• Salvage plan for wrecked Costa Concordia unveiled in Rome

    By Dan Askin, Cruise Critic

    The plan to remove the massive wreck of Costa Concordia, which lies half submerged off the Italian island of Giglio after capsizing in January, was revealed Friday in Rome. At least 30 people died after the ship ran aground.

    Reuters

    Click to enlarge the image.

    In an unprecedented effort, American-owned Titan Salvage is working with Italian firm Micoperi, and will use pulling machines connected to a custom-built subsea platform to hoist the hull upright in one piece. The firms won the right to perform the work during a months-long bidding process.

    The first step is stabilizing the ship to prevent further slippage down the sloped sea bed on which it rests. That is expected to take about a year, Costa said in a statement. This will be achieved by attaching "tieback chains" from the submerged part of the ship -- starboard side, closest to shore -- to a structure built nearby.

    After Concordia is stabilized, the subsea platform will be built along the port side -- the non-submerged side -- and huge caissons, in essence steel boxes, will be welded to the exposed side of the ship. The caissons will be filled with water. "This gives the ship extra buoyancy," explained Mark Hoddinott, general manager of the International Salvage Union. "Caissons have the effect of making the ship wider, and the water will add mass, which improves the 'turning moment' to bring it upright."

    Pulling machines will then be connected to the subsea platform, and two cranes fixed to the platform will pull Concordia upright -- facilitated by the water-filled caissons. The ship will still be flooded, so it won't float; instead it will rest on the platform. When the ship is upright, caissons will be welded to the starboard side of the hull. The caissons on both sides will then be de-ballasted -- after treating and purifying the water to protect the marine environment -- and filled with air.


    "This strategy has been used on a smaller scale by both the US and Royal Navy," added Hoddinott. "But no one has removed a ship of this size." Concordia is 950 feet long and weighs 44,612 metric tons (or nearly 100 million pounds), according to Titan-Micoperi.

    Once upright, the wreck will be towed to an Italian port and dealt with in accordance with the requirements of Italian authorities. Gianni Onorato, Costa Crociere S.p.A. president, told Cruise Critic in early May that the ship will ultimately be scrapped.

    No details on the cost of the project have been officially released, but a Costa spokesman told CNN that the figure could exceed $300 million.

    According to today's statement from Costa, the "one piece" approach -- rather than slicing the ship up and barging it off bit by bit -- will "minimize environmental impact, protect Giglio's economy and tourism industry, and maximize safety." After the ship is removed, the sea bottom will be cleaned and marine flora replanted.

    While the project is ongoing, the operation base will be located on the mainland near Piombino, where equipment and materials will be stored. This will mitigate impact on the island's port activities and leave Giglio's hotels open for tourists during the peak summer season.

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  • Court rules Costa Concordia captain unfit to run ship

    Laura Lezza / Getty Images

    The Costa Condordia remains stricken after a further five bodies were found by a mechanical robot, two months after it ran aground on March 23, 2012 in Giglio Porto, Italy.

    By Reuters

    Italy's top appeals court ruled on Wednesday that Francesco Schettino, the captain of the Costa Concordia, was unfit to command the cruise liner which ran aground and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio in January, causing at least 30 deaths.

    In a written explanation of its decision to maintain a house arrest order against Schettino, the Court of Cassation said he had shown "little resilience in performing command functions or in handling responsibility for the safety of persons under his care."

    Schettino has been accused of wrecking the 126,215-ton liner by bringing it too close to shore, where a rocky ledge tore a gash in its side and made it keel over and sink. According to the court, he "has proven not to be able to handle a dangerous situation typical of his profession, despite the specific professional skills and experience."

    Costa Concordia captain's blunders detailed in Vanity Fair

    Investigators also accuse Schettino of delaying evacuation and losing control of the operation, during which he abandoned ship before all 4,200 passengers and crew had been taken off the vessel.

    He has been charged with multiple manslaughter, causing the accident and abandoning ship prematurely. A pre-trial hearing was held in Grosseto, near Florence, in March.

    The Court of Cassation said Schettino had shown himself unable to manage a crisis and to ensure the safety of his passengers and crew and said there would be a risk of a repeat of the disaster if he were given a command again.

    That part of the ruling justified the decision to keep Schettino under house arrest at his home in Meta di Sorrento, near Naples in southern Italy, as a concrete danger of a recurrence must be shown for the arrest order to be upheld.

    Thirty bodies were recovered and two are missing. The wreck lies on its side in some 20 meters of water within a stone's throw of the picturesque island port.

    Salvage experts are expected to stabilize the wreck by August and then refloat it and remove it from the marine natural park off the Tuscan coast where it sank.

