Cruise ship runs aground off Italy; deaths reported

[Vonne]

Captain and Italian Coast Guard Conversation:
As translated by Reuters.  LINK



Coast Guard: Hello.

Captain: Good evening, chief.

Coast Guard: Listen, this is De Falco from Livorno. Am I speaking with the captain?

Captain: Good evening, Chief De Falco.

Coast Guard: Tell me your name, please.

Captain: I am Captain Schettino, chief.

Coast Guard: Schettino?

Captain: Yes.

Coast Guard: Listen, Schettino. There are people trapped on board. Now, you go with your lifeboat. Under the bow of the ship, on the right side, there is a ladder. You climb on that ladder and go on board the ship. Go on board the ship and get back to me and tell me how many people are there. Is that clear. I am recording this conversation, Captain Schettino.
(Captain tries to speak but Coast Guard can't hear him clearly. Voices in the Coast Guard room.)

Coast Guard: Speak up! (captain tries to speak) Captain, put your hand over the microphone and speak in a louder voice!

Captain: At this moment the ship is listing.

Coast Guard: There are people who are coming down the ladder on the bow. Go back in the opposite direction, get back on the ship, and tell me how many people there are and what they have on board. Tell me if there are children, women and what type of help they need. And you tell me the number of each of these categories. Is that clear?
Listen Schettino, perhaps you have saved yourself from the sea but I will make you look very bad. I will make you pay for this. Dammit, go back on board!
(Noise can be heard in the background. Apparently other Coast Guard officers are shouting to each other in the same room about "the ship, the ship")

Captain: Please ...

Coast Guard: There is no 'please' about it. Get back on board. Assure me you are going back on board!

Captain: I'm in a lifeboat, I am under here. I am not going anywhere. I am here.

Coast Guard: What are you doing, captain?

Captain: I am here to coordinate the rescue...

Coast Guard (interrupting): What are you coordinating there! Get on board! Coordinate the rescue from on board! Are you refusing?

Captain: No, I am not refusing.

Coast Guard: Are you refusing to go aboard, captain? Tell me the reason why you are not going back on board.

Captain: (inaudible)... there is a another lifeboat...

Coast Guard (interrupting, yelling): You get back on board! That is an order! There is nothing else for you to consider. You have sounded the "Abandon Ship." Now I am giving the orders. Get back on board. Is that clear? Don't you hear me?

Captain: I am going aboard.

Coast Guard: Go! Call me immediately when you are on board. My rescue people are in front of the bow.

Captain: Where is your rescue craft?

Coast Guard: My rescue craft is at the bow. Go! There are already bodies, Schettino. Go!

Captain: How many bodies are there?

Coast Guard: I don't know! ... Christ, you should be the one telling me that!

Captain: Do you realize that it is dark and we can't see anything?

Coast Guard: So, what do you want to do, to go home, Schettino?! It's dark and you want to go home? Go to the bow of the ship where the ladder is and tell me what needs to be done, how many people there are, and what they need! Now!

Captain: My second in command is here with me.

Coast Guard: Then both of you go! Both of you! What is the name of your second in command?

Captain: His name is Dmitri (static)"

Coast Guard: What is the rest of his name? (static) You and your second in command get on board now! Is that clear?

Captain: Look, chief, I want to go aboard but the other lifeboat here has stopped and is drifting. I have called ...

Coast Guard (interrupting): You have been telling me this for an hour! Now, go aboard! Get on board, and tell me immediately how many people there are!

Captain: OK, chief.

Coast Guard: Go! Immediately!

[apples]

Search for survivors suspended after wrecked cruise ship shifts
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/01/18/search-for-survivors-suspended-after-wrecked-cruise-ship-shifts/?test=latestnews

ROME –  Italian rescue workers suspended operations Wednesday after a stricken cruise ship shifted slightly on the rocks near the Tuscan coast, creating deep concerns about the safety of divers and firefighters searching for the 22 people still missing.

Premier Mario Monti has offered his first comments since the grounding of the cruise ship off Tuscany, saying such a disaster "could and should" have been avoided and assuring that all precautions were being taken to ensure there is no fuel leak.

Monti also thanked the residents of the tiny island of Giglio, which has a wintertime population of about 900, for opening their doors to to the 4,200 cruise ship refugees who washed ashore Friday night when the Costa Concordia grounded and capsized.

In response to a question at a press conference in London, Monti acknowledged Wednesday concern about a potential leak of the 500,000 gallons of fuel aboard the ship. He says authorities had made limiting and preventing leaks a priority, as well as caring for victims.

[Vonne]

"I had no intention of escaping," Francesco Schettino, 52, said during his first court hearing Tuesday, according to Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper.

