The Concordia Cruise Mystery | What Went Wrong? | Titanic of 2012 | Dhruv Rathee

 

The Concordia Cruise Mystery | What Went Wrong? | Titanic of 2012 | Dhruv Rathee

Hello, friends!13th January 2012,7:15 PM.The world's largest Italian cruise shipset sail for its 7-day European tour.This ship was named the Costa Concordia.It was so big thatnot only was it bigger than the Titanic,but it could seat an additional 2,000 passengers.That's why 4,252 people are on board.If we talk about entertainment,this ship had everything!4 big swimming pools, 5 restaurants,13 different bars, a casino,a basketball court, a huge fitness centrewhich had a gym, a sauna, a Turkish bath,and even an F1 racing simulator was installed on this cruise ship.The first destination of this ship was Savona, a city in Italy,it was supposed to take about a day to reach there.But only 2.5 hours after the ship departed,everyone heard a sudden piercing noise.After that, all the lights on the ship went off.And the ship started tilting towards one side.The time was 9:45 PM.A time when some people were sleeping in their roomsand some were eating at the dinner tables.Some people who were sleeping woke upand they came out of their cabins to see what was happening.Meanwhile, the plates of the people sitting at the dinner tablestarted sliding down the side of the table.Passengers were told via intercom thatthere was an electrical failure on the ship.But the fact was thatthe engine of the ship had failed.The captain of the ship was hiding this fact from the people.After a while, the ship started tilting to the other side.By then, the passengers somewhat realised thatthis was not an ordinary electrical failure.People were worried that this was another incident similar to Titanic's.Coincidentally, the Titanic accident happened exactly 100 years agoin 1912.And now, when this ship had an electrical failure,the famous Titanic theme song was playing in the dining hall of this ship,My Heart Will Go On.Slowly, the ship started tilting more,It tilted to the right sideand the lower rooms were being filled with water.By then, people had realized that the ship was going to sink.But why were the passengers not being informed properly?Why was the ship's captain so quiet?This ship was operated by an Italian company called Costa Crociere.Initially, this company operated only cargo ships.But in 1948, they launched their Costa lines.Soon after, it became one of the biggest cruise ship companies in Europe.Later, in 2000, a company named Carnival Corporation bought it.So Costa Croisiere became a subsidiary company of Carnival.In June 2006, they launched their first shipof the Concordia class.The Costa Concordia that we're talking about today.The biggest Italian cruise ship of its time.The cost of making it was $570 million.₹25 billion at that time.That day, the captain of this ship wasFrancesco Schettino, an Italian man,who had been working for this company since 2002.Remember his name,because he plays an important role in our story.At 7:18 PM, this ship left for its first destination, Savona.And only two hours had passed thatthis ship deviated from its normal route.It was not a mistake.Captain Schettino wanted to take the ship by a particular island.The Giglio Island in Italy.He wanted the people of the islandto see the glittering ship in the dark of night.Whenever a ship passes near the land,it is called a sail past or sail by.Normally, such big ships sail at a distance of 7-8 km from the shorewell into the seabecause the water needs to be deep enough for such a big ship to sail.But because of this sail-by,this ship was only 150 m away from the shore.Obviously, the water was not very deep.There can be big rocks or reefs under the ship at this close distancewhich can hit the ship.On top of that, it was nighttimeand the ship was sailing quite fast.Later, the report of the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport confirmed this.At night, the ship was sailing at an unsafe distance, very close to the shore.One question that will arise here is,why was the captain doing this?The thing is, Captain Schettinoused to work under Senior Captain Mario Palombo.And Mario was living on the Giglio Island.The night this ship was passing by this island,that night, Captain Schettinocalled Mario and told him thatsince they would be passing by the island,they would sound a siren for him,as they wanted to give him a tribute.To this, Mario said thathe was not on the island,instead, he was in another Italian city.During this conversation, the call line gets disconnected.This call was made at 9:40 PM.And a few minutes later,came the scary sound that I mentioned at the beginning of the video.The thing everyone feared, happened.This ship collided with the rocks in the water.This collision tore the hull of the Concordia ship.The ship's sensitive part was injured by a 70-meter-long wound.The place where this impact happenedwas not even 100 meters away from the island.In the darkness of the night, this shiphad reached so close to the island.Water started flowing into the ship rapidly.26-year-old Andrea Corollo, who was the third officer of the Concordia ship,was sleeping in his cabin when this incident happened.When he woke up and came out of his cabin,he saw that the water had already reached the hallway.He