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How the Wreck of a Cruise Liner Changed an Italian Island

Ten years ago the Costa Concordia ran aground off the Tuscan island of Giglio, killing 32 people and entwining the lives of others forever.

By Gaia Pianigiani

GIGLIO PORTO, Italy — The curvy granite rocks of the Tuscan island of Giglio lay bare in the winter sun, no longer hidden by the ominous, stricken cruise liner that ran aground in the turquoise waters of this marine sanctuary ten years ago.

Few of the 500-odd residents of the fishermen’s village will ever forget the freezing night of Jan. 13, 2012, when the Costa Concordia shipwrecked, killing 32 people and upending life on the island for years.

“Every one of us here has a tragic memory from then,” said Mario Pellegrini, 59, who was deputy mayor in 2012 and was the first civilian to climb onto the cruise ship after it struck the rocks near the lighthouses at the port entrance.

The hospitality of the tight-knit community of islanders kicked in, at first to give basic assistance to the 4,229 passengers and crew members who had to be evacuated from a listing vessel as high as a skyscraper. In no time, Giglio residents hosted thousands of journalists, law enforcement officers and rescue experts who descended on the port. In the months to come, salvage teams set up camp in the picturesque harbor to work on safely removing the ship, an operation that took more than two years to complete.

The people of Giglio felt like a family for those who spent long days at its port, waiting to receive word of their loved ones whose bodies remained trapped on the ship. On Thursday, 10 years to the day of the tragedy, the victims’ families, some passengers and Italian authorities attended a remembrance Mass and threw a crown of flowers onto the waters where the Costa Concordia had rested. At 9:45 p.m., the time when the ship ran aground, a candlelit procession illuminated the port’s quay while church bells rang and ship sirens blared.

What stands out now for many is how the wreck forever changed the lives of some of those whose paths crossed as a result. Friendships were made, business relations took shape and new families were even formed.

“It feels as if, since that tragic night, the lives of all the people involved were forever connected by an invisible thread,” Luana Gervasi, the niece of one of the shipwreck victims, said at the Mass on Thursday, her voice breaking.

Francesco Dietrich, 48, from the eastern city of Ancona, arrived on the island in February 2013 to work with the wreck divers, “a dream job,” he said, adding: “It was like offering someone who plays soccer for the parish team to join the Champions League with all the top teams in the business.”

For his work, Mr. Dietrich had to buy a lot of boat-repair supplies from the only hardware store in town. It was owned by a local family, and Mr. Dietrich now has a 6-year-old son, Pietro, with the family’s daughter.

“It was such a shock for us,” said Bruna Danei, 42, who until 2018 worked as a secretary for the consortium that salvaged the wreck. “The work on the Costa Concordia was a life-changing experience for me in many ways.”

A rendering of the Costa Concordia used by salvage teams to plan its recovery hung on the wall of the living room where her 22-month-old daughter, Arianna, played.

“She wouldn’t be here if Davide hadn’t come to work on the site,” Ms. Danei said, referring to Davide Cedioli, 52, an experienced diver from Turin who came to the island in May 2012 to help right the Costa Concordia — and who is also Arianna’s father.

From a barge, Mr. Cedioli monitored the unprecedented salvage operation that, in less than a day, was able to rotate the 951-foot vessel, partly smashed against the rocks, from the sea bottom to an upright position without further endangering the underwater ecosystem that it damaged when it ran aground.

“We jumped up and down in happiness when the parbuckling was completed,” Mr. Cedioli remembered. “We felt we were bringing some justice to this story. And I loved this small community and living on the island.”

The local council voted to make Jan. 13 a day of remembrance on Giglio, but after this year it will stop the public commemorations and “make it a more intimate moment, without the media,” Mr. Ortelli said during the mass.

“Being here ten years later brings back a lot of emotions,” said Kevin Rebello, 47, whose older brother, Russell, was a waiter on the Costa Concordia.

Russell Rebello’s remains were finally retrieved three years after the shipwreck, from under the furniture in a cabin, once the vessel was upright and being taken apart in Genoa.

“First, I feel close to my brother here,” Kevin Rebello said. “But it is also some sort of family reunion for me — I couldn’t wait to see the Giglio people.”

Mr. Rebello hugged and greeted residents on the streets of the port area, and recalled how the people there had shown affection for him at the time, buying him coffee and simply showing respect for his grief.

“Other victims’ families feel differently, but I am a Catholic and I have forgiven,” Mr. Rebello explained.

The Costa Concordia accident caused national shame when it became clear that the liner’s commander, Francesco Schettino, failed to immediately sound the general alarm and coordinate the evacuation, and instead abandoned the sinking vessel.

“Get back on board!” a Coast Guard officer shouted at Mr. Schettino when he understood that the captain was in a lifeboat watching people scramble to escape, audio recordings of their exchange later revealed. “Go up on the bow of the ship on a rope ladder, and tell me what you can do, how many people are there and what they need. Now!”

The officer has since pursued a successful career in politics, while Mr. Schettino is serving a 16-year sentence in a Roman prison for homicide and for abandoning the ship before the evacuation was completed. Other officials and crew members plea-bargained for lesser sentences.

During the trial, Mr. Schettino admitted that he had committed an “imprudence” when he decided to sail near the island of Giglio at high speed to greet the family of the ship’s headwaiter. The impact with the half-submerged rock near the island produced a gash in the hull more than 70 meters long, or about 76 yards, leading to blackouts on board and water pouring into the lower decks.

Mr. Schettino tried to steer the cruise ship toward the port to make evacuation easier, but the vessel was out of control and began to tip as it neared the harbor, making many lifeboats useless.

“I can’t forget the eyes of children, scared to death, and of their parents,” said Mr. Pellegrini, who had boarded the ship to speak with officials and organize the evacuation. “The metallic sound of the enormous ship tipping over and the gurgling of the sea up the endless corridors of the cruiser.”

Sergio Ortelli, who is still the mayor of Giglio ten years later, was similarly moved. “Nobody can go back and cancel those senseless deaths of innocent people, or the grief of their families,” he said. “The tragedy will always stay with us as a community. It was an apocalypse for us.”

Yet Mr. Ortelli said that the accident also told a different story, that of the skilled rescuers who managed to save thousands of lives, and of the engineers who righted the liner, refloated it and took it to the scrapyard.

While the global attention shifted away from Giglio, residents have stayed in touch with the outside world through the people who temporarily lived there.

For months, the Rev. Lorenzo Pasquotti, who was then a pastor in Giglio, kept receiving packages: dry-cleaned slippers, sweaters and tablecloths that were given to the cold, stranded passengers in his church that night, returned via courier.

One summer, Father Pasquotti ate German cookies with a German couple who were passengers on the ship. They still remembered the hot tea and leftovers from Christmas delicacies that they were given that night.

“So many nationalities — the world was at our door all of a sudden,” he said, remembering that night. “And we naturally opened it.”

Gaia Pianigiani is a reporter based in Italy for The New York Times.  More about Gaia Pianigiani

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10 years later, Costa Concordia survivors share their stories from doomed cruise ship

Ten years after the deadly Costa Concordia cruise line disaster in Italy, survivors still vividly remember scenes of chaos they say were like something straight out of the movie "Titanic."

NBC News correspondent Kelly Cobiella caught up with a group of survivors on TODAY Wednesday, a decade after they escaped a maritime disaster that claimed the lives of 32 people. The Italian cruise ship ran aground off the tiny Italian island of Giglio after striking an underground rock and capsizing.

