Survivors from a luxury cruise ship that ran aground and tipped over, leaving at least three dead and 69 people still unaccounted for, described Saturday a chaotic evacuation.
On January 13, 2012, Costa Cruises’ vessel, the Costa Concordia, departed from Civitavecchia, Italy with approximately 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members on a seven-day voyage. At approximately 10:00pm CET, the vessel struck rock off the coast of Isola del Giglio, Italy and sustained significant damage causing the ship to list severely. The order was given to abandon ship and deploy the lifeboats.
Costa Concordia was sailing on a Mediterranean cruise from Civitavecchia, Rome with scheduled calls at Savona, Italy; Marseille, France; Barcelona, Spain; Palma de Mallorca; Cagliari and Palermo, Italy.
Justin Baines explains that Costa Concordia crew members were encouraging people to stay on board when it was obvious that imminent danger existed as the ship was sinking. They jumped, but the point where they had been standing was under water behind them.
Passengers aboard a cruise ship that ran aground off the coast of Italy say the crew failed to give instructions on how to evacuate and delayed lowering the lifeboats until the ship was listing too heavily.
The Costa Concordia cruise ship is owned by the Carnival corporation.