The latest news reports on the cruise ship disaster off the coast of Italy confirm a total of five deaths and the cruise ship captain has been arrested by the Italian authorities. He has been accused of manslaughter as well as abandoning his ship and also being the cause of the ship running aground on January 13. A huge gash in the ship’s hull was created when the ship hit a rock and water poured into the ship causing it to quickly list and topple over.
At the last report between 15 and 17 people were still missing, two of those being Americans, and 40 people had been injured. Damages to the 6 year old ship, the Costa Concordia, are estimated to cost the insurance companies in excess of $512 million.
The ship has been reported to have been less than 500 feet from shore according the Ansa, the Italian news agency.
Some of the video and photos of this disaster are incredible.
Jesper Ulrik Madsen
I think it’ time to salute the brave Italien rescue workers for the ongoing effort to rectify the mess left over by this “opera captain”.
Yes the captain is responsible on the spot, but the ship owner has to take on their resposibility too. Leadership and management is a matter of values, guide lines and proper follow up – apparently senior ship owner management is running like hell to escape spot light.
God bless the victims and their families and God bless the rescue workers.
lorisamarin
FYI- As of early this morning (Italian time) instruments which had been installed to gauge the movement of the ship, detected that the vessel has moved a few centimeters. The ocean waters are are agitated and expected to get worse throughout the day and into the night, due to inclement weather. The concern is that the ship will move from the 35 meter wedge to fall into a 70 meter wedge, and therefore sink. In turn, the rescue mission has been called off for now as it poses danger to the divers, and all others who are attempting to locate bodies or survivors in the submoeged portion of the ship.
The second concern is that the fuel will spill and cause an ecologic disaster. It will take two weeks to remove, since the tanks were full. Doing so now, however, prior to locating the bosies of the dispersed, would further aggrevate the rescue and hope to find anyone, since it will lighten the weight of the ship and cause it to topple further and sink.
This morning the CEO of the cruise line held a press conference in Genova. He informed the press that, contrary to preliminary press report which mentioned a lack life jackets and safety equipment, there had been two recent routine ship and safety inspections conducted on the Concordia by Italian authorities in November 2011 and again in December 2011 and everything was “in check”. He further stated that the captain had obtained all certifications necessary; that the company would assist him legally, however, it was admitted that a human error in judgement, on the part of the captain was clearly responsible for the disaster. The CEO became emotional when he mentioned the heroic efforts of the company executive who stayed with the ship and searched for survivors, was pinned by a refrigerator that fell and broke his leg, and was finally rescued himself within minutes or hours from drowning, 36 hours after the incident.
margieinitaly
Thanks Lori for your perspective and additional information on this terrible situation.