"I think it’s the panic, the feeling of panic, is what’s carried through over 10 years," Ian Donoff, who was on the cruise with his wife Janice for their honeymoon, told Cobiella. "And it’s just as strong now."

More than 4,000 passengers and crew were on board when the ship crashed into rocks in the dark in the Mediterranean Sea, sending seawater rushing into the vessel as people scrambled for their lives.

The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, had been performing a sail-past salute of Giglio when he steered the ship too close to the island and hit the jagged reef, opening a 230-foot gash in the side of the cruise liner.

Passengers struggled to escape in the darkness, clambering to get to the life boats. Alaska resident Nate Lukes was with his wife, Cary, and their four daughters aboard the ship and remembers the chaos that ensued as the ship started to sink.

"There was really a melee there is the best way to describe it," he told Cobiella. "It's very similar to the movie 'Titanic.' People were jumping onto the top of the lifeboats and pushing down women and children to try to get to them."

The lifeboats wouldn't drop down because the ship was tilted on its side, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded on the side of the ship for hours in the cold. People were left to clamber down a rope ladder over a distance equivalent to 11 stories.

"Everybody was rushing for the lifeboats," Nate Lukes said. "I felt like (my daughters) were going to get trampled, and putting my arms around them and just holding them together and letting the sea of people go by us."

Schettino was convicted of multiple manslaughter as well as abandoning ship after leaving before all the passengers had reached safety. He is now serving a 16-year prison sentence .

It took nearly two years for the damaged ship to be raised from its side before it was towed away to be scrapped.

The calamity caused changes in the cruise industry like carrying more lifejackets and holding emergency drills before leaving port.

A decade after that harrowing night, the survivors are grateful to have made it out alive. None of the survivors who spoke with Cobiella have been on a cruise since that day.

"I said that if we survive this, then our marriage will have to survive forever," Ian Donoff said.

Scott Stump is a trending reporter and the writer of the daily newsletter This is TODAY (which you should subscribe to here! ) that brings the day's news, health tips, parenting stories, recipes and a daily delight right to your inbox. He has been a regular contributor for TODAY.com since 2011, producing features and news for pop culture, parents, politics, health, style, food and pretty much everything else. 

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The Costa Concordia Disaster: How Human Error Made It Worse

By: Becky Little

Updated: August 10, 2023 | Original: June 23, 2021

Many famous naval disasters happen far out at sea, but on January 13, 2012, the Costa Concordia wrecked just off the coast of an Italian island in relatively shallow water. The avoidable disaster killed 32 people and seriously injured many others, and left investigators wondering: Why was the luxury cruise ship sailing so close to the shore in the first place?

During the ensuing trial, prosecutors came up with a tabloid-ready explanation : The married ship captain had sailed it so close to the island to impress a much younger Moldovan dancer with whom he was having an affair.

Whether or not Captain Francesco Schettino was trying to impress his girlfriend is debatable. (Schettino insisted the ship sailed close to shore to salute other mariners and give passengers a good view.) But whatever the reason for getting too close, the Italian courts found the captain, four crew members and one official from the ship’s company, Costa Crociere (part of Carnival Corporation), to be at fault for causing the disaster and preventing a safe evacuation. The wreck was not the fault of unexpected weather or ship malfunction—it was a disaster caused entirely by a series of human errors.

“At any time when you have an incident similar to Concordia, there is never…a single causal factor,” says Brad Schoenwald, a senior marine inspector at the United States Coast Guard. “It is generally a sequence of events, things that line up in a bad way that ultimately create that incident.”

Wrecking Near the Shore

The Concordia was supposed to take passengers on a seven-day Italian cruise from Civitavecchia to Savona. But when it deviated from its planned path to sail closer to the island of Giglio, the ship struck a reef known as the Scole Rocks. The impact damaged the ship, allowing water to seep in and putting the 4,229 people on board in danger.

Sailing close to shore to give passengers a nice view or salute other sailors is known as a “sail-by,” and it’s unclear how often cruise ships perform these maneuvers. Some consider them to be dangerous deviations from planned routes. In its investigative report on the 2012 disaster, Italy’s Ministry of Infrastructures and Transports found that the Concordia “was sailing too close to the coastline, in a poorly lit shore area…at an unsafe distance at night time and at high speed (15.5 kts).”

In his trial, Captain Schettino blamed the shipwreck on Helmsman Jacob Rusli Bin, who he claimed reacted incorrectly to his order; and argued that if the helmsman had reacted correctly and quickly, the ship wouldn’t have wrecked. However, an Italian naval admiral testified in court that even though the helmsman was late in executing the captain’s orders, “the crash would’ve happened anyway.” (The helmsman was one of the four crew members convicted in court for contributing to the disaster.)

A Questionable Evacuation

Evidence introduced in Schettino’s trial suggests that the safety of his passengers and crew wasn’t his number one priority as he assessed the damage to the Concordia. The impact and water leakage caused an electrical blackout on the ship, and a recorded phone call with Costa Crociere’s crisis coordinator, Roberto Ferrarini, shows he tried to downplay and cover up his actions by saying the blackout was what actually caused the accident.

“I have made a mess and practically the whole ship is flooding,” Schettino told Ferrarini while the ship was sinking. “What should I say to the media?… To the port authorities I have said that we had…a blackout.” (Ferrarini was later convicted for contributing to the disaster by delaying rescue operations.)

Schettino also didn’t immediately alert the Italian Search and Rescue Authority about the accident. The impact on the Scole Rocks occurred at about 9:45 p.m. local time, and the first person to contact rescue officials about the ship was someone on the shore, according to the investigative report. Search and Rescue contacted the ship a few minutes after 10:00 p.m., but Schettino didn’t tell them what had happened for about 20 more minutes.

A little more than an hour after impact, the crew began to evacuate the ship. But the report noted that some passengers testified that they didn’t hear the alarm to proceed to the lifeboats. Evacuation was made even more chaotic by the ship listing so far to starboard, making walking inside very difficult and lowering the lifeboats on one side, near to impossible. Making things worse, the crew had dropped the anchor incorrectly, causing the ship to flop over even more dramatically.

Through the confusion, the captain somehow made it into a lifeboat before everyone else had made it off. A coast guard member angrily told him on the phone to “Get back on board, damn it!” —a recorded sound bite that turned into a T-shirt slogan in Italy.

Schettino argued that he fell into a lifeboat because of how the ship was listing to one side, but this argument proved unconvincing. In 2015, a court found Schettino guilty of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck, abandoning ship before passengers and crew were evacuated and lying to authorities about the disaster. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison. In addition to Schettino, Ferrarini and Rusli Bin, the other people who received convictions for their role in the disaster were Cabin Service Director Manrico Giampedroni, First Officer Ciro Ambrosio and Third Officer Silvia Coronica.

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'We all suffer from PTSD': 10 years after the Costa Concordia cruise disaster, memories remain

GIGLIO, Italy — Ten years have passed since the Costa Concordia cruise ship slammed into a reef and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio. But for the passengers on board and the residents who welcomed them ashore, the memories of that harrowing, freezing night remain vividly etched into their minds.

The dinner plates that flew off the tables when the rocks first gashed the hull. The blackout after the ship's engine room flooded and its generators failed. The final mad scramble to evacuate the listing liner and then the extraordinary generosity of Giglio islanders who offered shoes, sweatshirts and shelter until the sun rose and passengers were ferried to the mainland.

Italy on Thursday is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration that will end with a candlelit vigil near the moment the ship hit the reef: 9:45 p.m. on Jan. 13, 2012. The events will honor the 32 people who died that night, the 4,200 survivors, but also the residents of Giglio, who took in passengers and crew and then lived with the Concordia's wrecked carcass off their shore for another two years until it was righted and hauled away for scrap.

