100 Years After Titanic: The Massive Cruise Ship Costa Concordia Sinks From Gash In Hull, With 4,200 Souls
January 14th, 2012
100 Years After Titanic: The Massive Cruise Ship Costa Concordia Sinks From Gash In Hull, With 4,200 Souls
Published on January 14th, 2012 @ 01:09:44 pm , using 441 words
UK Daily Mail
By Emily Allen
Sixty nine people are believed to be missing and three are dead after a packed cruise liner began capsizing off the Italian coast after running aground.
About 4,200 passengers and crew were on board the Costa Concordia which had left port at 7pm for a seven-day Mediterranean Cruise - but within two hours, it ran aground in the sea with a major electrical fault.
The 13 deck liner then began to take on water after hitting a rock creating a 160ft gash in the hull, near the island of Giglio, off the Tuscan coast - two weeks into the Titanic centenary year.
Following a large-scale evacuation of passengers and crew last night, Italian officials said 69 had not yet been accounted for, although they warned the passenger list might not be fully up-to-date.
All 25 British holiday-makers and 25 British crew members are safe but the bodies of two French passengers and a Peruvian crewman were recovered from the water.
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO
Italian news agency Ansa said 4,165 out of the 4,234 people on-board were safe but did not know the whereabouts of the remaining 69
Damage: The luxury cruise liner lies virtually flat, its right-hand side submerged in the water. The huge hole in the hull is clearly visible
Italian news agency Ansa said 4,165 out of the 4,234 people on-board were safe but officials did not know the whereabouts of the rest.
Coast guards and divers have spent the morning searching the submerged decks, the BBC said.
Meanwhile, the Concordia's grounding should serve as a wake-up call to the shipping industry and those who regulate it, the maritime professionals' union Nautilus International said.
Passengers said the ship had begun to list so much it was difficult to launch lifeboats, while some holiday-makers leaped into the water to swim to safety.
The Concordia's grounding should serve as a wake-up call to the shipping industry and those who regulate it, the maritime professionals' union Nautilus International said
Lifeboats are pictured in the foreground. Among the dead was a man around age 65, who officials believe may not have been able to withstand the cold of the sea at night
The bodies of two French passengers and one Peruvian crewman have been recovered from the sea. Fourteen people are believed to have minor injuries such as bruising.
Permalink
Comment feed for this post
