3 dead as luxury cruise ship runs aground in Italy
Source: Agencies |
January 15, 2012, Sunday
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A LUXURY cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Tuscany, sending water pouring in through a 50-meter gash in the hull and forcing the evacuation of some 4,200 people from the listing vessel early yesterday, the Italian coast guard said.
Three bodies were recovered from the sea, said Coast Guard Cmdr Francesco Paolillo. There were reports that three other people had died after the accident late on Friday night near the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, but those reports were not yet confirmed, he said.
A coast guard official says that 70 people unaccounted for after the accident might be "in the belly of the ship."
Twelve hours after the accident, the ship was lying virtually flat, its right-hand side submerged in the water. Passengers complained the crew failed to give instructions on how to evacuate the Costa Concordia and that the evacuation drill was only scheduled for yesterday afternoon. Authorities still hadn't counted all the survivors.
"It was so unorganized, our evacuation drill was scheduled for 5pm," said Melissa Goduti, 28, of the US, who had set out on the cruise of the Mediterranean hours earlier.
Helicopters plucked to safety some 50 people who were trapped on the ship after it listed so badly they couldn't launch lifeboats, Paolillo said from his command in the Tuscan port city of Livorno.
Passenger Mara Parmegiani told the ANSA news agency that "it was like a scene from the Titanic."
Survivor Christine Hammer, from Bonn, Germany, shivered near the harbor of Porto Santo Stefano, on the mainland, after stepping off a ferry from Giglio. She was wearing elegant dinner clothes, a cashmere sweater, a silk scarf along with a large pair of hiking boots, which a kind islander gave her after she lost her shoes in the scramble to escape, along with her passport, credit cards and phone.
Hammer, 65, said that she was eating her first course, an appetizer of squid, on her first night aboard her first-ever cruise, which was a gift to her and her husband, Gert, from her local church where she volunteers. Suddenly, "we heard a crash. Glasses and plates fell down and we went out of the dining room and we were told it wasn't anything dangerous," she said.
The passengers were then instructed to put on life jackets and take to the life rafts but, Hammer said, they couldn't get into the boats because the cruise liner was tilting so much the boats couldn't be lowered into the cold, night sea. The passengers were eventually rescued by one of several boats in the area that came to their aid.
"It was terrible," Hammer said, as German and Spanish tourists were about to board buses at the port.
"No one counted us, neither in the life boats or on land," said Ophelie Gondelle, 28, a French military officer.
As dawn neared, a painstaking search of the 290-meter long ship's interior was being conducted to see if anyone might have been trapped inside, Paolillo said. He added the vessel was believed to have set sail with 3,206 passengers and 1,023 crew members.
Three bodies were recovered from the sea, said Coast Guard Cmdr Francesco Paolillo. There were reports that three other people had died after the accident late on Friday night near the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, but those reports were not yet confirmed, he said.
A coast guard official says that 70 people unaccounted for after the accident might be "in the belly of the ship."
Twelve hours after the accident, the ship was lying virtually flat, its right-hand side submerged in the water. Passengers complained the crew failed to give instructions on how to evacuate the Costa Concordia and that the evacuation drill was only scheduled for yesterday afternoon. Authorities still hadn't counted all the survivors.
"It was so unorganized, our evacuation drill was scheduled for 5pm," said Melissa Goduti, 28, of the US, who had set out on the cruise of the Mediterranean hours earlier.
Helicopters plucked to safety some 50 people who were trapped on the ship after it listed so badly they couldn't launch lifeboats, Paolillo said from his command in the Tuscan port city of Livorno.
Passenger Mara Parmegiani told the ANSA news agency that "it was like a scene from the Titanic."
Survivor Christine Hammer, from Bonn, Germany, shivered near the harbor of Porto Santo Stefano, on the mainland, after stepping off a ferry from Giglio. She was wearing elegant dinner clothes, a cashmere sweater, a silk scarf along with a large pair of hiking boots, which a kind islander gave her after she lost her shoes in the scramble to escape, along with her passport, credit cards and phone.
Hammer, 65, said that she was eating her first course, an appetizer of squid, on her first night aboard her first-ever cruise, which was a gift to her and her husband, Gert, from her local church where she volunteers. Suddenly, "we heard a crash. Glasses and plates fell down and we went out of the dining room and we were told it wasn't anything dangerous," she said.
The passengers were then instructed to put on life jackets and take to the life rafts but, Hammer said, they couldn't get into the boats because the cruise liner was tilting so much the boats couldn't be lowered into the cold, night sea. The passengers were eventually rescued by one of several boats in the area that came to their aid.
"It was terrible," Hammer said, as German and Spanish tourists were about to board buses at the port.
"No one counted us, neither in the life boats or on land," said Ophelie Gondelle, 28, a French military officer.
As dawn neared, a painstaking search of the 290-meter long ship's interior was being conducted to see if anyone might have been trapped inside, Paolillo said. He added the vessel was believed to have set sail with 3,206 passengers and 1,023 crew members.
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