The Costa Concordia disaster occurred on January 13, 2012. The cruise ship began its journey at approximately 7:18 p.m. from Civitavecchia, Italy. Furthermore, according to History.com, its destination was Savona. The voyage from Civitavecchia to Savona was going to take seven days. However, on the way, it collided with a rock in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Upon collision, a 50-meter (160-ft) cavity appeared in the port side of the ship, which resulted in the engine room’s flooding. Furthermore, the power from the engines and ship services got cut off. Gradually, conditions worsened, and the vessel positioned herself in a compromising position.
The rescue operation soon began and the entire process took over six hours to execute. At the time, there were 3,229 passengers and 1,023 crew on board. This disaster consumed the lives of 32 people. Three years after this tragedy, the wreckage was salvaged and sent to the port of Genoa to be scrapped.
Details of this disaster were discussed in the two-episode docuseries titled Costa Concordia: The Whole Story, which was released in 2012.
According to Apple TV+, the synopsis of Costa Concordia: The Whole Story reads, “The story of the worst cruise accident since the Titanic the harrowing moment-by-moment narrative of how it happened from those who were aboard and the islanders who saved their lives. The in-depth description of advanced search and rescue operations to recover survivors and victims from the Costa Concordia as well as the technology and engineering behind the epic historical salvage operation to refloat the massive ship intact and tow it away.”
Who caused the Costa Concordia disaster?
The captain of Costa Concordia during the time of the disaster was an Italian shipmaster named Francesco Schettino. The court found him guilty of manslaughter, abandoning his ship, and being responsible for a maritime accident. For his crimes, he was sentenced to sixteen years in prison in 2015.
Even though he appealed against his sentence, things quickly went south for him. He finally went to prison in 2017. According to The Guardian, Schettino abandoned the Costa Concordia when thousands needed his help and guidance. In court, the disgraced captain even claimed that he had partly died in the disaster.
Francesco Schettino said, “All the responsibility has been loaded onto me with no respect for the truth.”
After the verdict, a lawyer named Philip Banks, who was representing victims of this disaster, said, “All of our clients suffered a horrendous ordeal, which some may never truly overcome. The trauma they have been through has left some of them needing specialist therapy and counselling to come to terms with what happened and enable them to begin to move on with their lives.”
At the time of the disaster, Schettino was having an affair with a 26-year-old Moldovan dancer named Domnica Cemortan. She was present on the ship when it collided with the rock. Furthermore, he is married to Fabiola Russo, with whom he has a daughter. Francesco Schettino was born in Castellammare di Stabia, Naples, Italy.