"I was helping some passengers put the life boat to sea. At a certain point the mechanism for lowering it, blocked. We had to force it. Suddenly the system unblocked itself and I tripped and I found myself inside the life boat with a number of passengers."

The captain also reportedly admitted to the court that he lied at one point when he assured officials that he had dropped anchor shortly after the Costa Concordia slammed into a rock to stabilize the luxury liner.

LINK

[apples]

Satellite Spots Costa Concordia Shipwreck From Spacehttp://www.space.com/14273-satellite-photo-costa-concordia-cruise-shipwreck.html

An Earth-watching satellite has snapped a stark view of the Costa Concordia shipwreck from space, showing the huge ocean liner on its side just days after it tragically ran aground off Italy's Tuscany coast.

The new satellite photo was taken Tuesday (Jan. 17) by an Earth-observation satellite operated by DigitalGlobe, a Colorado-based company that uses a constellation of spacecraft to take high-resolution images of Earth.

In the satellite view of the Costa Concordia shipwreck, the luxury cruise ship is visible through a scattered cloud layer, as it lies half-submerged off the coast of Giglio, Italy. The ocean liner hit a reef on Jan. 13 and tipped over.

The Costa Concordia was carrying about 3,200 passengers and a crew of 1,000 when it ran aground, according to news reports. The accident killed 11 people, with more than two dozen others still missing, the ABC News reported today (Jan. 18). Rescue efforts were suspended today due to rough seas that apparently shifted the huge ship.

A closeup image of the Costa Concordia cruise ship taken by a DigitalGlobe satellite on Jan. 17, 2012. The luxury cruise ship ran aground in the Tuscan waters off of Giglio, Italy on Friday, January 13, 2012.
CREDIT: DigitalGlobe

[apples]

Costa Concordia: investigators probe role of young Moldovan woman on cruise ship

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9024768/Costa-Concordia-investigators-probe-role-of-young-Moldovan-woman-on-cruise-ship.html

The 25-year-old blonde, identified as Domnica Cemortan, was invited onto the bridge as the cruise liner sailed perilously close to Giglio, in what was apparently a ‘salute’ to an old friend of the captain’s and a favour to the ship’s head waiter, whose family were from the island.

She was reportedly the guest of one of the ship’s officers and may be the woman that passengers saw drinking and chatting with Capt Francesco Schettino on Friday evening, a few hours before the Costa Concordia ran aground.

Italian judicial authorities, who are investigating the accident and the captain’s conduct, want to interview Ms Cemortan, who according to her Facebook page was born in Chisinau, Moldova, and lives in Bucharest, Romania.

[Stan In FL]

at least we now know what he was doing instead of steering the ship.  while trying to impress the little hottie, he literally ran his ship aground.  and it's not a metaphor.

Costa Concordia: investigators probe role of young Moldovan woman on cruise ship

[Stan In FL]

when this is the best that your employer can say about you, lawyers can't help you any more.

‘We cannot confirm or deny that she was on the bridge. To be honest, nobody quite knows what Schettino was up to.’

[JohnBrowdie]

a fact I had not seen before.  it explains why the bow is pointed seaward, and the hole in the hull (with a freaking boulder sticking out of it) is out of the water.  the whole boat jerked around when the anchor set.

Recounting the crash, he said that he was returning to his cabin after dinner when "I felt a big shock, a noise. I fell to the ground, as the boat rocked from side to side … The electricity cut out."

A few minutes later the boat turned violently. "The captain cast the anchor," he said. "Some – who consider themselves experts – say he made a mistake; for others, he did the right thing as the boat turned on itself and thus we didn't hit the rocks."

More

[Stan In FL]

capt queeg could have been crying because the ship sank before he could bag the little russian hottie.

"I spoke to the captain. He embraced me for about a quarter of an hour and cried like a baby," Father Malena told French magazine Famille Chrétienne.

[Vonne]

a fact I had not seen before.  it explains why the bow is pointed seaward, and the hole in the hull (with a freaking boulder sticking out of it) is out of the water.  the whole boat jerked around when the anchor set.

What's really interesting is that the Captain originally announced that he performed that required operation before... running away.  However he's now admitted that he had nothing to do with it, and lied when he took credit for it.  Some of the Italian press is saying it was the heroic junior officers who rebelled against him in mutiny over his inaction. 

[apples]

Despite dangers, divers continue underwater searches of Costa Concordia photos of search

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10200888-despite-dangers-divers-continue-underwater-searches-of-costa-concordia

By Natalia Jimenez

Though this is not the first time we are seeing images of divers searching the Costa Concordia, these pictures provide detailed views of the ship that we had not previously seen. Over the past week, divers have worked with the threat of the ship moving and splitting in two at any moment. Search and rescue operations for the 21 people still missing have been temporarily suspended and resumed several times this week.

msnbc.com news services report:

    Sensors installed Thursday show constant vibrations in the ship structure, NBC News has learned. The ship is resting on two points underwater, keeping it from sinking. The remainder of the vessel is hanging and moves. Officials are worried the Concordia will sink further or suffer a sudden drop.