► CDC travel guidance: CDC warns 'avoid cruise travel' after more than 5,000 COVID cases in two weeks amid omicron

“For us islanders, when we remember some event, we always refer to whether it was before or after the Concordia,” said Matteo Coppa, who was 23 and fishing on the jetty when the darkened Concordia listed toward shore and then collapsed onto its side in the water.

“I imagine it like a nail stuck to the wall that marks that date, as a before and after,” he said, recounting how he joined the rescue effort that night, helping pull ashore the dazed, injured and freezing passengers from lifeboats.

The sad anniversary comes as the cruise industry, shut down in much of the world for months because of the coronavirus pandemic, is once again in the spotlight because of COVID-19 outbreaks that threaten passenger safety. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control last month  warned people across-the-board not to go on cruises, regardless of their vaccination status, because of the risks of infection.

► 'We found out while we were flying': Last-minute cruise cancellations leave travelers scrambling

► 'The Disney magic is gone' ... or is it?: Longtime fans weigh in on changes at Disney World

'We all suffer from PTSD'

For Concordia survivor Georgia Ananias, the COVID-19 infections are just the latest evidence that passenger safety still isn’t a top priority for the cruise ship industry. Passengers aboard the Concordia were largely left on their own to find life jackets and a functioning lifeboat after the captain steered the ship close too shore in a stunt. He then delayed an evacuation order until it was too late, with lifeboats unable to lower because the ship was listing too heavily.

“I always said this will not define me, but you have no choice," Ananias said in an interview from her home in Los Angeles, Calif. “We all suffer from PTSD. We had a lot of guilt that we survived and 32 other people died.”

Prosecutors blamed the delayed evacuation order and conflicting instructions given by crew for the chaos that ensued as passengers scrambled to get off the ship. The captain, Francesco Schettino, is serving a 16-year prison sentence for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning a ship before all the passengers and crew had evacuated.

Ananias and her family declined Costa’s initial $14,500 compensation offered to each passenger and sued Costa, a unit of U.S.-based Carnival Corp., to try to cover the cost of their medical bills and therapy for the post-traumatic stress they have suffered. But after eight years in the U.S. and then Italian court system, they lost their case.

“I think people need to be aware that when you go on a cruise, that if there is a problem, you will not have the justice that you may be used to in the country in which you are living,” said Ananias, who went onto become a top official in the International Cruise Victims association, an advocacy group that lobbies to improve safety aboard ships and increase transparency and accountability in the industry.

Costa didn’t respond to emails seeking comment on the anniversary.

► Royal Caribbean cancels sailings: Pushes back restart on several ships over COVID

'We did something incredible'

Cruise Lines International Association, the world’s largest cruise industry trade association, stressed in a statement to The Associated Press that passenger and crew safety was the industry's top priority, and that cruising remains one of the safest vacation experiences available.

“Our thoughts continue to be with the victims of the Concordia tragedy and their families on this sad anniversary," CLIA said. It said it has worked over the past 10 years with the International Maritime Organization and the maritime industry to “drive a safety culture that is based on continuous improvement."

For Giglio Mayor Sergio Ortelli, the memories of that night run the gamut: the horror of seeing the capsized ship, the scramble to coordinate rescue services on shore, the recovery of the first bodies and then the pride that islanders rose to the occasion to tend to the survivors.

► Cruising during COVID-19: Cancellation, refund policies vary by cruise line

Ortelli was later on hand when, in September 2013, the 115,000-ton, 1,000-foot long cruise ship was righted vertical off its seabed graveyard in an extraordinary feat of engineering. But the night of the disaster, a Friday the 13th, remains seared in his memory.

“It was a night that, in addition to being a tragedy, had a beautiful side because the response of the people was a spontaneous gesture that was appreciated around the world,” Ortelli said.

It seemed the natural thing to do at the time. “But then we realized that on that night, in just a few hours, we did something incredible.”

10 years later, Costa Concordia disaster is still vivid for survivors

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Ten years have passed since the Costa Concordia cruise ship slammed into a reef and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio . But for the passengers on board and the residents who welcomed them ashore, the memories of that harrowing, freezing night remain vividly etched into their minds.

The dinner plates that flew off the tables when the rocks first gashed the hull. The blackout after the ship’s engine room flooded and its generators failed. The final mad scramble to evacuate the listing liner and then the extraordinary generosity of Giglio islanders who offered shoes, sweatshirts and shelter until the sun rose and passengers were ferried to the mainland.

Italy on Thursday is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration that will end with a candlelit vigil near the moment the ship hit the reef: 9:45 p.m. on Jan. 13, 2012. The events will honor the 32 people who died that night, the 4,200 survivors, but also the residents of Giglio, who took in passengers and crew and then lived with the Concordia’s wrecked carcass off their shore for another two years until it was righted and hauled away for scrap.

“For us islanders, when we remember some event, we always refer to whether it was before or after the Concordia,” said Matteo Coppa, who was 23 and fishing on the jetty when the darkened Concordia listed toward shore and then collapsed onto its side in the water.

“I imagine it like a nail stuck to the wall that marks that date, as a before and after,” he said, recounting how he joined the rescue effort that night, helping pull ashore the dazed, injured and freezing passengers from lifeboats.

The sad anniversary comes as the cruise industry, shut down in much of the world for months because of the coronavirus pandemic, is once again in the spotlight because of COVID-19 outbreaks that threaten passenger safety. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control last month warned people across-the-board not to go on cruises , regardless of their vaccination status, because of the risks of infection.

A dozen passengers on cruise ship test positive for coronavirus

The passengers, whose infections were found through random testing, were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms, according to the Port of San Francisco.

Jan. 7, 2022

For Concordia survivor Georgia Ananias, the COVID-19 infections are just the latest evidence that passenger safety still isn’t a top priority for the cruise ship industry. Passengers aboard the Concordia were largely left on their own to find life jackets and a functioning lifeboat after the captain steered the ship close too shore in a stunt. He then delayed an evacuation order until it was too late, with lifeboats unable to lower because the ship was listing too heavily.

“I always said this will not define me, but you have no choice,” Ananias said in an interview from her home in Los Angeles. “We all suffer from PTSD. We had a lot of guilt that we survived and 32 other people died.”

Prosecutors blamed the delayed evacuation order and conflicting instructions given by crew for the chaos that ensued as passengers scrambled to get off the ship. The captain, Francesco Schettino, is serving a 16-year prison sentence for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning a ship before all the passengers and crew had evacuated.

Ananias and her family declined Costa’s initial $14,500 compensation offered to each passenger and sued Costa, a unit of U.S.-based Carnival Corp., to try to cover the cost of their medical bills and therapy for the post-traumatic stress they have suffered. But after eight years in the U.S. and then Italian court system, they lost their case.

“I think people need to be aware that when you go on a cruise, that if there is a problem, you will not have the justice that you may be used to in the country in which you are living,” said Ananias, who went onto become a top official in the International Cruise Victims association, an advocacy group that lobbies to improve safety aboard ships and increase transparency and accountability in the industry.

Costa didn’t respond to emails seeking comment on the anniversary.

Cruise Lines International Assn., the world’s largest cruise industry trade association, stressed in a statement to the Associated Press that passenger and crew safety were the industry’s top priority, and that cruising remains one of the safest vacation experiences available.

“Our thoughts continue to be with the victims of the Concordia tragedy and their families on this sad anniversary,” CLIA said. It said it has worked over the past 10 years with the International Maritime Organization and the maritime industry to “drive a safety culture that is based on continuous improvement.”

