The luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia leans on its starboard side off the port at Giglio after running aground on the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. The luxury cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Tuscany, sending water pouring in through a 160-foot gash in the hull and forcing the evacuation of some 4,200 people from the listing vessel early Saturday, the Italian coast guard said. At the time of the accident, Costa Concordia had just set sail from Civitavecchia (the port for Rome) and was headed to the Italian port of Savona.
The victims are believed to have jumped overboard in panic as the ship began to list. Over thirty people were also injured in the accident, several seriously. Most of the 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members were quickly evacuated, but coast guards struggled to rescue around 200 people stuck on board.
"We were having supper when the lights suddenly went out, we heard a boom and a groaning noise, and all the cutlery fell on the floor," passenger Luciano Castro said. Some passengers jumped into the sea in their hurry to get off the sinking ship, according to the reports. "It was like a scene from the Titanic," said passenger Mara Parmegiani.
Only five months ago my sisters and I sat sail from the same port Civitavecchia. We were traveling on the Royal Caribbean, Navigator of the Seas. Our itinerary included Italy, Sicily, Greece, Turkey, and Crete.
Luckily, we had no incidents with our travel. We had a wonderful time and basically enjoyed every moment of our voyage. The ship was beautiful and we had our emergency muster drill shortly after boarding the ship.
Kim
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Location:San Angelo,TX United States
I imagine that the news of this tragedy gave you pause as you thought back to your wonderful trip.
ReplyDeleteThanks for introducing me to BlogPress as I have struggled with ways to post from abroad on my iPad. Merci beaucoup!
Bises,
Genie