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  • Costa Cruises christens new ship, introduces new safety measures

    Reuters

    A graphic illustrating the new Costa Fascinosa, which was christened on Saturday.

    By Dan Askin, News Editor, Cruise Critic

    During a low-key event that was dramatically different from Costa Cruises' trademark fireworks-laden christening spectaculars, the line named its newest ship Saturday in Venice.

    Elsa Gnudi, the daughter of Italy's minister of tourism, Pier Gnudi, served as godmother of the 114,500-ton, 3,000-passenger Costa Fascinosa, the debut of which marks the first major step forward for a company still coming to terms with its part in the worst cruise ship disaster in a century.

    Related: Costa Concordia captain's blunders detailed in Vanity Fair

    During a poignant moment, Fascinosa cruise-director-turned- master-of-ceremonies Stefhane Codeluppi called for a minute of silence to remember the 32 people who perished after Costa Concordia rammed into rocks and capsized off the coast of Tuscany in January. Contrast that to last year's exuberant naming ceremony of Costa Favolosa, which featured a ballet troupe, an Italian starlet with a novelty sized bottle of Champagne and fireworks choreographed to Italian opera.

    Still, despite this year's tragic back story, Costa executives expressed optimism over the future of the brand. In a press release, Costa's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Pier Luigi Foschi, said the company has "bounced back" and that "booking volumes are back to the same levels recorded this time last year."

    "Our share of the market in the main countries where we operate has not been affected. We were, are and will remain number one in Europe," he stated, adding that Costa's fleet expansion will continue. Its next new ship is scheduled to launch in fall 2014.

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    The line also used the day to introduce a number of new safety initiatives, focusing on passenger training, bridge management and pre-voyage navigation plans -- three areas under intense scrutiny in the Concordia investigation.

    Among other plans, Costa said it will launch a new real-time route-monitoring system. Concordia's captain, Franceso Schettino, is accused of taking the ship on a dangerous unauthorized path in order to "salute" the residents of Tuscany's Isla Giglio. The ex-captain has claimed repeatedly that his superiors told him to take the course to garner publicity for the line.

    Costa will also adopt a new bridge management model, and strengthen policies that regulate the bridge. Schettino, who remains under house arrest on charges including manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship, was allegedly distracted by bridge guests at the time of the accident.

    Related: Leaders in cruise industry renew emphasis on safety

    Costa's own announcements come just over a week after the cruise industry's largest organization, the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), revealed a number of safety-related prescriptions targeting similar areas of concern.

    Fascinosa sails from Venice tomorrow on a five-night pre-inaugural cruise visiting ports in Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. The inaugural cruise, a 10-night Eastern Mediterranean cruise with calls in Greece, Israel and Turkey, will depart on May 11.

    According to a new article in Vanity Fair, the captain of the Costa Concordia made a laundry list of blunders before the cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Italy. NBC's Mara Schiavocampo reports.

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  • Princess Cruises: Captain didn't know about disabled fishing boat

    Judy Meredith talks about trying to alert the crew of a cruise ship she was traveling on that a group of fisherman needed to be rescued in the Pacific Ocean.

    By Isolde Raftery, msnbc.com

    UPDATED April 19, 7:25 p.m.: Princess Cruises says the captain of a cruise ship that passed by a disabled fishing boat in the Pacific Ocean last month without stopping was never told about the vessel or the three men aboard.

    The company says in a statement Thursday that concerns raised by three birdwatchers who spotted the disabled boat were never passed on to Capt. Edward Perrin, or the officer of the watch.

    Judy Meredith of Oregon says she told a sales representative who assured her he notified the bridge, but the ship did not stop.

    Three men set out in a small boat from Rio Hato, Panama on Feb. 24. Two of them later died. Survivor Adrian Vasquez says he saw the ship and thought they were saved, but it kept going. 

    Original story: A cruise line is investigating allegations by passengers that crew workers ignored their pleas to rescue three fishermen adrift in the Pacific Ocean, the Guardian of London reported.

    The allegations cast an uncomfortable light on a hopeful story about the sole survivor of that fishing boat, an 18-year-old hotel worker who survived for 28 days aboard his 10-foot vessel, named the Fifty Cents. He was rescued near the Galapagos Islands, nine days after he had to push his friends’ bodies overboard.

    Now cruise ship passengers say those boys could have been saved. Three bird watchers say they alerted the crew of the Star Princess, owned by Carnival Corporation, which also owned the Costa Concordia.

    One of the bird watchers told her version of events to Don Winner, an English-language blogger from Panama who tracked down the survivor, Adrian Vasquez. Vasquez confirmed that he and his friends had seen the cruise ship and signaled frantically with his red T-shirt and orange life vest, the Guardian reported.  

