OK it's not the Titanic

[Maggot]

Those things do not stop on a dime .

[Lady Cop]

amazing

Porto Santo Stefano, Italy (CNN) -- Rescuers reached two trapped survivors in the interior of a cruise ship more than 24 hours after it ran aground off a picturesque Italian island.





now 3 rescued.

[Smegma]

I just read two of the people rescued were a Korean couple on their honeymoon. If you're superstitious, would that be an indication of good or bad fortune together?

[Duchess]

Other than those that died & those that are still missing, this ship sinking is no great loss. The interior is as garish as anything I've ever seen...

...except Johnny's grave.

[Lady Cop]

shades of J. Bruce Ismay if true. was he wearing a dress?

AP

A French couple who boarded the Concordia in Marseille, Ophelie Gondelle and David Du Pays of Marseille, told The Associated Press they saw the captain in a lifeboat, covered by a blanket, well before all the passengers were off the ship. They insisted on telling a reporter what they saw, so incensed that -- according to them -- the captain had abandoned the ship before everyone had been evacuated.

"The commander left before and was on the dock before everyone was off," said Gondelle, 28, a French military officer.

"Normally the commander should leave at the end," said Du Pays, a police officer who said he helped an injured passenger to a rescue boat. "I did what I could."

According to the Italian navigation code, a captain who abandons a ship in danger can face up to 12 years in prison.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/01/15/...z1jXgH0bbT

[Smegma]

I wonder if that'll be 12 years in addition to manslaughter charges. He'll probably never see the light of day again.

[Lady Cop]

The Titanic
The elderly Ida and Isidore Straus drowned side by side after Mrs Straus refused a place on a lifeboat to remain with her husband.
the parallels are getting creepy.



Giglio, Italy (CNN) -- The bodies of two elderly people have been recovered from the wreck of the ill-fated cruise ship Costa Concordia, the Italian Coast Guard said Sunday, bringing the number of dead in the sinking to at least five.

The dead were found near the ship's restaurant, still wearing their life jackets, Coast Guard spokesman Capt. Cosimo Nicastro told reporters.


reports say there was panic and screaming, and every man for himself.

[Smegma]

I'd use my well earned American bulk to manhandle those old farts out of the way.

[Lady Cop]

Francesco Schettino was at least four miles off course when the Costa Concordia struck rocks off the island of Giglio, Tuscany, despite Italy's well-mapped sea lanes.

[ramseycat]

There was a couple with their daughter on the boat that is local to me. They still are not home yet. All kinds of red tape getting temporary passports. They got off the boat with just the clothes they were wearing. This cruise was their gift to each other for the 20^th wedding anniversary.

I cannot believe that in this day and age, a cruise ship can sink.

[Lady Cop]

Rescue divers have suspended the search for missing people 'indefinitely' after the Costa Concordia slipped 9cm from its rocky resting place - prompting fears it will soon plummet 100 metres down to the bottom of the Mediterranean.

Stormy weather has hampered search efforts this morning, with Giglio's Mayor Sergio Ortelli saying: 'The hopes of finding any more survivors are fading.' There are also worries oil could start to spill from the ship - sparking an environmental disaster.

A five-year-old Italian girl and her father are believed to be among the passengers still missing.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...z1jdLVDLyR

[Smegma]

The chief executive of Costa Crociere Pier Luigi Foschi blames "human error" on the part of the captain for the grounding of its cruise ship off Tuscany. He says the liner had passed all safety and technical tests in its 2011 evaluation. He said Costa ships have their routes programmed, and alarms go off when they deviate. "This route was put in correctly. The fact that it left from this course is due solely to a maneuver by the commander that was unapproved, unauthorized and unknown to Costa," he said.

So many questions about this. Weren't there other crew members present when the alarms went off? Why would he have any reason to do this? This wasn't accidental, he had to knowingly override the systems.

[Lady Cop]

Smegma: Why would he have any reason to do this?

i read somewhere he was greeting someone on shore, that it had been done before to amuse the people on the island and the cruise passengers. akin to a pilot tipping his wings. a salute.
perhaps the alarms were disabled for the purpose.

[Smegma]

Perhaps, but if I recall correctly this was during a dinner hour at 10:30 PM.

[Cracker]

That guy is all kinds of fucked. I'm glad they place the responsibility of safety on sea captains and pilots. We are all sitting ducks if you think about it.

I am uncomfortable any time I am not driving the vehicle.

[Lady Cop]

i've read in several publications that he was 4 miles off course. that is vast!

and his company is throwing him under the fantail as it were, or to the sharks. but they may regret that, the lawyers are drooling and slobbering as we speak. and the buck stops with the company.

A risky practice by cruise ships of close-passing the island of Giglio in a foghorn-blasting salute to the local population appears to have contributed to the Costa Concordia disaster, officials and witnesses said on Sunday.

some reports say there were not enough life jackets for everyone. oh shit if that's true!

[Carsman]

The videos below may hinder enticing novice cruisers to want to cruise. (However, it is a very rare occurence)

(Note: the last video shows just how lavish, (or garish to some) the ship was before mishap.


http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=4711

[Duchess]

garish to some

That was me. It was how I felt about it personally, the aesthetics of it bothered me, I'm not into a Vegas type atmosphere, I prefer something a little more understated.

The only reason I even looked at the interior was because I thought how cool it would be to salvage some of the fixtures for future projects.

[Lady Cop]

latest:

Giglio, Italy (CNN) -- The head of Italy's coast guard said late Monday that 29 people are still unaccounted for from the partially sunken cruise ship Costa Concordia -- a sharp spike from earlier estimates of the missing.



still missing is five-year-old Dyana Arlotti (red shirt) and her father.(in photo)



Still missing: Gerald and Barbara Heil, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, scraped by as they raised their four children, but had finally saved enough to take a long-awaited trip to celebrate their retirement.



:(

Italy's cruise liner tragedy turned into an environmental crisis Monday, as rough seas battering the stricken mega-ship raised fears that fuel might leak into pristine waters off Tuscany that are part of a protected sanctuary for dolphins, porpoises and whales.

[Lady Cop]

wow. this guy is going to be hung from the yardarm. or keelhauled.

AP
The Italian news agency ANSA reported that another five bodies were located Tuesday, raising the confirmed death toll to 11. Before the latest find, 29 people had been unaccounted for.

The Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 people when it hit a reef off the Tuscan island of Giglio when Schettino made an unauthorized deviation from the cruise ship’s programmed course.

Schettino has insisted he stayed aboard until the ship was evacuated, but the recording of his conversation with Italian Coast Guard Capt. Gregorio De Falco indicates he fled before all passengers were off — and then resisted De Falco’s repeated orders to return.

"You go on board and then you will tell me how many people there are. Is that clear?" De Falco shouted in the audio tape.

Schettino resisted, saying the ship was tipping and that it was dark. At the time, he was in a lifeboat and said he was coordinating the rescue from there.

De Falco shouted back: "And so what? You want go home, Schettino? It is dark and you want to go home? Get on that prow of the boat using the pilot ladder and tell me what can be done, how many people there are and what their needs are. Now!"

"You go aboard. It is an order. Don’t make any more excuses. You have declared the abandoning of the ship, now I am in charge," De Falco shouted.

Schettino was finally heard agreeing to reboard. It is unclear whether he did.