What Cruise Ship Went Aground?

By Michael Ferguson

On the night of January 13, 2012, a cruise ship named the Costa Concordia went aground in the Tyrrhenian Sea off Giglio Island near Italy. The ship had sailed from Civitavecchia, Italy with 4,229 people aboard.

At the time of the accident, the ship was carrying more than 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members.

The Costa Concordia was owned by Costa Crociere and was built at Fincantieri’s Sestri Ponente shipyard in Genoa in 2006. It was registered in Genoa and measured 114,500 gross tons and 952 feet in length.

The accident occurred at approximately 9:45 p.m., when the captain attempted to bring the Costa Concordia closer to Giglio Island. The captain had ordered a deviation from their planned course in order to perform a “salute” to those living on the island. Unfortunately, he underestimated how close he had brought the vessel to shore and it hit a submerged rock formation which tore a 160-foot gash into her starboard side.

The impact caused an immediate power outage on board, leaving passengers stranded in darkness as panic began to set in. Passengers scrambled for lifeboats but many were blocked by doors which had been jammed shut due to power loss or lack of crew members trained to open them. In total 32 people lost their lives during this tragedy.

Conclusion:

What ultimately caused this tragedy was a combination of human error and bad luck. The captain’s decision to deviate from their planned course was ill-advised as it led them too close to shore and they encountered an unexpected submerged rock formation which tore into their side causing massive damage and destruction.