    The cruise line issued a statement about the allegations Tuesday: "At this time we cannot verify the facts as reported, and we are currently conducting an internal investigation on the matter.”

    One bird watcher, Jeff Gilligan of Portland, Ore., told the Guardian that while scanning the ocean, he saw an object that looked like a little house.

    “We then used spotting scopes with a fixed tripod and I could see this strange little boat and at least one person standing up waving a piece of cloth high over his head, up and down,” he said. "We could see it was not moving – there were nets pulled on to the boat and apparently no nets in the water. So we soon questioned – is this a stranded, disabled boat, signaling us for help?"

    They contacted United States authorities when the boat did not turn around but nothing happened.

    Vasquez was saved when a rainstorm hit a few days later, which allowed him to fill four gallons of water, the Daily Mail of London reported. He ate raw fish to stay alive.

    He was ultimately rescued by fishermen working off a mother ship, the Duarte V.

    After he slept and was fed and hydrated intravenously, Vasquez woke.

    The captain of the Duarte told the Guardian that he reacted slowly but that he cast down his gaze when the subject of his friends arose.

    Information from the Associated Press was included in this report.

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  • Minnesota couple identified among Costa Concordia bodies

    The remains of Barbara and Gerald Heil, the only Americans who died when the Costa Concordia capsized near a Tuscan island have been identified. NBC's Claudio Lavagna reports. 

    By Claudio Lavanga, NBC News

    ROME -- Two bodies recovered from the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship have been formally identified as Americans Barbara and Gerald Heil from Minnesota.

    The bodies were among five that were recovered in the past three weeks from the liner, which capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio after hitting rocks on January 13.

    At least 30 people died and two are still unaccounted for.

    Costa Concordia captain's blunders detailed in Vanity Fair

    "Five bodies recovered from the Costa Concordia have been identified," said a statement from the Grosseto prefecture on Tuesday.

    The other three were named as Christina Matheson Ganz and Norbert Josef Ganz, both Germans, and Giuseppe Girolamo, an Italian citizen and member of the crew.

    A salvage operation to move the wreck, owned by Carnival Corp., is expected to begin next month.

    NBC's Michelle Kosinski reported in January on the search and rescue operation and the missing couple.

    More on Overhead Bin

  • Costa Concordia captain's blunders detailed in Vanity Fair

    According to a new article in Vanity Fair, the captain of the Costa Concordia made a laundry list of blunders before the cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Italy. NBC's Mara Schiavocampo reports.

    By Elaine Porterfield , msnbc.com contributor

    A new magazine article on the sinking of the Costa Concordia cruise ship details a series of blunders and errors on the part of her captain that led to the deaths of at least 32 people and the largest shipwreck in maritime history.


    The shipwreck in January off the coast of Italy precipitated a nightmarish scene of almost unimaginable chaos after the ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, delayed calling for rescue aid after his navigation blunders forced the cruise ship onto rocks, according to the story.

    Journalist Bryan Burrough, writing in the May Vanity Fair magazine, paints an unsparing portrait of that chaos in which passengers — given almost no information about the calamity that had befallen the ship — fought to find their children and other family members, free themselves in darkness from under deck as the ship tipped onto its side and attempted to reach life boats. 

    Burrough, who interviewed dozens of witnesses, also details previously unsung heroes from some crew members to rescue divers and Italian Coast Guard officers and even the deputy mayor from the small town overlooking the wreck who combined forces to save most of the ship’s 4,200 passengers.

    The story is damning in its details of Schettino’s actions, many reported for the first time. They include:

    • One passenger’s claim, though it is elsewhere unconfirmed, that he saw the captain and a friend “polish off a decanter of red wine while eating” prior to the catastrophe.
    • That the captain was going too fast for the conditions and seemed to be navigating by eyesight rather than with the aid of maps and radar, when he saw a set of rocks off the Tuscan coast prior to the crash. “What he failed to notice was another rock, nearer to the ship,” that was largely underwater, the story says. “An officer later told investigators he heard the captain say, ‘(expletive)…I didn’t see it!’ ”
    • The captain, who was casually talking on the phone when the ship approached the rocks, wrongly ordered the ship to turn to starboard, rather than port, to avoid the mostly submerged rock when he finally did see it. That caused the ship’s stern to swing around and slam into it, ripping open a 230-foot-long gash below the waterline.
    • When crew members spoke with the Coast Guard, Schettino ordered them to say that there was only a blackout on board and they did not need any immediate assistance. Schettino’s apparent refusal to “promptly admit the Concordia’s plight — to lie about it, according to the Italian Coast Guard — was not only a violation of Italian maritime law but cost precious time, delaying the arrival of rescue workers by as much as 45 minutes,” the story says.
    • When the ship began listing to starboard, the captain dropped its massive anchors to prevent it from tipping further, but played out too much line — so the anchors never caught and were of no help. It was a “jaw-droppingly stupid mistake,” according to a veteran American captain and nautical analyst, John Konrad, quoted in the story.
    • The captain, who made it ashore in a lifeboat he claims to have fallen into, begged in a phone call with a Coast Guard officer not to be sent back to the ship to look for survivors. That shocked the officer, who in return threatened Schettino by saying, “Tell me how many people are still on board and what they need. Is that clear? ... I’m going to make sure you get in trouble. I’m going to make you pay for this.”