immediately ran to the engine room.When he reach there,he saw that the door could not be opened.Through the closed door,he could see that the generators and engineswere completely submerged in water.At 9:52 PM,the chief engineer and the other officers of the engine roomtried to start the emergency diesel generator.Unfortunately, they failed in this attempt.The chief engineer went to inform Captain Chettinoabout how bad the situation was.But the captain of the ship announced to the passengers thatthere was nothing to worry about.That it was a simple blackout.Over the next few minutes, the ship was not standing still,rather, it was moving forward,away from the island.At around 10 PM,Captain Schettino felt thatthe ship should be turned around.He reasoned that if they sank, it would be more dangerous to be in the middle of the sea.It would be better to stay near the island.The ship took a U-turnand thus, instead of being upright,it started tilting to the other side.First, it was tilting to the left,now it started tilting to the right.The ship's crisis coordinator, Roberto Ferrarini,called Captain Schettino twice,at 10:05 PM and 10:07 PM.In the second call, Captain Schettino finally acknowledged thatthe ship had some problems.But had he admitted these problems sooner,it would have been better.Turning away from the truth can be very dangerous,as you will see later in the story.And this applies to our lives too.Today, because of AI tools like ChatGPT,millions of jobs are in danger all over the world.The latest studies show thatChatGPT can give innovative ideas in a faster and better way than MBA students.It can easily pass law exams and business school exams.After hearing such news, you can either turn away from the truthor accept the reality.Soon, those who will not be able to use these AI tools in their 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mistakes.He claimed that the blackoutcaused the accident.He reverses the timeline.In reality, the accident caused the blackout.In the meanwhile, some distressed passengers tried to call the local police.At 10:12 PM,the Italian coast guard called the ship's captain.Asking him what was happening on the ship.And informing him that passengers of the ship were contacting them.On the other hand, the captain said that nothing devastating had happened,they simply had a blackout.He told them not to worry.When this was saidhalf an hour had already passed since the collision.Ten more minutes passand Captain Schettino's finally changed his stance.After all, how long could he suppress the truth with lies?At 10:22 PM,Schettino told the radio operatorto call and inform the coast guardthat there had been a collision on the left side of the shipand that Concordia needed the help of tugboats.And that life jackets were handed out to the passengers and everyone was safe.Each minute was important herebecause the ship was gradually tilting more and more.Finally, at 10:33 AM,a general emergency alarm was raisedand the passengers were toldto gather in the emergency assembly areasand wait for further instructions.At 10:48 PM,the ship was tilted 30°.More than an hour had passed since the accident.At 10.54 PM,finally, Captain Schettino gave ordersto abandon the ship.Think about it, friends.More than 4,200 people were stuck on this ship.And this ship was tilted by 30°.Many of the lower cabins were submerged in the waterand things were strewn about in the upper decksnothing was in its place.In this situation, the captain had made only one reasonable decision.To take a U-turn.Now, based on this one good decision,the lying egoistic Captain was trying to garner supportand wanted people to see him as a hero because of this decision.Undoubtedly, this decision was needed.But the rest of his decisions were unreasonableand entirely wrong decisions.On top of that, he was piling up his liesand misguiding passengers on this sinking ship.Later on, our captain did somethingafter which he was thoroughly criticised by the people.As soon as he gave the order to abandon the ship,there was a huge commotion in Concordia.Some people had already fled using lifeboats before this announcement.Some of the others were confident that they could swim,so they jumped into the water.They swam to the island nearby.But after the signal by the captain, chaos ensued.The mob of passengers ran towards the lifeboats.People pushed and shoved one another to get to the lifeboats.One good thing was thatfed up by Captain Schettino's behaviour,some of the crew memberswere already rebelling against the captain.Ten to fifteen minutes before his order,the passengers were taken out of their cabinsand put into the lifeboats."A steward came over to usbecause the key card wasn't working.And told us, "Take your coat, take your life jacket."In the darkness of the night, the ship was slowly falling to the right.A 40° tilt, a 50° tilt.By this point, the passengers whose cabins were on the right sidehad reached the surface level of the sea.So, they could easily jump into the water and head towards the island.But the problem was for thosewho were on the other side of the ship.In a tilted ship,how could they find the way out?In the midst of all this, an Indian staff member was also present.Karnaatha Rameshana,the only woman in the 11-member security staff of Concordia.She later