Assalamualaikum and welcome back to Orange Shots.
Life at sea can be very dangerous,
you have to face new challenges every day.
But despite this, if you asked people who work at sea about it,
they wouldn't trade it for the world.
But sometimes, people get so attached to their lives at sea,
it makes you think it would've been better if they weren't.
The same was the case with Costa Concordia.
Costa Concordia was an Italian ship, owned by Carnival Corporation,
a corporation based in America.
This ship was meant to offer cruise line services in the Mediterranean.
Different passengers would get on board,
spend their vacations there,
and get to visit the islands and countries in the Mediterranean.
But on January 12, this ship collided with Scole rocks near Giglio Island.
the Concordia’s port (left) side had suffered a lengthy tear.
She ended up listing to the starboard side, ultimately sinking.
Partially, not completely.
But the main point about Costa Concordia's story is
not her destruction, instead, it was all of the actions
the ship's captain ended up taking,
that led to the demise of 32 individuals,
the injuries of 60,
and the destruction of a $617 million ship.
Costa Concordia came into service on June 30, 2006.
The largest ship in the Costa line,
her length was around 290 meters,
width 35.2 meters.
The ship had a 2-deck family spa,
4 swimming pools; one outdoor pool where they would screen movies.
She had 1502 cabins, 601 crew cabins,
and could carry 4,890 passengers.
The ship was being commandeered by Francesco Schettino.
On 11 January, 2012, the ship takes off
from the Cagliari port for a 7-day Mediterranean cruise.
On January 13, 2012, the ship arrives at the Italian port of Civitavecchia.
Before sunset, the ship makes her way towards Port Savona.
The originally planned passage was to pass between mainland Italy,
and a small island called Giglio.
Cruise ships often (but not always) do something called a "sail-by salute."
It means that you go very close to an island
so you can offer your passengers an exclusive view
of the island you're close to.
I mean, viewing the sea from an island is one thing, but
getting to see an island from a ship is something special.
The seamen (living on the island) are offered a salute.
For this, the ship's standard course was altered. It was decided that
the ship would be kept 1.5 nautical miles away from the island,
for safe navigation,
and for the passengers to get a clear view of the island.
According to Captain Schettino's statement
he was ordered by the Costa manager to perform this sail-by salute.
Before the incident, Capt. Schettino is busy with dinner.
The ship's passengers are being served dinner
and the Captain has joined them for it.
The ship is halfway between mainland Italy and the island of Giglio,
i.e., headed towards that path.
Around 9:40 pm, the captain makes his way to the bridge.
And a crew member from Giglio is invited to join him.
He was the ship's cook.
At the same time, on the bridge,
a Moldovan dancer, Domnica Cemortan is also invited.
She was a non-paying guest.
She was in a romantic relationship with the captain.
But later in court, Capt. Schettino claimed that
Domnica's presence at the bridge had nothing to do with the incident.
According to the ship's chief officer's testimony,
who had been on the bridge when the incident occurred,
the captain had forgotten his back glasses in his room.
He couldn't see the radar clearly.
According to Capt. Schettino's own testimony,
he had been steering the ship by sight.
He claimed to be familiar with those waters,
and he didn't need to look at the Echdis or the radar.
In short, the captain gave an order
that was executed a bit too late by the helmsman.
By the time it was executed, the ship's turning circle grew,
and the ship deviated from her intended track,
approx. 659 meters closer to the coast.
Due to this closeness,
the ship hit an underwater reef off the coast of the Italian Island Isola del Giglio
suffering a 60-meter long gash on her port side,
causing water to flood into the ship.
There was an exposed rock known at the "scola piccola" known as Le Scole
which the ship hit ad 9:45 pm.
The ship's generators and electrical panels sank into water that was flooding in.
The ship's main engine stopped working,
all power on the went out.
The ship's chief engineer called at the bridge
and informed the duty officers at the ship that
there's so much water flooding in,
that after destroying the generators, it has getting to the electrical panels.
The guests were in the dining room, eating.
When the ship collided,
water began flooding in, the generators and engine stopped working.
Everyone began panicking.
But at 9:51 pm,
the PA (public address) system announced
that the situation was under control.
That it was only a slight technical issue that would be resolved shorty.
Around 10 pm, Capt. Schettino
updated the Costa's crisis management on the situation.
At 10:12 pm, port control gets in contact with the Costa Concordia,
asks them if there's anything wrong.
The Costa Concordia's duty officers
tell port control that there's no problem whatsoever.