For Giglio Mayor Sergio Ortelli, the memories of that night run the gamut: the horror of seeing the capsized ship, the scramble to coordinate rescue services on shore, the recovery of the first bodies and then the pride that islanders rose to the occasion to tend to the survivors.

Ortelli was later on hand when, in September 2013, the 115,000-ton, 1,000-foot long cruise ship was righted vertical off its seabed graveyard in an extraordinary feat of engineering. But the night of the disaster, a Friday the 13th, remains seared in his memory.

“It was a night that, in addition to being a tragedy, had a beautiful side because the response of the people was a spontaneous gesture that was appreciated around the world,” Ortelli said.

It seemed the natural thing to do at the time. “But then we realized that on that night, in just a few hours, we did something incredible.”

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The Wreck of the Costa Concordia

• Alan Taylor
• January 16, 2012

On the night of Friday, January 13, the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia, with more than 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members on board, struck a reef, keeled over, and partially sank off Isola del Giglio, Italy. Six people are now confirmed dead, including two French passengers and one Peruvian crew member, apparently after jumping into the chilly Mediterranean waters after the wreck. Fourteen more people still remain missing, as search and rescue teams continue their efforts to find survivors. The incident occurred only hours into the cruise, and passengers had not yet undergone any lifeboat drills -- that plus the severe list of the ship made evacuation chaotic and frightening. Captain Francesco Schettino has been arrested on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship. Gathered here are images of the Costa Concordia, as efforts are still underway to find the fourteen passengers that remain missing.

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View of the Costa Concordia taken on January 14, 2012, after the cruise ship ran aground and keeled over off the Isola del Giglio. Five passengers drowned and about 15 still remain missing after the Italian ship with some 4,200 people on board ran aground. The Costa Concordia was on a trip around the Mediterranean when it apparently hit a reef near the island of Giglio on Friday, only a few hours into its voyage, as passengers were sitting down for dinner. #

This photo acquired by the Associated Press from a passenger of the luxury ship that ran aground off the coast of Tuscany shows fellow passengers wearing life-vests on board the Costa Concordia as they wait to be evacuated, on Saturday, January 14, 2012. #

The luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia leans after it ran aground off the coast of the Isola del Giglio island, Italy, early Saturday, January 14, 2012. #

Passengers of the Costa Concordia arrive at Porto Santo Stefano on January 14, 2012, after the cruise ship ran aground and keeled over the night before. Some of the passengers jumped into the icy waters. The ship was on a cruise in the Mediterranean, leaving from Savona with planned stops in Civitavecchia, Palermo, Cagliari, Palma, Barcelona and Marseille," the company said. #

A survivor of the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia, arrives at the harbor, in Marseille, southern France, on January 14, 2012. #

The Costa Concordia, off the west coast of Italy at Giglio island, on January 14, 2012. #

The Costa Concordia leans on its side after running aground, on January 14, 2012. #

Gashes in the hull of the Costa Concordia, off the west coast of Italy, on January 14, 2012. #

Firefighters on a dinghy examine a large rock emerging from the side of the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia, the day after it ran aground on Sunday, January 15, 2012. #

The Costa Concordia, surrounded by smaller boats, on Saturday, January 14, 2012, after running aground. #

An evening view of the Costa Concordia, on January 15, 2012 in the harbor of the Tuscan island of Giglio. #

A rescue boat points a light at the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia leaning on its side on January 14, 2012. #

Italian firefighters climb on the Costa Concordia on January 14, 2012. #

Firemen inspect the Costa Concordia on January 15, 2012. #

Rescuers check the sea near the Costa Concordia on January 15, 2012, after the cruise ship ran aground the night before. #

People look at the deck chairs piled on the deck of the leaning Costa Concordia, on January 15, 2012, after the cruise ship ran aground on January 13. #

Partially submerged cabins of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, photographed on January 14, 2012. #

An Italian firefighter helicopter lifts a passenger from the cruise ship Costa Concordia on January 15, 2012. Firefighters worked Sunday to rescue the crew member with a suspected broken leg from the overturned hulk of the luxury cruise liner, 36 hours after it ran aground. #

Divers inspect the Costa Concordia on January 15, 2012. #

Italian Coast guard personnel pass on the black box of the wrecked cruise ship Costa Concordia, on January 14, 2012. #

Costa Concordia cruise liner captain Francesco Schettino (right) is escorted by a Carabinieri in Grosseto, Italy, on January 14, 2012. Schettino, the captain of the Italian cruise liner that ran aground off Italy's west coast, was arrested on the charges of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship, police said. #

In this underwater photo taken on January 13 and released by the Italian Coast Guard on January 16, 2012, a view of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, after it ran aground near the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy. #

A breach is seen on the body of the cruise ship Costa Concordia in this underwater photo released by the Italian Coast Guard on January 16, 2012. #

An Italian Coast guard diver inspects the wreckage of the Costa Concordia on January 16, 2012. Over-reliance on electronic navigation systems and a failure of judgement by the captain are seen as possible reasons for one of the worst cruise liner disasters of all time, maritime specialists say. #

An Italian Coast guard diver inspects inside the Costa Concordia cruise ship on January 16, 2012. #

An Italian Coast guard diver swims through debris inside the partially-submerged Costa Concordia, on January 16, 2012. Rescuers resumed a search of the hulk of a giant cruise liner off the west coast of Italy on Monday after bad weather forced them to halt operations, but hopes were fading of finding more survivors. #

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Costa Concordia: cruise ship lifting a success – as it happened

Costa Concordia back upright – summary

We're winding up the live blog for now. You can read a full news report here . Below is a summary of events:

Authorities in Italy have announced the Costa Concordia cruise ship is back upright after a 19-hour operation. The cruise liner hit rocks and tipped on to its side in January 2012 as it was departing the Italian island of Giglio.

The biggest ever feat of its kind, the operation known as parbuckling had been delayed slightly after an overnight storm but apparently went without a hitch in the subsequent hours.

The moment of success was heralded by a foghorn that sounded over the port at Giglio shortly after 4am . With the re-emerged hull looming large over the port, Italy's civil protection agency chief, Franco Gabrielli, announced the ship's rotation had reached 65 degrees, meaning the operation was complete.

Franco Porcellacchia, a representative of the ship's owners, Costa Crociere, said: "We completed the parbuckling operation a few minutes ago the way we thought it would happen and the way we hoped it would happen." Porcellacchia said it had been "a perfect operation" with no environmentally damaging spill detected so far.

The parbuckling operation involved dozens of huge chains and a system of weighted tanks being used to pull the ship back up.

Further work on the Concordia will be undertaken in its current position, resting on underwater platforms built for the purpose, before it is towed away in 2014 to be cut up for scrap .

'Landmark feat of engineering'

Lizzy Davies has been up early and filed a full news story on the success of the Costa Concordia parbuckling operation. Here's an excerpt:

At a 4am press briefing in Giglio, with the re-emerged hull looming large over the port, Italy's civil protection agency chief, Franco Gabrielli, was applauded by firefighters as he announced that the ship's rotation had reached 65 degrees, meaning the operation known as parbuckling was finally complete. A later statement from the project engineers said the wreck was "resting safely" on six platforms that have been built 30 metres below sea level. It will remain there throughout the winter while the salvage operation continues.   The island was notified of the news – a landmark feat of engineering and big step towards the removal of the Concordia from Tuscan waters in one piece – by a foghorn that sounded shortly after 4am and was heard across the port and beyond.   The 114,000-tonne ship ran aground off the shore of Giglio on 13 January 2012. Thousands of passengers and crew made it to land safely but 32 people died, including a five-year-old girl.   The bodies of two people – Maria Grazia Trecarichi, a Sicilian passenger, and Russel Rebello, an Indian waiter – have never been found. Their recovery was a priority of the parbuckling but engineers have not yet seen any sign of their remains in the wreck. In the coming months the team carrying out the salvage operation – Titan Salvage from the United States and the Italian engineering company Micoperi – will have to examine quite how damaged the starboard side of the ship is in order to decide how to proceed.