stated how language barriers started to emerge.Most of the passengers on the cruise ship were Italianbut many of the crew members did not know Italian.On top of that, another problem was thatmost of the crew members were not trained for such emergency situations.They were just service staff.Despite all these problems,some crew members were truly heroes.Karnaatha personally seated a blind woman on a lifeboat.Two other members lifted wheelchair-bound passengers on their shouldersand seated them on the lifeboats.That night, another Indian crew member was present on the ship.Russell Rebello,he was working as a waiter.Before Captain Schettino's order,he was helping the passengers to get on the lifeboats.He kept helping passengers on the sinking ship till the last moment,but unfortunately, Russel was among thosewho couldn't save themselves,during this evacuation.We don't know what happened to him exactly,but he drowned while helping the passengers,this we know for sure."Indian waiter Russel Rebello is said tohave d!ed after giving up his own life-jacketto save one passengerand helping others into lifeboats."On the other hand, there were people like Captain Schettinowho, instead of helping the passengers,abandoned the ship at the earliestand went towards the island."Italian cruise ship captain,apparently ran for lifeboat,and got off the wreck,while his crew and passengerswere still on board fighting for their lives."Yup, you heard that right.The same captain who tried to cover it up with lies,Wasted an hour before telling the truth to the passengers,And as soon as he made the announcement,within some minutes, at 11:19 PM,he was among the first crew members,to abandon the ship.Giglio island is like a small village.Not many people live there.This island has a population of only 700 people.But that night when the incident happened,some people came out of their homes to see what was happening.As soon as the deputy mayor of this island, Mario Pellegrini came to know thata ship was sinking,despite being a civilian, he went to the ship to help the people.Without thinking for a minute,he jumped into the lifeboatand went into the sea to help the people.He said that when the ship had completely fallen to the right side,wells of water were being formed inside the ship,people were trapped in these.He arranged for a ropeand used the rope to rescue the people trapped in the well.In this early stage of evacuation,around 2,500 to 3,300 people had safely reached the island.At 11:38 PM,around 400 people were still trapped in the ship.The Italian Coast Guard helicopters and fire and rescue services boatshad also arrived to help people.They saved a few hundred people from underwater,but they didn't know how many more people were still trapped in the ship.At 12:42 AM,the Coast Guard commander, Captain Gregorio De Falco,called Captain Schettino,we have the actual recording of this call.Listen.In his anger, he told Schettino directlythat as the captain, he should go back on the ship.He ordered Schettino to go backand find out about the passengers still on board.He told Schettino that he shouldn't have left his passengers and ran away.Schettino started making excusesand saying that he couldn't go back.Despite all of this, Captain Schettino did not go back.This is why people started calling him Captain Coward later.On one hand, some brave crew members and the Italian Coast Guard teamkept helping people all night.Schettino sat at a safe distance and watched it play out.When the sun rose the next morning, and the ship could be seen properly,people realised the magnitude of the incident.Look at these photos taken in the morning.Exactly where this collision happened,you can see that part too.The sheer size of the collision.Most of the people had been rescued by morning.Three people had been confirmed d3ad,but some people were still trapped in the ship.Meanwhile, the residents of Giglio had found out about this incidentand many locals went to help.700 people were living on the island,but there were 4,000 people on the ship.The residents opened their homes to provide shelter to the passengers.Elizabeth Nani, who worked in Giglio Tourist Information,reported that all the survivors were in shock.Some people were suffering from hypothermiabecause the water was very cold.But everyone was desperateand was trying to locate their family members and friends.Schools, churches, and canteens on this island were openedso that the survivors could get a roof over their heads.They were also given blankets and dry clothes.But on the other hand, the rescue operation was still going on.It would last for the next 2-2.5 weeks.The Italian Navy, Coast Guard, Fire and Rescue Service,everyone had to get involved.Rescue divers were also neededbecause the people who were still trapped were not able to open the cabin doors.The water pressure on the other side was so high thatthey remained trapped inside the cabin.On 14th January, a South Korean couple was rescuedwho were trapped inside their cabin like this.Most of the people who were k!lled in this incidentd!ed because of this.Trapped inside their cabinthey drowned.Had they been informed on timetheir lives could also have been saved.A total of 32 people d!ed in this accident.The next problem was to remove fuel from the sunken shipand to rescue