Costa Concordia SINKING

[juicyglam87]

I'd be more interested in knowing why there was no muster drill. I can understand why there would be chaos, if you didn't know where you muster station was might probably run right for the nearest lifeboats.

I alway get a little chuckle during the muster drill when the Captain says to return to your cabin and put on warm closes, life jacket and medication. When panic sets in how could anyone be expected to be able to make it to their staterooms and then back to the muster station during the pandaemonium of an emergency situation???

 

I wonder the same. They should require the drill before leaving port. It is dumb that they allow 24 hours to do a drill. Obviously ANYTHING can happen in 24 hours as this story shows!

[TorontoTL]

I am in shock and feel terrible for the loss of life and injury caused by this accident. I hope the causes can be found and if possible, new procedures to deal with the causes if they were to recur in the future be developed. My condolences to everyone affected by this horrible tragedy and especially to those people who lost their lives.

[gentlemancruiser]

"He said children and women were given priority when it came to allocating places on lifeboats, but the system proved to be difficult to implement because many men "weren't accepting this" because they wanted to remain together as a family, prompting "huge confusion". "

 

The muster drills never mention this ancient code of conduct in ship emergencies..

 

HAL muster drills take place on the promenade deck directly under the lifeboats.

 

I've always heard the crew tell passengers that women and children in the front and men in the back.

 

HAL also used to take attendance at their muster drills.

[guernseyguy]

I'd be more interested in knowing why there was no muster drill.

There was - 6 days ago for the vast majority of passengers who boarded in Savona (and would have been disembarking there today) - the ship is running a circular route and picked up some passengers in Civitavecchia (Rome) - who would have had their muster drill within the legally required 24 hours when the ship sailed again this evening from Savona.....

[Sandie]

Trev,

 

We are all certainly thinking of all those who are involved in this tragedy and praying for a positive outcome. On most of our cruises, the safety drill has been held prior to the ship's embarkation.

 

You mentioned that you and your girlfriend will be sailing on the Ruby Princess - perhaps I can help a little. My husband and I were on the Ruby Princess for 30 days in October. We began in Civitivecchia where the Concordia began her cruise. We sailed all through Italy, Greece, etc. and then completed a Transatlantic crossing to Fort Lauderdale. The Ruby Princess handled the waters everywhere quite well, and we had a variety of weather during those 30 days. The captain, staff, and crew were diligent and always held safety as their highest and greatest responsibility. On a couple of occassions we had to alter our time of departure from a port due to rains and winds. The captain kept us informed and explained the situations very carefully (and calmly) so that everyone understood what was happening. We have been on 18 cruises - two of them Transatlantics - and will be sailing again on Feb. 27th. If I can be of further assistance, email me at skfitzell at hotmail dot com.

 

Sandie

[ATLfuzzy]

This reminds me so much of that ship off the coast of, was it Santorini, a few years back that was too close to known rocks...that hit them and sank. And I suppose similar to the MSC ship this week that went aground. So tragic.

[Davyjonesrugrat]

Once the vessel has taken on water it can keel over in either direction... the water does not stay right by the hull damage, it can move about the ship, and the watertight compartments are only fore to aft, not side to side.

Sorry watertight compartments are just that, compartments, they do not stretch side to side but are individual boxes hence compartments.

 

The water is pumped from around the ship to help stabilising it

[Ms belp]

My condolences. It was an accident. You can't fix everything in this world.

[shof515]

Is the ship going to sink or will costa try to salvage and repair the ship?

[ravens1]

It would have to hit something to breach the hull. It wouldn't just randomly happen. Whatever happened is all speculation at this point. If power went out and they lost control they could've drifted into something that tore into the hull. Otherwise they hit something and the water coming in caused the failure.

 

The pictures shows a huge tear in the ship below the water line. I don't like to speculate.... But it certainly appears to have hit a reef or clipped a rocky point... It looked to me that they may have hit the rocks or reef off the Southeast point of Giglio island...After realizing how bad the ship was listing, I believe the captain made an attempt to get into shallow water...to save lives.... I do not know if the power was lost before hitting the rocks/Reef or after... But with all of this ships sophisticated Navigation systems and manual charts backing up the computer and a Navigator on the bridge its difficult to believe they allowed themselfs to get that close to shallow water or reef.

[Sincity]

One hell of a piece of Rock broken off ! One heck of a repair job! Fingers crossed that there are no more people missing and R.I.P those who sadly have died.

 

 

There will be a lot of explaining to do. How do you hit a large grouping of rocks in well-charted waters? Not to downplay the tragedy, but I was hoping it wasn't a terrorist act.

[KatetheWanderer]

I am no navigator but I certainly can see how it might take an hour to assess the situation and determine whether the ship would be able to return to port or whether it was time to engage in a mass evacuation at sea with its inherent risks. Then, when the listing started from side to side, how and when to lower the lifeboats must have been a fluid dynamic. The passengers on board are in shock and they probably have little understanding of what actually occurred and what was behind certain emergency decisions. This is a tragedy for Costa and all concerned. It is a shame that media reports are already sounding the drumbeat of blame when so little is known.

[Cushing985]

Yes, in fact the Concordia is the same basic design as the Conquest class.

 

Actually I believe it is a sister ship of the Splendor.

[WYB!]