'A perfect operation, I must say'

Some more details via the Associated Press:

Officials have declared it a "perfect" end to a daring and unprecedented engineering feat. Shortly after 4am a foghorn wailed on Giglio Island and the head of Italy's civil protection agency, Franco Gabrielli, announced that the Costa Concordia had reached vertical and that the operation to rotate it known in nautical terms as parbuckling was complete. "We completed the parbuckling operation a few minutes ago the way we thought it would happen and the way we hoped it would happen," said Franco Porcellacchia, project manager for the Concordia's owner, Costa Crociere SpA. "A perfect operation, I must say" with no environmental spill detected so far, he said. Applause rang out among firefighters in the tent where Gabrielli and other project engineers made the announcement. The operation to right it had been expected to take no more than 12 hours but dragged on after some initial delays with the vast system of steel cables, pulleys and counterweights. The final phase of the rotation went remarkably fast as gravity began to kick in and pull the ship toward its normal position. Parbuckling is a standard operation to right capsized ships. But never before had it been used on such a huge cruise liner. The ship is expected to be floated away from Giglio and turned into scrap. Porcellacchia said an initial inspection of the starboard side, covered in brown slime from its 20 months underwater while the ship was stuck on a rocky seabed perch, "looks pretty bad". About an hour before the rotation was complete, observers said the boat seemed to suddenly settle down upon the undersea platform built to support it for the time being.

The companies and authorities responsible for the "parbuckling project" – the operation to right the Costa Concordia – have issued the following statement, forwarded by our correspondent Lizzy Davies who is at the scene and putting the story together right now:

The parbuckling operation has been successfully completed. The wreck is now upright and resting safely on the specially built artificial sea bed, at a depth of approximately 30 metres.

"The ship has been settled on to its platforms," said Franco Gabrielli, the head of Italy's Civil Protection Authority.

Another view just in of the raised Costa Concordia showing the damage sustained when it turned on its side:

Costa Concordia raising is a success

The Costa Concordia is back upright for the first time since January 2012, according to engineers in charge of the recovery operation. Here's a quick first take from the Associated Press:

Engineers have declared the crippled Costa Concordia cruise ship completely upright after a 19-hour operation to pull it from its side where it capsized last year off Tuscany. Shortly after 4am Tuesday a foghorn rang out on Giglio Island and the head of Italy's Civil Protection agency, Franco Gabrielli, announced that the ship had reached vertical and that the operation to rotate it was complete. Applause rang out among firefigters in the tent where Gabrielli and other project engineers made the announcement. Officials said there was no apparent pollution in the waters around the ship as a result of the operation.

Lifting won't be completed until early Tuesday

Engineers have said that the lifting of the cruise ship will not be completed until dawn on Tuesday at the earliest.

Daylight is beginning to fade on Giglio.

The white and black arrows on the photographs below show how far the Costa Concordia has been lifted. The black arrow shows the position of an upper deck before the salvage operation began, the white as it is in progress. The brown residue on the side of the vessel shows where it was submerged.

If you look at the footage from our live video feed you can see a good section of water-stained boat now on view. The vessel is now tilted at somewhere approaching 45 degrees – a long way to go, but steady progress. That said, it is almost 4pm in Italy so the operation will presumably continue long after dark, if not into Tuesday.

With regards to the post earlier about the righting of the SS Normandie in 1943 (see 12.06pm ) another reader, SPT777 , has this to say :

You can't compare this salvage operation with the one to recover the Normandie, or to give her correct name at the time, USS Lafayette. US Navy naval architects devised a plan where the superstructure was stripped as far as possible to lighten the ship then watertight bulkheads were fitted internally to form buoyancy chambers. The ship was then pumped out and was allowed to effectively right herself.

How much is the operation costing? According to AP, the bill so far is about €600m (just over £500m). It's being paid by Costa Crociere SpA, the Italian arms of Miami-based Carnival Corp, though insurers will end up absorbing most of it.

With the operation ongoing now for slightly more than four hours, it's time for a summary.

Salvage engineers have begun to right the wreck of the Costa Concordia, which has now been moved off the rocks on which it has rested since it hit them in January 2012, killing 32 people .

The experts say the so-called parbuckling operation, involving dozens of chains and a system of weighted tanks, has completed its most difficult section, and should take the rest of the day to right the ship . It is billed as the most ambitious parbuckling operation ever.

The operation was delayed slightly after an overnight storm , but has gone without apparent hitch so far .

The salvage crews say the shifted liner has shown significant "deformation" on the starboard side, with the extent of this damage still to be assessed .

We also now have this video of the operation so far.

In the comments, a reader notes that as well as the parbuckling of the USS Oklahoma (see 9.25 BST ) the French liner the SS Normandie, marginally longer than the Costa Concordia at 299 metres, was righted in New York harbour in 1943, a year after it capsized following a fire. However, I'm not enough of an expert to say whether this was an equivalent operation – it seems the vessel was partly stripped beforehand.

Lizzy also sends over this official statement from the salvage team. That's three degrees of rotation so far – a long way to go:

At 12.15 p.m. the Titan Micoperi Consortium announced that there is evidence of a smooth rotation movement of the hull. A pulling force of about 6,000 tons has been applied with a consequent rotation of about three degrees. From now on, technicians expect that the rotation can proceed with a gradually decreasing pulling force.

Lizzy Davies has sent me this brief rundown from the briefing by the salvage engineers:

• Franco Gabrielli, the head of Italy's civil protection agency, said that the parbuckling was proceeding "exactly according to predictions". He said: "There is a correspondence between the reality and the projection, and we note this with satisfaction." • Sergio Girotto, the project manager, said that when they started exerting force on the wreck they immediately saw a response in terms of movement. But they couldn't see it becoming dislodged from the rock on which it has been moulded. However, when the force reached 6,000 tonness, the much-anticipated "distacco" – detachment – took place. • The team has noticed "large deformations" on the starboard side, Girotto said. He did not elaborate, but the extent of the damage on that side of the ship will determine how the salvage attempt proceeds. • From an environmental point of view, for the moment things are looking good, said Gabrielli: "The water is clear at the moment; there are no significant or visible spills. There are no problems but we are absolutely aware that we are really at the beginning." So, all seems to be proceeding in an orderly fashion. But the team is clearly trying to avoid raising expectations. Quizzed by one journalist, Gabrielli joked that "the first 12 hours are the most dangerous". And "hitches" were still possible, he added.

AP also reports the news that the salvage engineers say the ship has been removed from the rocks, adding that there has been no sign yet of any bodies.

Two people remain missing after the ship collided with the rocks: Russel Rebello, a 33-year-old waiter from India, and Grazia Trecarichi, from Sicily, who was on board to celebrate her 50th birthday with her 17-year-old daughter, who survived.

The Concordia has been dislodged from the rock it was on says Sergio Girotto — Lizzy Davies (@lizzy_davies) September 16, 2013

Big news: the salvage project manager says the ship has been dislodged from the rock on which it has rested for for 20 months.

Officials add that there are "large deformations" on the starboard side of the ship, Lizzy adds.