    In one of the few lighter reported details in the story, the ship’s hotel director survived for more than a day inside the tipped ship, trapped on a table above flooding waters, by drinking cans of Coke and bottles of Cognac he found floating by.

    The ship remains on its side, and will take more than 10 to 12 months to remove, according to the story. As for the Schettino, he could face charges of manslaughter and illegally abandoning his ship. “Several survivors remarked on afterward, that amazingly, in a world of satellites and laser-guided weapons and instant communications almost anywhere on earth, ships could still sink,” the story says.

    Read an excerpt of the article at Vanity Fair.

    More on Overhead Bin

     

     

     

     

  • Carnival Triumph sails from Galveston after legal issue settled

     

    By Jamey Bergman and John Deiner, Cruise Critic

    The 2,758-passenger Carnival Triumph, which a judge had ordered held in Galveston, is sailing today as planned, according to the Facebook page of Carnival cruise director John Heald.


    The legal snafu developed after the relatives of a German tourist who died in the Costa Concordia disaster filed a $10 million lawsuit in federal court in Galveston, according to Bloomberg news service. Now, according to Heald, the line has "reached agreement on this matter and [it is] expecting the US Marshals to release the ship very soon." He followed it up soon after by saying the ship "will be sailing shortly."

    Carnival Cruise Lines is the parent of Costa Cruises, whose ship hit a rock off the coast of Italy and capsized on January 13. More than 30 people died in the tragedy, and the ship remains on its side near the island of Giglio.

    Bloomberg reported that the warrant ordering the ship held in port states that the “court finds that the conditions for an attachment of defendants' joint and collective property within this district, mainly the MS Carnival Triumph, appear to exist upon an admiralty and maritime claim.”

    Earlier in the day, Carnival told Cruise Critic in a statement, "We are aware of the situation and are working through the appropriate legal channels to resolve it. The litigation in question relates to a matter that involved a European-based cruise line that is a sister line to Carnival Cruise Lines. We are optimistic that the issues regarding the Carnival Triumph will be resolved and the ship will depart on its scheduled voyage later today."

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  • 5 more bodies found in Costa Concordia wreckage

    Filippo Monteforte / AFP - Getty Images

    The Costa Concordia, seen on January 25, rests on its side near the island of Giglio.

    By Msnbc.com staff and wire

    Updated at 5:55 p.m. ET -- Divers found a total of five bodies in the wreckage of the Costa Concordia on Thursday.

    Two more bodies were found following the discovery of three earlier in the day, NBC News has learned. Officials have not said when the bodies will be identified, saying, "it will take time."

    Thursday's discoveries bring the total number of bodies recovered up to 30. Two others remain missing and are presumed dead.

    The luxury cruise liner capsized after hitting rocks on Jan. 13 near the island of Giglio off Italy's Tuscan Coast.

    Even before the latest bodies were found, eight discovered in recent weeks were awaiting official identification. The remains were badly decomposed after weeks in the water, and forensic authorities have used DNA sampling to try to identify them. 

    Among those listed as missing or unidentified are a crew member from India and several passengers, including an elderly U.S. couple, and others from Italy and Germany. 

    Francesco Schettino, the ship's captain, was arrested a day after the accident and accused of manslaughter and abandoning the 114,000-ton Costa Concordia before all the 4,200 passengers and crew were evacuated.

    He admitted to prosecutors that he sailed too close to the island and was released from prison and placed under house arrest on Jan. 17.

    Slideshow: Luxury cruise ship runs aground

    Handout / Reuters

    The Costa Concordia, carrying more than 4,200 passengers, ran aground Jan. 13 off the coast of Italy. At least 25 people died in the accident, and rescuers continue to search for others missing.

    Launch slideshow

    NBC News' Claudio Lavagna, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

    Related stories:

  • Lawyer: Costa Concordia captain wasn't wearing his glasses on night of accident

    Filippo Monteforte / AFP - Getty Images

    Press gather outside the Moderno theatre in Grosseto, on Saturday for the Costa Concordia shipwreck initial evidence hearing.