The ship was most likely fully insured. Therefore it is completely possible for a complete restoration.

 

Furthermore, Carnival/Costa would be losing more money if they were to let a new ship such as this, one that has yet to pay for itself, become a wreck.

From the looks of her, Concordia is completely salvageable. If one has a hotel that were to succumb to damage that is completely repairable he or she wouldn't have the building razed. This scenario is the same, only with a much larger asset.

 

Similar damage would be like a fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant or a Deutsche Bank Building.

 

(The collapse of 2 World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks tore a 24-story gash into the facade of the Deutsche Bank Building and destroyed the entire interior of the structure. Steel and concrete were sticking out of the building for months afterward. This was eventually cleaned up, but due to extensive contamination it was decided that the 41 story ruin was to be taken down. The bank maintained that the building could not be restored to habitable condition, while its insurers sought to treat the incident as recoverable damage rather than a total loss. Work on the building was deferred for over two years during which the condition of the building deteriorated. Deconstruction of the building finished, on January 20, 2011)

[CruiseAdict218]

Is the ship going to sink or will costa try to salvage and repair the ship?

 

Judging from a blog im reading(not saying this is the completely true) but they say she will sink down further another 230 feet

[genegri]

At this point we should thank the local people who came to the rescue and refrain from any blame game till we know more.

 

Overall the short distance to land was a key factor to the relative low number of casualty. And I pray it stays that low. :( So if the Captain decided to steer a listing ship to shallow water close to land, I see it as a good decision.

[IRL_Joanie]

This isn't a picture of the CURRENT ship sinking is it? If so they are at land so why would helicopters etc take more than 4 hours to evacuate her? I worked on ships and if this is the Concordia she could have easily evacuated via the forward hatches. Just curious about this pic.

 

The photo is an optical illusion caused by where the photograph was taken. It is still where it was when it laid over (putting it mildly) on its side.

 

Joanie

[Tuscan]

This is Trev here, I finally managed to convince my girlfriend to come on a cruise (she's not fond of boats and has a mild fear of the ocean).

 

With news breaking of a ship the size of ours (the ruby princess) running aground and basically sinking, she'll be freaking out and not wanting to go now. Any soothing words of advice from you cruising pros out there that I can use here>>??:confused:

 

I used to commute from the Jersey Shore to Newark (124 mi. RT). Each morning, there were one to three accidents on the GSP (Garden State Parkway). My point is that, after approx. 25 cruises I feel safer on a cruise ship than I did in my daily commute.

 

Please let your girlfriend know that this tragic situation with Costa is such an aberration from the norm that it is almost indescribable. I, too, feared cruising . . . until I took my first one. I have been hooked ever since. In fact, we just returned from an AU to NZ cruise on the Diamond Princess and our next one is coming soon. Ironically, my husband and I were on the Ruby in May, 2011 (Barcelona to Venice). It is a beautiful ship and we had a FABULOUS time.

 

Once the facts start to come out, we'll all see if and how other cruise lines and their procedures may be affected. Again, we have never experienced any "safety compromising" issues in approx. 25 cruises. I hope your girlfriend stays the course and goes. There's so much to love about a cruise.

 

Hope this helps.

[Sirkeline]

Is the ship going to sink or will costa try to salvage and repair the ship?

 

Sorry, but who cares about the ship......

Im concerned about the people missing, and the dead.

 

Sorry....

[CruiseAdict218]

Actually I believe it is a sister ship of the Splendor.

 

You are correct, the Concordia, Pacifica, Serena & Splendor are all modified Conquest-class ships

[CruiseAdict218]

Sorry, but who cares about the ship......

Im concerned about the people missing, and the dead.

 

Sorry....

 

No need to be sorry, you are right the missing passengers are the main priority right now

[ATLfuzzy]

There will be a lot of explaining to do. How do you hit a large grouping of rocks in well-charted waters?

 

The same way that MSC ship hit a reef THIS week and went aground for a while....and the MS Sea Diamond right off the coast of Santorini (was it?) that ran into well known rocks there, and sank. The youtube videos of that one seem eerily similar, tragic.

[ItalianGuest]

Oliver_X, now I've to leave home for few hours but I'll check later (here and my e-mail ).

Hope the best for your girlfriend!

Regards

ItalianGuest

[Globetotter]

I am no navigator but I certainly can see how it might take an hour to assess the situation and determine whether the ship would be able to return to port or whether it was time to engage in a mass evacuation at sea with its inherent risks. Then, when the listing started from side to side, how and when to lower the lifeboats must have been a fluid dynamic. The passengers on board are in shock and they probably have little understanding of what actually occurred and what was behind certain emergency decisions. This is a tragedy for Costa and all concerned. It is a shame that media reports are already sounding the drumbeat of blame when so little is known.

 

At this point we should thank the local people who came to the rescue and refrain from any blame game till we know more.

 

Overall the short distance to land was a key factor to the relative low number of casualty. And I pray it stays that low. :( So if the Captain decided to steer a listing ship to shallow water close to land, I see it as a good decision.

 

I TOTALLY AGREE with both of you: nothing is know yet for sure, and the captain tried to make his best to save the people going towards shore.

Tomorrow they will fetch the black boxes.

It all started with the uncharted rock!!!

[Cushing985]

There is something obscene seeing a ship like that in that position. So sad.