True Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Part VII (Wattys2025)

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.