The Costa Concordia Disaster: A Tale of Incompetence and Tragedy
TLDR The sinking of the Costa Concordia cruise ship in 2012 was caused by the captain's reckless decision to deviate from the ship's course, resulting in a massive tear in the ship's side and the loss of power. The disorderly evacuation led to the deaths of 32 people, and the subsequent salvage operation cost billions of dollars.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
The Costa Concordia, a modern cruise ship, sank in 2012 due to incompetence, despite all the measures in place to prevent such disasters.
05:06
The Costa Concordia, a large cruise ship, set sail on a seven-day cruise around the Mediterranean and made a reckless decision to do a sail by of the island of Gileo, deviating from its course and turning off tracking software, which ultimately led to the ship sinking.
10:18
The captain of the Costa Concordia, Francesco Schettino, made the decision to deviate from the ship's course and sail close to the island of Gileo in order to impress his girlfriend, who was on board as an unpaid passenger, resulting in the ship hitting rocks and causing a massive tear in the port side of the ship, leading to the flooding of watertight compartments, including the engine room, and the loss of power.
15:06
The ship was in the dark with no engine power, but the captain managed to steer it towards the port side, causing it to tip even more, and it was starting to head out to sea with a large gash in the side before miraculously turning around and coming back to land.
20:05
The captain of the ship did not immediately call for help and downplayed the severity of the situation, but eventually admitted that the ship was flooding and taking on water almost 30 minutes later.
25:11
The captain of the Costa Concordia did not return to the ship to oversee the evacuation, despite being told to do so by the Coast Guard captain, and the ship was listing so severely that many of the lifeboats could not be launched.
30:05
The evacuation of the Costa Concordia was disorderly and resulted in the deaths of 32 people, many of whom drowned when the ship listed to 70 degrees and water started coming up from the walls and floor, trapping them inside.
35:05
The rescue operation after the Costa Concordia sank involved recovering remains, preventing an environmental catastrophe, and searching for survivors trapped in the wreckage, including a ship's purser and a Korean couple on their honeymoon.
40:07
After almost two years, a team of 500 people managed to upright and float the Costa Concordia using a technique called power buckling, despite the risks of the ship breaking apart and being attached to the seabed.
45:16
The Costa Concordia was floated and towed back to Genoa for recycling, where the remains of the last missing victim, Russell Rebello, were found, leading to legal fallout and a trial in which Captain Francesco Schettino was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
50:30
The salvage operation for the Costa Concordia cost $1.2 billion, twice the amount it took to build the ship, and the company also lost close to $2 billion in total, while the Calabrian Mafia may have lost a bunch of cocaine that was aboard the ship.
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