    Seven days after the 114,500-ton ship ran aground and capsized off the Tuscan coast, hopes of finding anyone alive have all but disappeared and the cold waters around the ship have become rougher, with worse weather expected at the weekend.

    "The ship is not in safe enough conditions for rescue operations to continue," Coast Guard spokesman Cmdr. Cosimo Nicastro told The Associated Press. Continue reading.

Photos at link

[apples]

Captain reportedly tells Costa Concordia bosses he 'messed up'
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/01/21/captain-reportedly-tells-costa-concordia-bosses-messed-up/?intcmp=trending

GIGLIO, Italy –  The Italian cruise captain accused of abandoning ship when the Costa Concordia struck rocks, causing the deaths of at least 11 people, admitted to his bosses that he "messed up," Sky News reported Saturday, citing sources.

Captain Francesco Schettino, who was jailed after he left the ship, is under house arrest near Naples. He faces charges of manslaughter and abandoning ship after he allegedly left the cruise liner before hundreds of passengers. Schettino claimed he tripped and fell into a lifeboat.

[apples]

Possibility that unregistered passengers were aboard wrecked cruise ship, official says
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/01/22/possibility-that-unregistered-passengers-were-aboard-wrecked-cruise-ship/?intcmp=trending

GIGLIO, Italy –  Unregistered passengers might have been aboard the stricken cruise liner that capsized off this Tuscan island, a top rescue official said Sunday, raising the possibility that the number of missing might be higher than the 20 previously announced.

Rescuers, meanwhile, resumed searching the above-water section of the Costa Concordia but choppy seas kept divers from exploring the submerged part, where officials have said there could be bodies.

"There could have been X persons who we don't know about who were inside, who were clandestine" passengers aboard the ship, Franco Gabrielli, the national civil protection official in charge of the rescue effort, told reporters at a briefing on the island of Giglio, where the ship, with 4,200 people aboard rammed a reef and sliced open its hull on Jan. 13 before turning over on its side.

Gabrielli said that relatives of a Hungarian woman have told Italian authorities that she had telephoned them from aboard the ship and that they haven't heard from her since the accident. He said it was possible that a woman's body pulled from the wreckage by divers on Saturday might be that of the unregistered passenger.

But the identity of that body and of three male bodies, all badly decomposed after days in the water, have yet to be established. Gabrielli said they have identified the other eight bodies: four French, an Italian, a Hungarian, a German and a Spanish national.

Until Sunday, authorities had said that 20 people are still missing.

[apples]

Death toll from Italian cruise Costa Concordia rises to 13
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/01/22/death-toll-from-italian-cruise-costa-concordia-rises-to-13/

GIGLIO, Italy –  Rescue teams searching the stricken Italian cruise liner Costa Concordia recovered a woman's body from the wreckage Sunday, taking the death toll from the disaster to 13.

The victim was found wearing a life jacket near the stern on the seventh of the vessel's 17 decks, ANSA reported.

She becomes one of five bodies yet to be identified. Four French nationals, a German, a Hungarian, a Spaniard and an Italian were confirmed to have died so far, according to the Italian gendarmerie.

The search for bodies resumed Sunday after the vessel earlier shifted on the sea ledge on which it is resting. The capsized ship has been lying on its side near the island of Giglio since running aground at 9:45pm local time Jan. 13.

Pierluigi Foschi, the CEO of the company that owns the cruise ship, met with the families of the missing Sunday during a brief visit to the island, Sky Italia's TG24 reported.

Twenty-four people remained listed as missing, including Minnesota couple Jerry and Barbara Heil, though that figure could fall to 19 once the five unidentified bodies are named, after DNA tests.

Relatives of the Heils were taken by the Italian authorities to an area near the Costa Concordia, where they placed daisies and white roses in the water Saturday.

[apples]

Two more bodies found in cruise ship wreck

http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/23/10216124-two-more-bodies-found-in-cruise-ship-wreck

Updated at 12:20 p.m. ET: GIGLIO, Italy -- Italian officials say two more bodies have been recovered from the capsized Costa Concordia, according to the Associated Press, bringing the death toll of the accident to 15.

The national civil protection agency official in charge of the search said Monday that divers recovered the bodies of two women from the ship's Internet cafe.

The recovery of the two brings to 17 the number of known missing. However, officials over the weekend said it appeared unregistered guests were on board at the time of the accident, meaning the number of officially missing could increase.

Meanwhile, Italian officials say experts can begin pumping fuel from a capsized cruise ship while divers continue the search for people still missing.