Cruise Ship Costa Concordia - MERGED THREADS

[captain465]

Go to Isola del Giglio Real time webcam of work in progress. Don't know for sure, but likely they are removing part of the superstructure to lighten the wreck for it's refloating. Right now it is sitting upright on a specially constructed platform on the seabed.

[hellosailor]

"I don't remember hearing anything about "

Well, that could be memory loss from old age, or hearing aids that need new batteries, or a good reason to grow more medical marijuana, without the THC. (VBG)

Heck, some poor *astard probably has to sample every batch, to see if they've really gotten all the THC out, right?

[Rik-lu]

some more bad news :
Diver dies while salvaging shipwrecked Costa Concordia

The diver, identified as Israel Franco Moreno by local sources, apparently gashed his leg on an underwater metal sheet. The death adds to the tragic tale of the Costa Concordia shipwreck, which took 32 lives in 2012.


Diver dies while salvaging shipwrecked Costa Concordia* - NY Daily News

[MacG]

That's already some time ago. They are waiting now for the dockship to come. The final stage of the whole operation is to load Costa Concordia.

It is horrifying that just one idiot can create such a mess. And not only Schettino is to blame, it is also the 1st, 2nd and 3rd mate. At least the 1st mate, knowing that the captain is a straightforward turd.

A very expensive lesson on account of the passengers.

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by MacG

It is horrifying that just one idiot can create such a mess. And not only Schettino is to blame, it is also the 1st, 2nd and 3rd mate. At least the 1st mate, knowing that the captain is a straightforward turd.

I don't know about the other bridge officers, they may have been intimidated. Or incompetent, we don't know.

I blame the cruise line for promoting a relatively inexperienced and obviously arrogant a-hole to Captain. I always thought you had to EARN that title on a ship that size, carrying that many passengers. I've seen nothing like him on the bridge of the cruise ships I've been on. Come to think of it, on ANY vessel I've been on.

At one point I heard that his home town is well-known for its mob connections. Again, no way to verify that, but it's pretty obvious he didn't get the job based on competence.

[MacG]

It is not only the Costa Concordia case where breach of safety and lack of situational awareness added to godlike arrogance leads to catastrophal accidents. You will find it around the whole transport industry.

All the regulations from top to bottom cannot prevent severe accidents.

Examplaric is the neglect in some airliners. As AF 447, AF 471 (2011) nearly crashed at CdG; 2012 three heavy incidents that could have been desastrous ending: AF 2184, AF 3093 and AF 1620.

Building boats that are so monstruous that there are literally few chances that in a shipwreck of one of those supermonsters thousands all passengers will survive. Ships that contain the population of a small town.

[St. Elsewhere]

Originally Posted by MacG

It is not only the Costa Concordia case where breach of safety and lack of situational awareness added to godlike arrogance leads to catastrophal accidents. You will find it around the whole transport industry.

Mac,

What you say is generally true, however in the aviation world there is much greater attention given to safety factors. For example, it is never acceptable for any crew member to consume alcohol aboard any commercial aircraft. Aircraft are equipped with devices that would have warned the crew of "controlled flight into terrain". The marine equivalent would be equipment that tracks closing speed to the island, and rate of decrease of water depth, and would produce an aural warning; "WHOOP! WHOOP! GROUND PROXIMITY! STEER TO STARBOARD! This computer generated aural warning would be sounded when the crew would have adequate time to react, and would be repeated with increasing volume until the danger was eliminated by crew action. There are many other examples of such differences.

[MacG]

@ St Elsewhere

Basically yes, but even those "pull up" or other warnings go often along w/o notice.
The Turk airliner that ditched at Schiphol is a prime example.

Air France flight 447 exacly the same - pilots not used to manuallly flying and computers that work against the logic of manual flying in distress situations.

Boats breaking away from their moorings, cruiseships so badly designed (see MCS in the Med)- the only thing that avoid catastrophies is that not all mistakes ad up together and grave mistakes on a ship are not directly translated into catastrophies.

The stupid action of Schettino was not supervised by anyone. A Captain with his playpiece somewhere, and the rest of the officers not looking. Arrogance end no situational awareness. Ok, Schettino will never command a boat again, but that doesnot help. Not the dead passengers, not their relatives. For a total idiot action not even stopped by an officer on the bridge.

Look at the YT item "Le Boreal" - for me is that the ideal cruiseship and at least captained by people who know what sea is.

The majority of this forum would never make the mistakes of Schettino and the like.

[sigmasailor]

What makes flying completely different from sailing is the speed (500 knots rather than 20 gives 25 times more time for actions) and the third dimension. OK sailing also has a third dimension when things really get messed up. But than you're sailing no more....

[GordMay]

The captain of the “Costa Concordia” cruise ship, Francesco Schettino, has returned to the wreck for the first time, as part of his manslaughter trial.
➥ BBC News - Costa Concordia's Captain Schettino returns to ship

[St. Elsewhere]

The folks in charge are expecting Concordia to float away by the end of June . . . .

Costa Concordia

Type: Passenger Ship ( Passenger ship ) IMO: Callsign: MMSI:
Recent News First sponsons expected to be installed end of April
The Commissioner for the Concordia Emergency Franco Gabrielli, President of the Observatory Maria Sargentini, Giglio Mayor Sergio Ortelli, and Costa Crociere representatives held a meeting on Apr 14 with residents of the island Giglio to update them on the plan for installing the final 19 sponsons - 15 on the starboard site and four on the port side - that will be used to float the "Costa Concordia" so it can be moved to a yard. Workers were adding now bumpers to damaged sections of the starboard side so the sponsons could be installed there. The first of the remaining sponsons was expected to be installed by the end of April. They will be installed and connected underwater with chains and cables, with a complex and weather sensitive operation. Once the first two sponsons have been positioned, technicians will be able to verify precisely the overall timetable, that currently indicated a possible refloating by the end of June. Environmental monitoring activities were also ongoing and results did not indicate any critical issue. (4 hours ago, by Timsen )

[St. Elsewhere]

They did get the first sponson installed in April . . . . .

"After 2,5 days of work, the operations to install the first of the 19 sponsons to be positioned for the refloating of the "Costa Concordia" were completed in the afternoon of Apr 28. The sponson S13 - the biggest in weight and size - was positioned on the starboard side at about 11 meters depth from the artificial seabed on which the wreck is resting since the parbuckling was completed in September 2013."


Report with photo:
Operations for the installation of the first sponson completed

[donradcliffe]

From Gcaptain-the work continues "Italian style"

Steel pontoon fell off
On May 6 a sponson of the "Costa Concordia" came loose and fell off, causing the stabilizing structure to tilt. The sponson, which had been fixed to the ship in April, was already under water but it bent some support structures as it collapsed. There were no injuries, and work to prepare the ship for its removal was to proceed on May 7.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

From Gcaptain-the work continues "Italian style"

Steel pontoon fell off
On May 6 a sponson of the "Costa Concordia" came loose and fell off, causing the stabilizing structure to tilt. The sponson, which had been fixed to the ship in April, was already under water but it bent some support structures as it collapsed. There were no injuries, and work to prepare the ship for its removal was to proceed on May 7.

sadly its an american company Titan that are the salvors, Should have been given to SMIT. IMHO.


so the correct pejorative leader to your article should have been

the work continues "American style"
dave

[St. Elsewhere]

A one month delay has been announced . . . . .

"During a meeting in Florence on Monday, Maria Sargentini, president of the Observatory overseeing the salvage, said that the removal date is set for between July 18 and 20, at which point the hulk will be towed to Italy’s coast. The new timetable pushes back the removal by nearly a month from the original estimate of June."

More information is here.