Just a minor blackout, the technicians are working on it.
It will be dealt with in no time.
The only thing Capt. Schettino did right was
he let the ship drift.
Around 10:30 pm,
the ship started heading back towards the "scola piccola".
Before deciding to let the ship drift,
at 10:26 pm, Capt. Schettino tells the Port of Livorno’s harbour master
and requests a tug boat.
He tells them that the
ship has water flooding in through an opening in the port side.
He doesn't inform the port that the ship hit some rocks,
he also chooses not to tell them that
there's a 70-meter tear in the ship's port side.
As the ship drifted, more water kept flooding in.
Finally, the ship's pumps,
that were sending the water back out, stopped working.
More water flooded in, and the ship began to list to the starboard side.
A duty officer onboard told Capt. Schettino
that the passengers were headed towards deck number 4,
in an attempt to get to the lifeboats.
Capt. Schettino still hadn't reached a decision yet.
He hadn't informed the port authorities or the passengers
about what was really happening.
At 10:42 pm, the port authorities were updated on the real situation.
And at 10:50 pm,
the captain decided to abandon ship.
By then, the ship had already listed to starboard about 20 degrees.
There were a total of 4,229 passengers onboard the ship.
At 11:00 pm, when the lifeboats were being boarded
the ship had listed to starboard 25 degrees.
By 11:30 pm, the bridge had been unmanned.
There was noone on the bridge to answer to the recuers calls on VHF.
Anyhow, the lifeboats kept being lowered,
but by 11:30 pm, the ship was listing so heavily
that the port side lifeboats could not be launched.
More water flooded in. The ship kept listing to starboard.
And finally,
the ship was grounded at an angle of heel of about 70 degrees.
The ship's starboard side was completely submerged in the water.
The islander of Giglio welcomed the passengers to their homes.
A lot of the passengers had boarded the lifeboats but
80 were still onboard the ship.
The Italian Coast Guard patrol, the navy, as well as the Italian Air Force
were trying their best to rescue the passengers onbord the ship.
The tragedy of this story is that
Capt. Schettino had abandoned the ship, its passengers; ignoring his responsibility,
had already boarded a lifeboat and travelled to safety.
In this recording of the Coast Guard speaking you can see and hear
that the Coast Guard captain is demanding for Capt. Schettino to return
but he refuses to come back.
Notice the ladder on the port side of the ship.
That ladder was being used to rescue the passengers stuck on the ship.
The Coast Guard boart were also busy rescuing those passengers.
At 4:46 in the morning, the evacaution was concluded.
35 passengers were still unheard of.
3 were rescued the next day,
one of them a Korean couple left behind, locked up in a room,
one was a purser, who had a broken leg,
and wasn't able to move on his own.
These 3 passengers aside, 32 lost their lives.
Their bodies were found in the ship's elevators, other areas as well.
The last body was recovered on the 3rd of November, 2014.
Three years after the incident.
The captain later claimed in court that he was performing a rescue operation
when his leg got caught in something,
and he landed in a lifeboat.
That lifeboat took him to safety.
Unbelieveable.
As a result of this incident,
4 officers were sentenced to less than 2 years in jail.
The Costa Crises Manager,
with whom Capt. Schettino had been in contact with the whole time
was sentenced to 2 years and 10 months of jail time.
As far as Capt. Schettino was concerned,
he admitted that his actions had led to the shipwreck.
However, he refused to acknowledge that
he was to blame for the 32 deaths.
According to him, those lives were lost because the ship sank,
not because the ship was wrecked.
He was still charged with manslaughter,
he was also held responsible for causing a shipwreck,
and for abandoning the helpless passengers left behind.
He was then sentenced to 16 years in jail.
The ship was declared a "total constructive loss."
Just like the X-Press Pearl.
The final cost of the salvage ended up being $1.2 billion.
Billion dollars!
And the losses Costa Cruises had to face
were another story.
The survivors of the ordeal were compensated with a $13K deal,
some accepted, some didn't.
As for the ones who didn't survive, their families were compensated differently.
Due to this incident, 32 precious lives were lost.
If you enjoyed today's video,
or learned something new from it,
or just enjoyed it generally;
please don't forget to like,
share, and subscribe.
Take good care of yourselves. Remember me in your prayers.
With tons of love to my Orange Shots family,
and to-be Orange Shots family.
This is me, Zahid Nisar.
You're watching Orange Shots.
And until my next video,
ALLAH Hafiz!