    By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services

    GROSSETO, Italy --The captain of the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise liner was not wearing his glasses on the evening of the accident and asked his first officer to check the radar for him, the officer's lawyer said on Saturday.

    The giant cruise liner capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio after hitting a rock on Jan. 13, killing at least 25 people. Seven people are still unaccounted for. 

    Prosecutors have accused Captain Francesco Schettino of causing the disaster by bringing the multi-story Costa Concordia, carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew, too close to the shore. 

    The ship's first officer, Ciro Ambrosio, and seven other officers and executives of the ship's owner, Costa Cruises, are also under investigation. 

    Ambrosio has told investigating magistrates that Schettino, 51, did not have his glasses on when he steered the massive ship within a stone's throw of shore in the dark of night to perform a maneuver called a "salute." Many of the passengers were having dinner at the time of impact. 

    "That evening Schettino had left his reading glasses in the cabin and repeatedly asked Ambrosio to look at the radar to check the route," Ambrosio's lawyer Salvatore Catalano told Reuters, quoting his client's testimony to magistrates. 

    Schettino has said that the rock hit by the cruise liner was not on his navigational charts. 

    A pre-trial hearing was held Saturday into the shipwreck of the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia. Hundreds of people, including survivors and families of victims crammed into the closed door hearing. Claudio Lavanga reports from Grosseto, Italy.

    The captain has acknowledged that he brought the ship too close to the shore, but he says he was not the only one to blame for the tragedy. 

    Catalano said his client was the only officer on the ship's bridge who went ahead and ordered the listing vessel to be evacuated before the captain made up his mind to do it himself. 

    "He ordered the lifeboats to be put to sea from deck number four," Catalano said. 

    Catalano was speaking in the Tuscan city of Grosseto, where a pre-trial hearing into the disaster took place on Saturday. None of those under investigation attended the hearing, which was held in a theater to accommodate hundreds of victims' relatives, survivors and lawyers for all sides. 

    NBC News reported that more than 4,000 people were invited to attend the hearing. In order to fit everyone in one space the trial was held in the Modern Theater in the coastal town of Grosseto.

    The theater was expected to accommodate victims' relatives, survivors and lawyers for all sides, but was not open to the general public or media.

    "We are here to look for justice and the truth, rather than compensation. They almost killed us," Giacomo Brignone, a survivor of the accident, told NBC.

    "We want to know the truth, what happened, and what we are supposed to do now. That's all we are asking," said Hilaire Blemand, a French national whose 25-year-old son Michael was onboard the ship with his girlfriend Mylene Litzler, 23.

    Both are still reported missing.

    "It's been too long already, it's been six weeks," he said.

    Fighting back tears at his side, Mylene's mother Brigitte Litzler said her anguish had deepened after identification of the bodies was suspended at the request of the lawyer for one of the ship's officers under investigation. He argued forensic experts from the defense team should be part of the process.

    "It's like they have killed them a second time," Litzler said. "We are dead inside already; they have killed our kids so we are dead, too. But we won't give up, we will keep returning until we have them back."

    During the hearing, the judge appointed various experts to analyze the data from the ship's black box. It could take as long as three months for them to present their findings, public prosecutor Francesco Verusio told Reuters. 

    Captain, under house arrest, did not attend hearing
    Schettino is accused of a string of charges, including multiple manslaughter and abandoning the 114,500-ton liner before the evacuation of all passengers and crew. He is under arrest at his home in Meta di Sorrento, near Naples, and did not attend the hearing. 

    Slideshow: Luxury cruise ship runs aground

    The Costa Concordia, carrying more than 4,200 passengers, ran aground Jan. 13 off the coast of Italy. At least 17 people died in the accident, and rescuers continue to search for others missing.

    Launch slideshow

    His lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, said he could have been in danger had he decided to attend.

    The captain "is a man who has feelings, who is pained over what happened. He feels pain for the victims," Leporatti told Reuters Television.

    Lawyer: Captain of capsized cruise ship could be in danger

    Neither Schettino, nor his wife, Fabiola Russo, nor his brothers spoke to reporters who sought comments from them at his home on Saturday. 

    His presence at the hearing would have been "unnecessary and perhaps with this climate that has been created around him, also a little dangerous for him," Leporatti said.

    His neighbors in the sleepy seaside town continued to defend him. 

    "It's normal for accidents to happen at sea," Franco D'Elia, a former sailor, told Reuters. "Accidents happen on solid ground, at sea, and in the sky."

    Others weren't as sympathetic to Schettino.