If you were not yet convinced that the ship is very slowly moving upright, this series of photos from La Stampa should persuade you .

We now have a full gallery of photographs of the salvage operation, up here .

The new main photograph, at the top of the page, also shows the apparent titling of the boat as it moves, with a small section discoloured by immersion in the sea clearly visible.

The photo in this link, from the Ansa news agency, purports to show the evidence that the Costa Concordia is slowly righting . It shows a small section of the hull, circled in the photo, which seems to have been darkened by immersion in the water, but is now visible.

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I've had a chat with Lizzy Davies at the scene. She explains what progress she can see right now – not a huge amount – and what will hopefully happen with the rest of the salvage operation.

The ship is moving - some witnesses say.

Lizzy Davies has been with other reporters trying to spot the first change in angle. She's been unable to, but others see it differently:

We have no official confirmation of this, but the Ansa news agency is reporting that the ship appears to be moving. It says: "The part that is emerging from the sea, about a metre, is clearly distinguishable by its dark colour compared with the part [of the hull] that has always been out of the water."

Some more context on where we are now from Lizzy Davies :

The parbuckling process can be broken down into three phases. This is the first one we're seeing right now: the freeing of the hull. The engineers are attempting to dislodge the ship from the rock onto which it has moulded itself. In a description issued to the press they say: "This is without doubt one of the most delicate phases of the entire recovery plan and it is hard to say how long it will last because the operation to dislodge the vessel will have to be performed very slowly, striking a balance in terms of the force gradually exerted so that the hull is not placed under high stresses."

If you're not seen it, my colleague Paddy Allen has produced this excellent interactive guide to the fate of the Costa Concordia and how salvage teams hope to right and re-float it .

The operation has been going on for about 90 minutes now, and as those watching the live stream will spot, there's no sign of movement yet. But this was to be expected – the first stage of tightening the dozens of winches around the vessel and starting to ease it off the rocks was always expected to be the most delicate.

AP mentions in its story that the previously biggest parbuckling operation took place in 1943 when the US Navy righted the USS Oklahoma, badly damaged during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, with the loss of 429 of her crew. The battleship was, however, 178 metres long, against 290 metres for the Costa Concordia .

Lizzy Davies has filed a new update on where we are now with the operation:

Salvage masters in Italy have embarked on an unprecedented attempt to right the stricken Costa Concordia cruise ship in an operation that is crucial to plans to tow the wreck away in one piece. Three hours after they were due to begin, engineers – whose plans were delayed by a fierce overnight storm – announced they had begun an ambitious process of “parbuckling” at 9am local time that they hope will result in the 114,000-tonne vessel being brought to rest securely on underwater platforms. Twenty months after the cruise ship crashed into rocks off the coast of the island of Giglio, causing the deaths of 32 people, project manager Sergio Girotto said steel cables being tightened by hydraulic jacks were exerting a force of 2,000 tons on the Concordia’s rusting hull. That would be increased by 200 tons and after each rise engineers would check for movement, he said. “Everything is going smoothly,” added Girotto. But he cautioned: “You will have to wait some time before you can see some change with the naked eye.” The Italian civil protection agency gave the final go-ahead for the parbuckling on Sunday, saying wind and sea conditions had fallen “within the range of operating feasibility”. Initial testing, said senior salvage master Nick Sloane, had shown that “she [the ship] is ready to move”. The project, which is expected to take between eight and 12 hours, will be nail-biting. Parbuckling is a common means of salvaging wrecked vessels, but it has never been used on one of the Concordia’s size – the cruise ship is 290 metres (950ft) long – let alone one balancing precariously on two rock pinnacles on a steep slope. Speaking on Sunday to the hundreds of journalists who have descended on the small Tuscan island, the head of the civil protection agency, Franco Gabrielli, said he was “100%” sure of the operation ending in success. Last week the engineers said there was no plan B.

You can now watch a live video stream of the painstaking operation. This comes in two variants, the iOS compatible one , and the non-iOS one .

We now have a statement from the Parbucking Project, the consortium running the operation, confirming that operation began at 9am Italian time and giving details:

Capt Nick Sloane, the senior salvage master, gave the order to activate the commands that will be sent from the control room on the barge Polluce in the immediate vicinity of the bow of the Concordia. All commands and signals – eg activation of strand jacks, opening and closing of sponson valves, information about the position of the wreck – will be sent to and from the barge control room via two separate “umbilicals” (one used as a back-up for the other); these are cables arranged between the control room and the ship guaranteeing communication between the two. The team operating in the barge control room includes 11 experts: a dedicated ballast engineer, ROV pilots, engineers who are strandjack specialists, a computer engineer and a design engineer. The team members in the control room will operate all the systems and monitor progress using eight monitors. Five TV cameras with five microphones have been placed on the highest deck of the Concordia; the images and sounds monitored during the parbuckling will allow the engineers to make adjustments depending on any twist and torsion arising on the ship. Duplication of the monitors has been provided in the “Salvage Room” ashore, where all the other engineers and technicians will follow the operation and be able to provide assistance if and when the need arises.

The pull is now at c.2,000 tons, Girotto says. It will be increased step-by-step by 200 tons; after each step they will check for movement — Lizzy Davies (@lizzy_davies) September 16, 2013

Girotto: "You will have to wait some time before you can see some change with the naked eye." Oh. #CostaConcordia #thewaitbegins — Lizzy Davies (@lizzy_davies) September 16, 2013

Lizzy Davies has been listening to Sergio Girotto, project manager for Micoperi, the salvage contractors. In brief: the operation has begun but it will be a slow process.

Given Italy is an hour ahead of the UK, that means the painstaking operation to right the ship is beginning more or less now.

Parbucking began at 9am. #CostaConcordia — Lizzy Davies (@lizzy_davies) September 16, 2013

As well as this being a big day for the salvage team, and for the relatives of those who died, it is also a significant moment for the residents of the island. Lizzy Davies writes this:

As I wandered along the seafront this morning, I met Antonella Billocci looking out at the wreck that has dominated Giglio Porto's horizon for 20 months.  "I came to see the dawn, and I hope that this will be the dawn of a new day for the island as well," she said. Billocci was on the island on the night of the disaster and remembers well the passengers from all over the world who stumbled off the ferry in the pitch dark and January cold.  But, while she recalls with fondness the generosity and goodwill that characterised Giglio's immediate response, she says she has also seen the lingering wreck cast a long shadow over the island. "It has disturbed the community divided it a bit," she said, explaining that there is a feeling among islanders outside of the port that they have lost out in the interest the shipwreck has brought. Billocci runs a beach club in nearby Castello Monticello. But she has grown frustrated with the number of so-called "disaster tourists" coming to the island for one night only – or sometimes not even that. They "know the island just for this aspect while the island has so much more to offer", she said. If Nick Sloane and his men can get the Costa Concordia upright and a major step closer to being removed, it won't be a day too soon for Billocci.

So, how do you re-float a ship the size of the Costa Concordia? Expert-wrangling website The Conversation has lined up someone to explain here .

Parallel to the salvage operation, a series of criminal trials have taken place of those deemed responsible for the deaths.

In July a court in the Tuscan town of Grosseto convicted five people of manslaughter and negligence over the shipwreck . Plea bargains saw the harshest sentence given to the cruise company's crisis co-ordinator, Roberto Ferranini, who was jailed for two years and 10 months.

The ship's hotel director was sentenced to two years and six months while two bridge officers and a helmsman got sentences ranging from 20 to 23 months.

The captain of the ship, Francesco Schettino, is being tried separately for manslaughter . Schettino, who is also being tried in Grosseto, faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty of manslaughter in a full trial.

