from the
side of the vessel and be positioned on the island as a memorial to the 32
people who lost their lives. Ortelli anticipated the boulder would "most likely" be positioned "close to the harbor entrance so that
visitors and locals can see it clearly and pay their respects to the victims.
What happened that night is something Giglio will never forget and the rock
will be a fitting memorial." The cost of removing the 80-ton boulder
was estimated at £40,000.
Safety regulations
Like all passenger ships, Costa Concordia was subject to two
major International Maritime Organization requirements: to perform "musters of the passengers (...) within
24 hours after their embarkation" and to be able to launch "survival craft" sufficient for
"the total number of persons aboard
... within a period of 30 minutes from the time the abandon-ship signal is
given". Passenger ships must be equipped with lifeboats for 125% of
the ship's passenger and crew maximum capacity, among which at least 37.5% of
that capacity on each side of the ship (75% of total) must consist of hard
lifeboats as opposed to inflatable ones. Launching systems must enable the
lowering of the lifeboats under 20° of list and 10° of pitch.
According to Costa Cruises, its internal regulations require
all crew members to complete Basic Safety Training, and to perform a ship
evacuation drill every two weeks. Every week, all the lifeboats on one side of
the ship are launched for a test. Under the regulations in force in 2006 when
Costa Concordia was delivered, the ship had to be designed to survive the
flooding of two adjacent compartments caused by an 11-meter (36 ft) breach. The
damage caused by impact with the rocks left a 36.5-meter tear (120 ft) in the
hull.
Notes
In August 2011,
Giglio Porto's mayor, Sergio Ortelli, had thanked Captain Schettino for the "incredible spectacle" of a
sail-past. Mayor Ortelli has now said, "It's
a very nice show to see, the ship all lit up when you see it from the land. This
time round it went wrong". In August and September 2010, Costa
Pacifica and Costa Allegra, sister ships of Costa Concordia, came within a mile
of the island.
Costa Cruises CEO
Pier Luigi Foschi explained that the company's ships have computer-programmed
routes and "alarms, both visual and
sound, if the ship deviates by any reason from the stated route as stored in
the computer and as controlled by the GPS", but that these alarms
could be "manually" over-ridden.
After certain
emergency disembarkations and other events, the cruise ship operator is
required to compensate passengers €10,000 each.
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