Costa Concordia collides with rock off Italian island of Giglio
Posted By RichC on January 15, 2012
As a family who enjoys traveling by cruise ship, the reports from Italy and the Costa Concordia are shocking after the ship ran aground on Friday. It is difficult for me in the day of GPS, sonar, autopilots, etc to understand how a ship of this size (4200 people) with an experienced captain and crew could have hit the rocks near the small island of Giglio. It is equally puzzling to hear the preliminary reports regarding how the captain and crew handled (or didn’t handle) the emergency procedures.
Current reports are that “at least five people died after the Concordia ran aground on the tiny island of Giglio Friday night. Several others remained unaccounted for.”
Additional news report have passengers telling disturbing stories about preparedness:
Survivors recounted a frantic rush by passengers to get on lifeboats, while the crew appeared helpless and overwhelmed to cope.
"There wasn’t anybody to help you," Shafer said. "I mean, the passengers were loading the lifeboats by themselves."
Compounding the problem was that only one side of lifeboats was available as the ship was listing. Passenger Laurie Willits, from Ontario, Canada, said some lifeboats on the higher side got stuck, leaving people suspended in mid-air amid the sounds of children crying and screaming.
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