Costa Concordia Collision

Incidente della nave Costa Concordia – Isola del Giglio (Toscana, Italy)

At least six people were killed, 15 injured and an unknown number of missing people, Friday night after a collision of Costa Concordia cruise ship, a few hundred yards from Isola del Giglio; the ship ran aground on a sand bank just off the island, located off of Tuscany’s coast.
Costa Concordia left Civitavecchia today, heading toward Savona on the Italian Riviera. About two hours later, passengers heard a loud thump, and the lights went out. Passengers in the restaurant saw their tables were tilting, and dishes sliding to the floor.
The collision occurred during dinnertime.
Some passengers, panicked, jumped off the decks believing there would be a massive plunge to the bottom of the ocean; some of the passengers who leaped from the decks into the water were injured.
Costa Concordia was carrying around 4,231 people (1,023 crew members) at the time, according to the cruise line’s blog. Evacuation efforts were complicated by the position of the ship, tilted 80 degrees. . Some passengers fell into the cold waters during rescue, the Italian news agencies reported.
As many as 300 people were still on the ship early Saturday waiting to be evacuated, ANSA reported, citing rescuers’ estimates.
It was unclear how far into the cruise the grounding occurred but “The company is working with the utmost care to give maximum support,” Costa said in the blog statement.
The Costa Concordia, built in 2006, was on a Mediterranean cruise from Rome with stops in Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Cagliari and Palermo.
Most of the passengers on board were Italian, French and German citizens.
Another Costa ship was involved in a deadly 2010 accident when the Costa Europa crashed into a pier in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh during stormy weather, killing three crew members.

Costa Cruises (Italian: Costa Crociere S.p.A.) is a British-American owned Italian cruise line, based in Genoa, Italy. Founded in 1854, by Giacomo Costa with the name Giacomo

Costa fu Andrea s.n.c., the company originally operated cargo ships, in order to transport olive oils and textiles from Sardegna (Sardinia) to Liguria. In 1924 the company passed from his founder to Costa’s sons (Federico, Eugenio ed Enrico) that started commercial activities, buying the ship Ravenna.

The introduction of passenger services came in 1947, with regular services between Italy and South America.

Career
Name:	Costa Concordia
Owner:	Carnival Corporation & plc
Operator:	Costa Cruises
Port of registry:	Genoa  Italy
Ordered:	19 January 2004
Builder:	Fincantieri Sestri Ponente, Italy
Cost:	€450 million
Launched:	2 September 2005
Christened:	7 July 2006
Acquired:	30 June 2006
In service:	July 2006
Out of service:	13 January 2012
Identification:	Call sign: IBHD IMO number: 9320544 MMSI no.: 247158500
Status:	Wrecked