the ship so that it would not remain lying there.When the engineers analyzed the ship,it was declared a constructive total loss.This meant that there was no chance of saving it.This ship could not be used again.The only option was to disassemble itand sell its scrap metal.First of all, the ship contained around 1.9 million litres of fuel.It was a fully loaded ship.It had just started sailing.That's why the fuel tank was full.To extract fuel, an oil barrier was built around the ship.On 12 February 2012, the oil removal process began.Since it was wintertime,another problem was thata lot of fuel was in a semi-solid state.So, it was necessary to reheat itbefore extracting it.After heating it, another tanker ship was usedand all the oil was transferred from one vessel to the other with a pump.This process lasted more than a month.This process continued till 24th March.Now, the next thing was to set the ship uprightand to relocate it was an engineering project.A steel structure was built in the waterso that the ship could be raised once again.Work on this started a year later, in April 2013.After this, huge boxes were placed on the upper side of the ship.Water was filled in these boxesto make them heavier.Ropes and cables were then usedto pull these boxes as weights.These watertight boxes are called caissons.15 such caissons were installed in total.On 16th September 2013,the actual process of straightening the Concordia began.It took 19 hours to do this.You can see how this was done.By using pulling machines, steel structures, and caissons.The next step was to make the ship float on water.For this, more boxes were used.Caissons were installed on the other side as wellafter that water was drained out from the caissonswhich caused the caissons to float.And as the caissons started floatingthe entire ship started floating with them."A sound usually used to warn,bled out to shout success."500 divers, technicians, engineers, and biologists were involved in this process.19 months had passed since the accidentand the cost of rescuing this ship alonewas $799 million.To take this ship to the port another ship was used to tow it.This was done in July 2014.Till then the total cost of this operationhad reached $1.2 billion.But the company still had more such expenses to bear.It took a lot of effort and money to scrap metal from this broken ship.More than 350 people worked on thisand this process ended in July 2017.But after rescuing people,a steady stream of legal cases had begun.Finally, this company returned the price of each surviving passenger's ticket,and paid an additional €11,000 as compensation.This is around ₹1 million per passenger.Apart from this, the families of the deceased passengerswere paid an undisclosed amount.The total cost of this disaster for this companywas $2 billion.But you must be wondering,what happened to the captain of the ship?The guy who was the sole reason behind this incident,lied to his passengers,and didn't give them timely information,and when the ship started sinkinghe abandoned the ship first and ran away.Even after the incident,Captain Schettino's habit of lying didn't go away.When the case was being tried in court,he told the court thatwhen the ship was at an angle of 60°-70°his foot slipped and he fell into a lifeboat.And he, apparently, fell in a peculiar way thathe was shipped off.Obviously, no one found this argument believable.The judge did not believe this at all.In 2017, Captain Schettino was charged with manslaughterand he was sentenced to 16 years in jail.Moving forward, some more interesting facts about Schettino were revealed.Mario Palombo, whom I had talked about at the beginning of the video,who was the senior captain,in 2003, Schettino worked under him.Palombo revealed that Schettino had always been a liar.He said that in many cases instead of admitting his mistakes,Schettino preferred to lie.That night, it was a matter of chance thatthere was another ship's captain was onboard the Concordia,Roberto Bosio.He was the captain of the Costa Serenabut that night he was on Concordia.But unlike Schettino,he didn't flee the ship.He kept helping people till the end.And in fact, even before Schettino's official announcement,he had already started evacuating the people.Later, he said,"Only a disgraceful man would have left all those passengers on board.It was the most horrible experience of my life,a tragedy, a heartache that I will always carry with me forever.Don't call me a hero.I just did my duty.A captain's duty.Actually, this should be the duty of all humans."Along with the captain, 5 people were arrested.Especially the high-ranking officers on the ship that night.Each of them was sentenced to 2 years.Because the biggest mistake was made by Captain Schettino.Today, 11 years after this incident,Schettino is serving his sentence in jail.And if you learn anything from this story, it is this.Never give the captaincy of your shipto a lying cowardwho doesn't know how to admit his mistakes.Leaders who never admit to their mistakesand lie to hide their mistakescan be extremely dangerous.If you liked this video, you will also like this video.Another story of an incidentthat happened on an aeroplane,where the passengers showed a lot of bravery.You can click here to watchabout the Andes' disaster.Thank you very much!