Costa Concordia accidents and incidents

12 July 2022Other Incidents

On July 12, 2022, Costa Concordia's crew Giuseppe Girolamo was honored with the "Gold Medal for Civil Valor".

The 30-year-old man worked as a musician/drummer on the liner and lost his life while saving two small children during the disaster.

Following the Captain's Abandon Ship Alarm, Giuseppe Girolamo found a seat on a lifeboat. Although he knew that this was the last boat and he didn't know how to swim, he decided to stay onboard to allow a family with two kids to board the boat and save themselves.

Note: Italy's Civil Valor Medal was established in 1851 by Victor Emmanuel II (1820-78), King of Sardinia between 1861-78. Since 1911, awards for civil valor are issued by CFAT (Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching). In June 1911, Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) gave a letter to Giovanni Giolitti (Italy's Prime Minister at the time) granting to the Italian government a fund of US$ 0,75M in Carnegie Steel Company shares, which annual annuities to be used to pay premiums to people in economic difficulty but nonetheless had worked in the face of danger to save the lives of others. To people who are not in economic difficulty are awarded medals Instead of money.

Andrew Carnegie (Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist) was one of the USA's richest people and became the world's leading philanthropist. In the period 1901-1919, he donated ~90% of his fortune (US$350 million / USD 5,5 billion in 2021) to charities, foundations and universities. With the money he donated, in the USA were founded 2509 libraries (built between 1883-1929) as well as numerous funds, trusts and universities in the USA and Great Britain (Scotland).

01 February 2014Crew / Passenger Deaths

On February 1, 2014, off Giglio Island (Italy), a Spanish diver died during salvage works on the wreckage. The man worked for UCS (Underwater Contractors Spain). He was involved in an underwater operation when slashed his leg on a metal sheet. A fellow diver brought the injured man alive to the surface, but he later died from the sustained wounds.

The accident occurred while divers were working to attach to the wreckage a total of 30 massive tanks - to be later filled up with air allowing the vessel to be lifted off the seabed.

13 January 2012Ship Grounding

On January 13, 2012, at ~10 pm local time (UTC+1) the cruise liner ran aground. It happened ~2 hours after starting an 8-day Mediterranean roundtrip from homeport Civitavecchia-Rome. The itinerary was scheduled to visit Italy (Savona), France (Marseille), Spain (Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca), Sardinia (Cagliari) and Sicily (Palermo).

Next is the famous YouTube video based on historical AIS tracking data provided by VesselFinder.

As witnesses reported - it all started with a loud bang. The huge ship shuddered to a halt, then plunged into darkness experiencing a total power loss. This was the beginning of the 2 long hours of a Titanic-like experience affecting all the 3206 passengers and 1023 crew on the unfortunate ship.

News teams reported from the scene many passengers jumping overboard and swimming to shore as the vessel took on a 20-30 degree list to starboard, thus presenting a real danger of sinking. When the panic subsided and all passengers and crew left the vessel, it remained capsized, resting against a small breakwater.

Next is the sensational Concordia's 3D Google Earth animation video showing the exact sequence of events ending with the ship's sinking off Giglio.

Investigation reports showed Concordia's notorious captain Francesco Schettino veered from the approved ship course and approached Giglio to perform a "salute" to a former Costa captain. Schettino turned off the alarm for the computer navigation system and navigated the vessel "by sight". Obviously, he was too late when ordered to turn. The ship ended up in too shallow waters where struck a rock from the Le Scole reef. The result was an almost 160 ft (50m) gash in the hull.

• Costa Concordia final death toll was 32, with 2 missing (presumed dead) and 157 seriously injured (of which 64 injured badly). The ship may have had unregistered passengers as well. Many of the liner's passengers and crew were evacuated on ferries regularly scheduled to serve the route Porto Santo Stefano - Giglio Island.
• By nationality, most cruise passengers were Italians (989), 569 Germans, 462 French, Spanish (177), 129 US citizens. On the ship traveled 4229 people from 70 different countries.
• On January 31, 2012, local authorities officially ended the search for bodies in the submerged parts of the wreckage. The deformed hull and bad underwater conditions deemed too dangerous for divers. Searching continued in the waters up to 7 ml2 / 18 km2 around the ship.
• (September 26, 2013) The underwater search for the 2 missing bodies ended. After raising the wreck, divers found in the water near the ship's central section unidentified human remains. Next step was DNA tests to be conducted for identification of the victims. The 2 missing were from the ship's service staff - an Italian female and an Indian male.
• On August 6, 2014, at Port Genoa, during a dive search operation, human remains were discovered on the ship's Deck 3. It was presumed that this was the body of Russel Rebello (an Indian waiter) who was the only remained missing person since the ship's sinking.
• As compensation for all damages, the operator Costa Crociere offered EUR 11,000 (~USD 15,000) per passenger. The line also reimbursed all passengers with the full cruise cost, plus all travel and medical expenses following the accident. Naturally (when an opportunity presents itself) 6 of the passengers opened lawsuits against Carnival and demanded a compensation totaling USD 460 million.

Among the most expensive passenger liners, Concordia's cost to build was USD 570 million (EUR 450 million) or USD 149,000 per berth. The accident became "the biggest insured loss in maritime history" as the vessel was insured for USD 513 million (EUR 405 million). The list of its insurers included XL, RSA, Generali, Allianz. When the disaster happened, experts expected the insurance loss from the ship to be between USD 500 million and 1 billion.

While these numbers were big enough, they could have grown even bigger if the over 2300 tons of diesel fuel on the ship had started to leak. In such a case, a substantial pollution liability claim would have been issued. This possibility was the sole reason Carnival stock prices to plummet by 18% on the London Stock Exchange.

Carnival Corp officials expected Concordia's sinking to cost the company between USD 155-175 million (EUR 118-133 million), including insurance deductibles and loss of use. Because of the disaster, Carnival Cruise Lines (Corporation's largest brand company by fleet capacity) lowered its prices fleetwide just to keep up bookings. This additionally lowered its net revenue for FY2012 (fiscal year) and the earnings per share.

In 2015, Costa Crociere announced that the wreckage salvage and removal operation's total cost soared up to EUR 1,5 billion (GBP 1,2 billion / USD 2 billion) - nearly the combined building cost of two Royal Caribbean Oasis-class units (currently world's largest passenger liners).

Concordia-like collision with rocks incident happened on the cruise ship Costa Fortuna in June 2005. This accident was subsequently covered up and came to light during the Concordia investigation when Palermo port authorities mentioned a report by one on Fortuna's onboard photographers who was on the ship when the collision occurred. The investigators concluded that only the favorable Mediterranean weather prevented a Concordia-like disaster.

22 November 2008Ship Collision / Allision

On November 22, 2008, while maneuvering for berthing in call port Palermo (Sicily Island, Italy), due to strong winds in the harbor the cruise liner collided with the dock and sustained bow-hull damages. No injuries were reported.

Note: Actually, this type of marine accident is called “allision” (striking a fixed object) as opposed to “collision” (striking another vessel).

02 September 2005Other Incidents

On September 2, 2005, the vessel was launched (floated-out from drydock) at Fincantieri's Sestri Ponente shipyard. During the special ceremony, the godmother Eva Herzigova released a champagne bottle, which failed to break into the hull. This is always considered a very bad omen for the future of any marine vessel.