The ship became stranded on the rocks in the evening of 13 January 2012, shortly after leaving the Italian port of Civitavecchia carrying 4,000 passengers and crew. As the ship sailed north-west along the coast, its captain, Francesco Schettino, ordered it be steered close to Giglio as a "salute". At about 9.45pm it hit rocks along the island, holing the left side of the hull. The ship took on water and power was lost.

There was a long delay in ordering passengers to abandon the ship, and by the time they did it was already listing it around 30 degrees. In scenes broadcast round the world passengers began escaping in lifeboats, with some rescued by coastguards. But some remained trapped, and 32 died.

The captain abandoned the bridge and went ashore amid the rescue operation, ignoring the orders of a coastguard commander to remain on board.

Adding to the sense of tragic farce, it emerged later that the captain claimed he had not intended to leave the ship but tripped and fell into a lifeboat while the ship was listing at a severe angle.

The operation to right the ship has previously been delayed by storms, with an attempt abandoned in spring. There is particular impetus to get it done this time, as the fear is winter storms could batter the ship against the rocks on which it rests.

One paradox of the tragedy is that the wreck has become a tourist attraction in its own right, giving the immediate locality a year-round tourist draw it never previously enjoyed.

My colleague, Lizzy Davies , is in Giglio and will be sending updates throughout. She has already written this story about the delay to the operation , and now says it will be around two hours before we see any movement to the ship at all. Lizzy writes:

So, two hours later than originally thought, we're waiting for the parbuckling of the Costa Concordia to begin. It was a bad night – I know, because the storm kept me awake for hours. We are told the thunder and lightning made it impossible for the engineers to position the control room barge, thus delaying the operation. But Sergio Girotto, project manager for Micoperi, said at a briefing several minutes ago this this was not necessarily a huge problem: "The weather overnight was simply not very favourable… but there are no problems; everything is very much in order."  He said salvage master Nick Sloane and his technicians are currently embarking for the control room, from where they will control the parbuckling via computer. A statement said: "In the meantime the operations for the positioning of the operating units are still ongoing. The connections with the control room have been activated and systems testing is proceeding. Once this operation is completed, the parbuckling can begin."

This morning, a team of expert engineers will attempt one of the most ambitious salvage operations in maritime history – to right the Costa Concordia so the stricken cruise liner can eventually be towed away from the Italian island of Giglio.

The 114,000-ton vessel crashed into rocks off Giglio in January 2012, causing the deaths of 32 people. Two of the bodies have never been recovered and might lie within the wreck. The ship has remained, listed and stuck in the shallow waters, ever since.

The plan is to level the ship using a salvage method known as parbuckling, in which dozens of crank-like pulleys use chains looped round the hull to slowly rotating the ship, with water-filled tanks pulling down the exposed side through gravity. Once the ship is level, the plan goes, the tanks can be filled with air, hopefully floating the Costa Concordia off rocks so it can be towed for scrap.

Parbuckling is a common method but has never been used on a ship so big. The Concordia is 290 metres long and is balanced precariously on two rock pinnacles on a steep slope.

The operation has already been delayed due to a fierce storm overnight.

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Haunting photos show wreck of infamous $772m Costa Concordia cruise ship after it ran aground and sank killing 33

Haunting pictures of the once-lavish $772 million vessel that claimed 33 lives shows it being stripped of scrap and beaten by the elements.

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The hulking wreck of the tragic Costa Concordia cruise ship was left to become a rusting relic of the tragedy that claimed 33 lives.

Haunting pictures of the once-lavish $772 million vessels show it being stripped of scrap and beaten by the elements, reports The Sun .

The photos, taken in 2015 but that have now resurfaced, show the sorry state of Costa Concordia before it was dismantled.

One of the pictures shows the upper deck of the ship rotting away after the cruise was left abandoned for years.

Rust can be seen taking over the entire body with exposed pipes and wires dangling all around the ship.

Another picture shows the cruise beached at her home port with cranes ready to strip the scrap off the ship.

Workers can be seen walking around the wreckage to dismantle the vessel part by part.

In 2012, Concordia accidentally took a detour while on a voyage and steered straight into underwater rocks, causing the ship to partially sink.

The captain of the ship Francesco Schettino, dubbed Captain Calamity, was one of the first people to jump out of the sinking vessel to save his own life.

He sparked fury around the world after leaving his passengers to die.

Built in 2004 in Genoa port by Carnival Corporation, Costa Concordia was one of the most luxurious cruise ships of her time – and the biggest ever built in Italy at the time of her service.

Interestingly, during the ship’s inauguration ceremony in 2005, a champagne bottle failed to break when it was swung against the vessel’s hull for the first time.

Many considered this to be a bad luck charm for the largest ship built in Italy at that time – but no one knew it would go on to become a dark reality.

On 13 January 2012, the seven-year-old Concordia was on a voyage around the Mediterranean Sea when she veered off from her planned route at Isola del Giglio, Tuscany.

In a chilling turn of events, the ship started to sail closer to a nearby island and struck a rock formation on the sea floor – which caused serious damage to the lower part of the ship.

A wide part of the hull was torn open, and water dramatically flooded parts of the engine room, cutting power from the engines and ship services.

As the water filled inside, the ship started to list on one side – and drift back towards the island despite the captain’s futile attempts to gain control over the vessel.

Eventually, the ship toppled sideways in an unsteady position on a rocky underwater ledge – and started to sink.

Soon after the incident, coastguards flocked to the horror scene to rescue all 4,252 people on-board – which included 1,023 crew members and personnel.

After a six-hour rescue operation, most of the people were brought ashore without severe injuries.

While thousands of passengers lived through a collective nightmare that ended up being the biggest cruise disaster since Titanic, 33 people tragically lost their lives during the rescue operation.

This included 27 passengers, five crew and a member of the salvage team.

On the 10th anniversary of this tragic event, Ester Percossi, one of the survivors told Reuters: “I remember the screams of the people, the people who were jumping into the sea. I remember the cold and the sensation of terror in everybody’s eyes.

“It is extremely emotional. We come here today to remember, most importantly, those who are no longer with us, and to relive the hell that we went through and try in some way to exorcise it.”

While many were branded heroes of the night who risked their lives saving other people, the ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino was not one of them.

Schettino was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Costa Concordia was declared a “constructive total loss” by the cruise line’s insurer, and her salvage is considered to be “one of the biggest maritime salvage operations”.

On 16 September 2013, the salvage of the shipwreck began and by the next day, the ship was set upright on her underwater cradle.

The ship was refloated using floating tanks welded to her sides and was sent to her home port in Genoa where she was scrapped.

But during her glory days, Concordia was one of the most luxurious vessels of her class – and the biggest of all cruise ships when she entered her service.

The cruise had 1500 cabins with 505 private balconies, lavish spa rooms, and the world’s largest fitness centre that spanned across 6,002.55 square metres.

The ship also had four swimming pools, two with retractable roofs, five jacuzzis, five spas, and a poolside movie theatre on the main pool deck.

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There were also five world-class restaurants and 13 bars, including a cigar and cognac bar and a coffee and chocolate bar.

Entertainment options included a three-level theatre, a casino, a futuristic disco, a children’s area equipped with video games, and a basketball court.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission.

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PHOTOS: Carnival cruise slams into pier, damages side of ship at port

Related video: A Starlite cruise hits a bridge in St. Pete in April 2023.

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A Carnival cruise ship was left damaged Tuesday after its side slammed into the side of the pier, causing the pier fender to collapse at one of their ports.