    "I don't think he has got the guts to show up in front of all the passengers whom he put through all that fear," Adriano Bertaglia, a survivor participating in a class action suit against the company, told Reuters in front of the theater.

    During a hearing held Wednesday in Washington, D.C., the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee reviewed U.S. cruise ship safety regulations as well as international safety standards and heard testimony from Costa Concordia cruise ship survivors. NBC's Tom Costello reports.

    The hearing comes after 627 passengers disembarked in the Seychelles on Thursday from another Costa liner, the Costa Allegra, which had to be towed for three days by a French fishing boat in the Indian Ocean after a fire knocked out its engines.

    'We're alive': Tired passengers stream off stricken Costa Allegra

    Marco de Luca, the lawyer for Costa Cruises, told NBC: "I think we were unlucky. I don't think anybody can deny that."

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    NBC News correspondent Claudio Lavanga, NBC News producer Michele Neubert, msnbc.com staff and Reuters contributed to this report.

  • 'We're alive': Tired passengers stream off stricken Costa Allegra

    The crippled cruise ship Costa Allegra has arrived in a Seychelles port Thursday after three days at sea with 1,000 people aboard and no power, toilets or showers. NBC's Duncan Golestani reports.

    By msnbc.com news services

    Updated at 10:30 a.m. ET: VICTORIA, Seychelles -- Tired passengers left a crippled Costa cruise ship in the Seychelles capital Victoria on Thursday, ending a three-day ordeal in the Indian Ocean after a fire knocked out the vessel's main power supply.

    The Costa Allegra suffered an engine-room fire on Monday which disabled its engines in waters prowled by pirates.

    The ship is owned by the company whose giant liner Costa Concordia smashed into rocks off Italy and capsized last month, killing at least 25 people.

    The passengers said they had prepared to abandon ship when fire broke out in the engine room three days ago, leaving the vessel adrift in waters prowled by pirates.

    PhotoBlog: Passengers leave Costa Allegra

    But the fire that broke out Monday was brought under control and the more than 1,000 people wound up staying aboard the Costa Allegra, which suddenly had no engine power, no air conditioning, no lights and no running water for showers or toilets.

    A French tuna fishing boat towed the Costa Allegra for three days toward the port in Victoria, where a line of ambulances, a Red Cross medical team and a fleet of small buses was waiting.

    Passengers lined the railings and a few began to clap as the vessel drew close to the crowded dock Thursday morning.

    On Wednesday, a team from Costa Cruises, a unit of the U.S. cruise line giant Carnival Corp., boarded the Costa Allegra to make arrangements for hotel accommodation and onward flights for the 636 passengers and 413 crew once they landed.

    The Costa Allegra has been adrift in the Indian Ocean since Monday when an engine room fire knocked out the main power supply. A small French trawler is towing the cruise ship to the Seychelles and armed guards are on board to protect it from Somali pirates.

    More than 600 airline seats and 400 rooms had been reserved, the cruise company said.

    Costa Cruises faces image crisis after shipwreck, fire


    Costa Cruises said 376 passengers out of 627 had accepted its offer to continue their holiday in the Seychelles, where a carnival kicks off on Friday, at the firm's expense. The other passengers will fly home.

    As passengers disembarked Thursday they described what happened when the fire broke out and life boats were lowered.

    Austrian Thomas Foaller said some passengers began to panic. Couples that were separated were calling out to each other, he said.

    Among them were American couple Gordon and Eleanor Bradwell of Athens, Ga. They were separated when Eleanor went to the couple's room to get a life vest. A crew member had handed the 72-year-old Gordon his own as dark smoke rose from the ship.

    "Those were the worst moments," said Gordon.

    Stifling heat

    Eleanor Bradwell said that the initial response to the alarm seemed to be disorganized but overall she and her husband felt the shipping line had handled the emergency well.

    "It could have been worse than it was," said Gordon Bradwell. "It could have been disastrous ... we're here, we're alive."

    The couple ate cold sandwiches for three days and moved their bedding onto the deck to escape the stifling heat after the fire left the Costa Allegra without power.

    "The toilets were running over, there was no electricity. It was very hot," said Eleanor.

    The couple said they realized the alarm must be real when it went off on Monday because they had already done the drill. When the fire first broke out, passengers were directed to put on their life jackets and go to stations on the deck, they said. Life boats were lowered but no one got in after the fire was contained.

    Foaller, the Austrian, said after the fire was contained the situation was fairly calm, if not comfortable.

    "It was not dramatic. It was quiet. After (the fire was out) it was just boring," he said.

    'Happy ending'
    On Thursday dozens of officials and travel agents flocked to the port, waiting to help passengers ashore.

    "The focus of the operation is to get them a warm meal and a shower," said Guillaume Albert, head of Creole Travel Service. "I think the happy ending is the people coming off the boat."

