When the Costa Concordia disaster took place, the ship’s captain was an Italian shipmaster named Francesco Schettino. The Costa Concordia started its voyage on January 13, 2012, at 7:18 p.m. from Civitavecchia, Italy. It was supposed to reach Savona. Furthermore, the entire journey was going to take seven days. Unfortunately, it collided with a rock in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Furthermore, it did not take long for water to enter the ship and put its crew and passengers in danger. The Costa Concordia disaster took the lives of 32 individuals. Its captain, Francesco Schettino, was sentenced to sixteen years in prison in 2015 for charges like manslaughter, abandoning his ship, and being responsible for a maritime accident.
According to Cruise Mummy, Schettino went to Rebibbia prison in Rome to serve his time. Details of this disaster were explored in the two-episode docuseries titled Costa Concordia: The Whole Story. This project 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.”
What did the resident pianist of Costa Concordia say about the maritime disaster?
Antimo Magnotta is an Italian pianist and composer who started his career in 1992. He was present at the Costa Concordia when it crashed against a rock in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
In 2019, Paul González-Morgan interviewed Magnotta, in which the pianist spoke candidly about the tragedy that took the lives of 32 people.
He said, “On Friday, January 13, 2012, the Concordia had set out from Rome on the last leg of a seven-day Mediterranean cruise with 3,229 passengers and 1,023 crew on board. I sat down at the Yamaha baby grand in the Vienna Bar on aft deck five at 9.30 pm to entertain a handful of well-dressed guests.”
He further said,
“I was fully immersed in my beautiful daily routine. It was a lovely starry night. The weather conditions were ideal for navigation, the sea was as smooth as a table. All of a sudden, at 9.42 pm, the ship took a sudden swerve and started listing. I fell off the bench and the piano was torn from its safety locks and started drifting on the stage. No sound of a collision was heard on deck five, although those on lower decks would later tell me of the terrible tearing sound as a submerged rock ripped a huge hole in the engine compartments, just off the coast of the Island of Giglio.”
Antimo Magnotta even revealed that he lost two close friends in the disaster. Both were musicians: a violinist and a drummer.
