Pretoria – About eight South Africans are recovering at a hotel in Italy after what began as a luxury cruise holiday turned into a nightmare.
The eight were onboard the Costa Concordia, the 290-meter-long cruise vessel, together with more than 4 200 people from about 60 countries, when the ship hit a reef which tore a 70m crack in its hull.
The incident occurred shortly after leaving the Civitavecchia port near Rome as the ship was starting a seven-day Mediterranean cruise.
The ship reportedly tilted 80 degrees to one side, leaving it half submerged in shallow waters near the Giglio Island, a resort 25km off the country’s western coast.
Some 40 people are reportedly being treated in hospitals, and emergency teams are still searching for some missing people in the waters, while three are believed to be dead.
The Department of International Relations and Co-operation says their mission in Italy is monitoring the situation and looking after the South African survivors.
The captain of the ship has been taken into custody. He has denied any wrongdoing, although the owner says the accident was a result of human error.
The captain has claimed “the rock the ship impacted with was not marked in the nautical chart”. – BuaNews-Xinhua
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Costa Concordia
Image by Marc-John Photographic
Very sad news when I logged in to view the daily news headlines today!
The cruise liner Costa Concordia ran aground after hitting a sandbar off the Italian island of Giglio, with the tragic loss of three lives so far.
More than 4,000 passengers and crew were safely evacuated thankfully but the ship is listing on her side at a 20 degree angle with what appears to be a large gash in her hull. An estimated 70 people remain unaccounted for at the time of posting this.
Full news story and pics from the BBC here
I photographed the Costa Concordia during my vacation to Malta in 2008, which was a regular port of call for Costa Concordia on her Cruises of the Mediterranean.
I decided to post this triptych of pics I took of the Costa Concordia in 2008 as a small tribute to the ship and the lives that were lost when she foundered.
Thoughts, of course, go out to the bereaved and the survivors!
Formspring :: Tumblr
See where this picture was taken. [?]
UK & World News: Costa Concordia: Retired British cop tells how men pushed …
Mr Gurd told how passengers were scrambling around in the dark with crockery and glasses smashing all around them after the Costa Concordia ran aground, leaving at least five people dead and 15 still missing. The 64-year-old, who was with wife Liz, 58, …
Read more on Scottish Daily Record
News reports say 69 people are still unaccounted for after the the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground off the coast of Tuscany. Three bodies had been recovered from the sea by Saturday morning. The ANSA news agency said, quoting the prefect’s office in Grosseto, that authorities have accounted for 4165 of the 4234 people who had boarded the liner. Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego reports from Italy on a boat near the scene of the accident.
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