    A Seychelles official suggested on Wednesday that the journey may also have taken longer because the French fishing vessel towing the cruise ship had refused to give way to two faster tugs sent by the Seychelles. Although assistance to people at sea is free, assistance to ships is often paid.

    On Thursday, Lt. Col. Michael Rosette, the deputy chief of staff of the military, said the tug boats were more appropriate than the fishing vessel but that the decision not to switch towing vessels was up to the cruise line company.

    The Seychelles Red Cross set up tents to assist any passengers needing medical help and embassy and consular officials were at the port to receive their citizens. Tour operators lined up dozens of buses to take passengers to either the airport or a Seychelles resort. Disembarkation of the more than 1,000 people on board was expected to take several hours.

    The average age of passengers is 55 years, he said.

    Costa Concordia survivors sue cruise line for $460 million

    The fire came only six weeks after the Costa Concordia, owned by the same company, hit a reef and capsized off Italy, killing 25 people and leaving seven missing and presumed dead. No one was injured in the fire Monday.

    During a hearing held Wednesday in Washington, D.C., the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee reviewed U.S. cruise ship safety regulations as well as international safety standards and heard testimony from Costa Concordia cruise ship survivors. NBC's Tom Costello reports.

    The Allegra, whose Italian name means "merry," or "happy," left northern Madagascar, off Africa's southeast coast, on Saturday and was cruising toward Port Victoria when the fire erupted. The liner was carrying 413 crew members and 627 passengers, including 212 Italians, 31 Britons and eight Americans.

    Tourism in the tiny island nation of the Seychelles almost stopped completely in 2009 because of the threat of pirate attacks. There were no reports of pirates approaching the stricken Costa Allegra or even being seen.

    The Seychelles is a chain of white-sand resort islands that attracts celebrities and royalty. Its population is just 87,000, and it is heavily dependent on fishing and tourism.

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

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  • 8 bodies found in Costa Concordia wreck

    Captain Michael Burns of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy joins MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan to talk about the Concordia cruise ship disaster.

    By msnbc.com news services

    Updated at 2 p.m. ET -- Salvage divers discovered eight bodies on Wednesday in the submerged part of the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship. 

    Italy's national civil protection agency said three of the bodies were recovered a few hours after being spotted by fire department divers, the Associated Press reported. The bodies are those of a woman, a girl and a man, the agency said. Because of worsening weather, the divers were not able to immediately remove the other five bodies. 

    The bodies were being transferred to a hospital on the mainland for identification, a process which could take days. Before Wednesday's development, 15 people were listed as missing, but only one of them was a child, Dayana Arlotti. The 5-year-old girl was on the Mediterranean cruise with her father and his girlfriend. The girlfriend survived. The father was among the missing.

    Dayana's father, Williams, had a history of health problems, and was said by family to be traveling to celebrate a new lease on life — he had received a kidney and pancreas transplant in the past. Some witnesses told media that they last saw him during the evacuation as he headed back to his cabin to retrieve life-saving medication. 

    The confirmed death toll has risen to 25, and seven passengers remain missing and presumed dead. The only American passengers missing, Jerry and Barb Heil of Minnesota, were memorialized on Saturday.

    Italian authorities stopped searching the ship for passengers at the end of January due to dangerous conditions. Salvage crews are still working on pumping almost 2,400 tons of diesel fuel from the vast hulk, which lies partially submerged just meters from the shore of Giglio, a popular holiday island in a maritime reserve off the Tuscan coast.

    The Costa Concordia, a luxury liner carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew, struck a rock off the Tuscan coast on Jan. 13. A gash in the ship's side flooded the engine rooms and caused the vessel to capsize.

    Dozens of survivors are suing Carnival Corp. and its subsidiary Costa Cruise Lines for at least $528 million in damages. The lawsuit alleges that the crew failed to conduct safety drills, that the ship was off course when it hit the reef, that the captain waited too long before giving the order to evacuate, that the crew performed badly during the evacuation and that the cruise line inflicted emotional distress and failed to provide prompt and adequate aid to survivors.

    NBC News, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

     

  • Cruise ship survivors sue cruise line for $460 million

    Officials have called off the search for missing people in the submerged part of the sunken ship. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

    By msnbc.com news services
    GIGLIO, Italy -- Calling an initial compensation offer “insulting,” an attorney representing Costa Concordia passengers announced Tuesday details of a $460 million class-action lawsuit against the owner of the wrecked cruise ship, The Guardian reports.
     
    The lawsuit comes more than two weeks after the cruise ship, owned by Costa Cruise Lines, an affiliate of Carnival Corp., capsized Jan. 13 off the coast of Italy, killing 17. At least 16 passengers remain missing and are presumed dead.
     
