The Wrecked Costa Concordia Cruise Ship Is Finally Being Towed Away Smart News

Table Of Content

• Shipwrecked Concordia cruise ship is wrested off Italian reef yet operation going very slowly
• Regulatory and industry response
• The Wrecked Costa Concordia Cruise Ship Is Finally Being Towed Away
• For Earth Day, a Photo Appreciation of Birds
• The Costa Concordia Disaster: How Human Error Made It Worse
• Safety regulations

Schettino argued that he fell into a lifeboat because of how the ship was listing to one side, but this argument proved unconvincing. In 2015, a court found Schettino guilty of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck, abandoning ship before passengers and crew were evacuated and lying to authorities about the disaster. In addition to Schettino, Ferrarini and Rusli Bin, the other people who received convictions for their role in the disaster were Cabin Service Director Manrico Giampedroni, First Officer Ciro Ambrosio and Third Officer Silvia Coronica. GIGLIO, Italy — Ten years have passed since the Costa Concordia cruise ship slammed into a reef and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio. Thousands of passengers and crew made it to land safely but 32 people died, including a five-year-old girl. The bodies of two people – Maria Grazia Trecarichi, a Sicilian passenger, and Russel Rebello, an Indian waiter – have never been found.

Shipwrecked Concordia cruise ship is wrested off Italian reef yet operation going very slowly

Experts estimate that that process could take as long as two-and-a-half years, CNN writes. Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at /us). Scientific American maintains a strict policy of editorial independence in reporting developments in science to our readers. Learn and share the most exciting discoveries, innovations and ideas shaping our world today.

Regulatory and industry response

These caissons are large metal boxes into which compressed air will be pumped to float the ship. Salvage crews repaired and remounted the escaped caisson and are now finishing installation of the remaining ones. Once the ship has been lifted, two of the caissons will have to be refitted to help keep the craft ship afloat while it is being towed 240 kilometers to Genoa, where it will be dismantled. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

The Wrecked Costa Concordia Cruise Ship Is Finally Being Towed Away

The Costa Concordia Disaster: How Human Error Made It Worse HISTORY - History

The Costa Concordia Disaster: How Human Error Made It Worse HISTORY.

Posted: Wed, 23 Jun 2021 07:00:00 GMT [source]

"I think it’s the panic, the feeling of panic, is what’s carried through over 10 years," Ian Donoff, who was on the cruise with his wife Janice for their honeymoon, told Cobiella. Ten years ago the Costa Concordia ran aground off the Tuscan island of Giglio, killing 32 people and entwining the lives of others forever. The struggle reflects the difficult reality of an industry battered by the pandemic.

For Earth Day, a Photo Appreciation of Birds

Despite the disaster, locals have come to appreciate the crews who have spent more than a year working on the wreckage, renting out hotel rooms and vacation apartments that would otherwise have gone vacant during the winter. When it comes time to tow the ship next spring, the tanks will gradually be emptied of the water. That will make the ship buoyant enough to float off the seabed like a pair of giant water wings. Later in the rotation process, a series of tanks fixed on the exposed side of the hull will be filled with water to help pull it down. That phase of the process should rotate the ship faster than the initial phase of winching, said Costa Crociere's project manager, Franco Porcellacchia. Officials stressed that so far no appreciable pollution from inside the ship had spewed out.

A senior enlisted Navy servicemember has been convicted of attempted espionage for delivering classified information to a foreign government, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service said Friday. In January, Chief Fire Controlman (Aegis) Bryce Steven Pedicini was charged with multiple counts of attempted espionage for mishandling or disclosing classified information. Pedicini was a former destroyer crewmember who worked on the Aegis system, the Navy's integrated radar and weapons control platform.

Safety regulations

The island was notified of the news – a landmark feat of engineering and big step towards the removal of the Concordia from Tuscan waters in one piece – by a foghorn that sounded shortly after 4am and was heard across the port and beyond. Almost immediately questions were raised concerning the conduct of Schettino and other crew officers. In July 2013 four crew members and Costa Crociere’s crisis coordinator pled guilty to various charges, including manslaughter. He was charged with manslaughter as well as causing the wreck and abandoning ship. During the 19-month trial, prosecutors claimed that he was an “idiot,” while Schettino countered that his actions had saved lives and that he was being scapegoated.

In a first step to prevent pollution of the shore and assist in a refloat the ship, its oil and fuel tanks were emptied. The Genoa port authorities confirmed to AFP that the Italian positive cases were taken home by the civil protection services, while foreign passengers who tested positive were transferred to medical facilities. Nick Sloane, the senior salvage master for Titan Salvage, the American company in charge of the operation, said Monday that he was relieved the weather was cooperating after a night of light rain. The shipwreck has altered the local economy; Mayor Ortelli says tourism income has dropped by 50 percent. Traditional nature lovers who came for a week or more have been replaced by day-trippers.

Following the conclusion of the righting operation, the ship was kept on the platform while further inspections were made and the starboard sponsons attached. Dozens of passengers were taken off a cruise ship in Genoa, Italy, after testing positive for COVID, the operator said. As parts of the vessel emerged in the later afternoon on Monday, discolored and rusting, from the waters where the Concordia had languished, listing on its side, engineers said the operation would most likely take longer than initially planned. "And a ship with more than 4,000 people on board cannot be put under the command of such an amateur."

Evacuation was made even more chaotic by the ship listing so far to starboard, making walking inside very difficult and lowering the lifeboats on one side, near to impossible. Making things worse, the crew had dropped the anchor incorrectly, causing the ship to flop over even more dramatically. Ortelli was later on hand when, in September 2013, the 115,000-ton, 1,000-foot long cruise ship was righted vertical off its seabed graveyard in an extraordinary feat of engineering. But the night of the disaster, a Friday the 13th, remains seared in his memory. And three giant Costa cruise ships are anchored near La Spezia, "motors running, lights on, and with small crews aboard," Fortune reporter Eric J. Lyman wrote.

The passengers, whose infections were found through random testing, were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms, according to the Port of San Francisco. Get HISTORY’s most fascinating stories delivered to your inbox three times a week. "There was really a melee there is the best way to describe it," he told Cobiella. "It's very similar to the movie 'Titanic.' People were jumping onto the top of the lifeboats and pushing down women and children to try to get to them." Passengers struggled to escape in the darkness, clambering to get to the life boats. Alaska resident Nate Lukes was with his wife, Cary, and their four daughters aboard the ship and remembers the chaos that ensued as the ship started to sink.

On that night, in an effort to entertain the passengers with a close-up view of the island, Capt. Francesco Schettino accidentally rammed the vessel into a rocky reef just a few dozen yards from shore. Lifting the ship more than 12 meters off the giant underwater platforms that have been supporting it since September will take three or four days, but raising it the first two meters will be the most dangerous part of the exercise. That’s when the hull could crack and spill out a toxic stew of chemicals, rotten food and debris trapped since the shipwreck that has been swilling around inside the sunken ship for more than two years. If the hull breaks apart, the ship would likely never be removable from Giglio in one piece and would have to be dismantled in situ. Evidence introduced in Schettino’s trial suggests that the safety of his passengers and crew wasn’t his number one priority as he assessed the damage to the Concordia. With Giglio Island lying in a protected marine area, environmental issues relating to the Concordia wreck were of particular concern.

The operation was further complicated by the ship's position, resting on an underwater slope. Ten years have passed since the Costa Concordia cruise ship slammed into a reef and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio. But for the passengers on board and the residents who welcomed them ashore, the memories of that harrowing, freezing night remain vividly etched into their minds.