    Mitchell Proner, a New York-based personal injury attorney, said his firm of Proner & Proner, along with a coalition of international lawyers, is representing more than 500 passengers. He announced details of the civil lawsuit filed in Florida on Tuesday during a press conference in Genoa, Italy, according to The Guardian. He called Costa Cruise Lines’ initial offer of $14,460 to passengers for lost baggage and psychological trauma “insulting.”
     
    “They must be held responsible for what they did,” Proner said. “They intentionally put the passengers at risk. We believe we can win in Florida and we are going to go forward, forward, forward without fear until they don't know what hit them … sort of like the Concordia.”
     
    Proner has teamed up with another New York firm, Napoli Bern Ripka Shkolnik, noted for winning compensation for Ground Zero workers who had health claims related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
     
    The civil lawsuit has been filed in Florida, the home base of Carnival. While Costa Cruise Lines is headquartered in Italy, it is also registered in Hollywood, Fla.
     
    “At present, it is unknown as to whether the US courts will accept the class-action claim, given that the conditions set forth by the cruise ship tickets specify that litigation must take place in the Italian courts,” according to a blog post on the Proner & Proner website.
     
    Unlike in Italy, accident victims who file suit in the United States can recover punitive damages if they can prove a defendant acted egregiously, Reuters reports. These damages can soar above the amount of any actual loss. U.S. lawyers who bring successful cases on behalf of injured people can be awarded fees of as much as 30 percent of any recovery.
     
    Meanwhile, Italian emergency officials say they are calling off a search for missing people in the submerged part of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, due to the danger to rescue workers, according to the Associated Press.
     

    Italy's Civil Protection agency said Tuesday that technical studies indicated that the deformed hull of the ship created too many safety concerns to continue the search. It said in a statement that relatives and diplomatic officials representing the countries of the missing have been informed of the decision.

    A spokeswoman for Civil Protection, Francesca Maffini, stressed that the search for the missing would continue wherever possible, including on the part of the ship above the water, in the waters surrounding the ship and along the nearby coastline.

    The Concordia ran aground off the island of Giglio on Jan. 13 when the captain deviated from his planned route and struck a reef, creating a huge gash that capsized the ship.

    The ship, precariously resting on one side, will likely be a part of the scenery off the Italian island of Giglio for the better part of a year.

    The cruise line is considering bids for the ship's removal and is expected to make a decision -- based on method and costs -- in two months, NBC News has learned. Actual removal could take up to 10 months.

    Inclement weather over the weekend shut down search and salvage efforts at the site of the ship wreck off the Tuscan coast. High winds and rough seas delayed plans to begin pumping 500,000 gallons of fuel off the Concordia. That effort will likely continue midweek. A barge carrying pumping equipment that was attached to the capsized ship was withdrawn after strong winds and high waves worsened conditions for the divers working on the huge wreck.

    The operation, aimed at preventing an environmental disaster in the pristine waters off a marine nature reserve, could take up to one month to complete.

    Residents of Giglio have been circulating a petition to demand that officials provide more information on how the full-scale operations can co-exist with the important tourism season. At the moment, access to the port for private boats has been banned and all boats must stay at least one mile from the wrecked ship, affecting access to Giglio's only harbor for fishermen, scuba divers and private boat owners.

    "We are really sorry, we would have preferred to save them all. But now other needs and other problems arise," said Franca Melils, a local business owner who is promoting a petition for the tourist season. "It's about us, who work and make a living exclusively from tourism. We don't have factories, we don't have anything else." 

    Slideshow: Luxury cruise ship runs aground

    DigitalGlobe

    The Costa Concordia, carrying more than 4,200 passengers, ran aground Jan. 13 off the coast of Italy. At least 15 people died in the accident, and rescuers continue to search for others missing.

    Launch slideshow

    Carnival Corp. said on Monday that it will take a hit between $155 million and $175 million against fiscal 2012 net income because of the Concordia wreck. In an annual report filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Carnival also said it significantly reduced its marketing activities after the wreck.

    "Costa's booking activity is difficult to interpret because of the significant re-booking activity stemming from the loss of the ship's use and related re-deployments," the company said. "However, we believe it to be down significantly. Despite these recent trends, we believe the incident will not have a significant long-term impact on our business."

    Related: Passengers on wrecked ship offered $14,460

    The Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest, suspected of causing the accident by steering too close to shore, and faces charges of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship before the evacuation was complete.

    The ship's first officer, Ciro Ambrosio, has also been questioned by prosecutors but the company itself has not been implicated in the investigation at this stage.

    NBC News, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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