The Carnival Magic, which departed from Florida on Sunday, was docked in Ocho Rios in Jamaica when high winds caused the pier fender to collapse, hitting the ship’s side.

Carnival said the ship docked at 8:10 a.m. in Ocho Rios, but the incident didn’t happen until 11 a.m.

In a statement to WFLA.com, Carnival Cruise Lines said: Carnival Magic was involved in an incident while in Ocho Rios, Jamaica on Tuesday morning, Feb. 6 when strong winds and swells caused the pier fender to collapse under pressure, and the ship made contact with the pier.

The cruise line said no one was injured and that all operations continued as normal.

For the safety of the guests and staff aboard, the ship left the area and docked at a nearby pier. All guests that were ashore were able to get back on the ship.

Carnival said the weather conditions caused several cruises to cancel their docking in the Grand Cayman on Wednesday.

The Magic remained in Ocho Rios on Tuesday and into Wednesday. The ship is expected to depart from Jamaica on Wednesday evening.

The Carnival Magic left Miami on Sunday. Its itinerary includes the Bimini Islands on Monday, Ocho Rios, and will return to Miami on Saturday.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.

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'ShipRocked' Cruise Hits Pier In Jamaica During High Winds

According to Cruise Hive and posts in the Cruise Critic community, a number of guests on the ShipRocked rock cruise were temporarily left behind after the Carnival Magic ship impacted and significantly damaged the pier while docking in Ocho Rios, Jamaica earlier today (Tuesday, February 6).

Carnival Magic was not originally intended to visit Ocho Rios today, but ended up in port a day earlier than initially planned due to weather-related itinerary changes.

The incident reportedly occurred when strong winds drove the vessel into the dock, causing extensive damage to the concrete structure.

Because some guests were onshore enjoying Ocho Rios at the time, it was necessary for the ship to temporarily leave them behind and move away from the damaged dock.

The ship's master, Captain La Farina , alerted the guests to the situation, as crew members were called to muster stations to respond to the emergency.

"Earlier, due to strong winds, the ship made contact with the pier, impacting a small area of the vessel," the notification read. "These wind conditions are making it unsafe for us to remain docked. So, for safety reasons, it was necessary for us to sail out to sea.

"We are now in contact with our local partners and our Fleet Operations Center and are working through plans to get our guests who are ashore back on board as soon as possible," La Farina said.

Around 4:30 p.m. PST, Rock Ambassadors Media shared an update on social media indicating that "passengers have begun to board the ship at the new dock location. Passengers expected to wait hours to board as bands begin to play on the ship."

Carnival has since released the following statement to Cruise Hive : "Carnival Magic was involved in an incident while in Ocho Rios, Jamaica on Tuesday morning, Feb. 6 when strong winds and swells caused the pier fender to collapse under pressure, and the ship made contact with the pier. The ship was alongside at 8:10 a.m. and the incident occurred at 11:00 a.m. There were no injuries, and all the ship’s services remained operational.

"The ship left the area for the safety of everyone on board and later docked at another nearby pier so that guests who went ashore Tuesday morning could rejoin the ship," the statement continued. "The guests who were ashore at the time were taken care of by the Carnival team and shore excursion partners. Given the weather conditions in the region, Carnival Magic will remain in Ocho Rios on Tuesday night. Its visit to Grand Cayman is cancelled for Wednesday."

Carnival Magic is due back in Miami on Saturday morning.

The sold-out ShipRocked cruise is a popular sailing organized by Ask4 Entertainment . The 2024 edition features headlining performances by I PREVAIL , KILLSWITCH ENGAGE , BEARTOOTH , HIGHLY SUSPECT and BADFLOWER .

Damage on ShipRocked cruise ship after Carnival Magic slammed into Jamaica pier. pic.twitter.com/L4XVJvaGgz — Heavy Consequence (@heavyconsequenc) February 7, 2024

Not a so great day SHIPROCKED, weather troubles led to damage to the boat and us stuck on land from 11 am until just after 7. Legs are so tired from standing waiting but lets hope the rest of the trip is epic. Posted by Hetti Huls on  Tuesday, February 6, 2024

ShipRocked Cruise update Posted by Nancy Oberinger on Tuesday, February 6, 2024

They’re back to pick everyone up. pic.twitter.com/cGd2EF6iPk — Ryan Proly (@ryanproly) February 6, 2024

SHIPROCKED Update: Passengers have begun to board the ship at the new dock location. Passengers expected to wait hours... Posted by Rock Ambassadors Media on  Tuesday, February 6, 2024

SHIPROCKED Update: Passengers have received no water, food, or shelter to get out of the rain. Water and food were... Posted by Rock Ambassadors Media on  Tuesday, February 6, 2024

To ShipRocked Cruise friends- Hang Tough- you’re in Jamaica. Watch your emails & ShipRocked Family Forum group for updates! #ShipRocked They had just a tiny scrape and extra time on shore today! Posted by Kelly Codner on  Tuesday, February 6, 2024

OMG. Checkout shiprocked on Carnival MAGIC Cruise LOVERS right now. They ran into and destroyed part of the dock due the high winds. Cruising With Carnival. 📸 by Erick Matty. Posted by Carnival Cruise Line Miami Blog on  Tuesday, February 6, 2024

SHIPROCKED cruise ship hits dock in Ocho Rios, Jamica creating a possible hole in the boat leaving passengers behind as they make repairs! @Triple D Photography reporting Posted by Rock Ambassadors Media on  Tuesday, February 6, 2024

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Breaking news, cruise ship chartered for ‘six terrifying nights’ event struck pier, leaving passengers stranded.

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It was cruising for a bruising.

A Carnival cruise ship chartered for a “Six Terrifying Nights of Music and Madness” event crashed with the side of a pier, leaving it banged up and many of its partygoing passengers temporarily stranded in Jamaica.

The Carnival Magic hit the pier while docked in the Caribbean island’s Ocho Rios on Tuesday when “strong winds and swells caused the pier fender to collapse under pressure” and the ship made contact with the pier at 11 a.m., a company rep told The Post in an email..

“There were no injuries, and all the ship’s services remained operational” — but it was forced to leave port, leaving many stunned passengers behind.

The Magic left the area “for the safety of everyone on board, later docked at another nearby pier and guests who went ashore rejoined the ship,” the company said.

Dyllon Price was one of the passengers shocked to see the 1,004-foot ship depart before he boarded.

“We’re watching our ship sail off into the rainstorm. We’re like — nobody knew what was happening,” Price told Fox 35 Orlando .  

Another passenger, Adam Middleton, told the outlet that his group left the ship about 8 a.m. Tuesday and got stuck on the island for almost 12 hours due to the storm before the pier incident.

“We had a couple thousand people just out in a field in the pouring rain and no shelter, no food, no drinks. I think there was one toilet,” he said after getting back on board.

“Everybody was running around, not sure what to do because they locked us out of the ship,” he added.

The company Ask4Entertainment had chartered the ship for its annual rock band trip called ShipRocked 2024, the Miami Herald reported .

It left Florida on Sunday with stops planned for Bimini, Ocho Rios and Grand Cayman with several bands scheduled to play, including I Prevail, Killswitch Engage, Beartooth and Badflower, according to the outlet.

Barbara Ligman and her husband, James, both 60 and from Fort Myers, also were on the sailing.

She said I Prevail was supposed to play at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday but a couple of its members were stuck onshore.

“We’re fine now that we’re back on the boat,” Barbara told the Herald on Wednesday. “Yesterday was just horrendous because Carnival was not communicating what was going on.”

Barbara said weather had prevented the stop in Bimini. When they arrived in Ocho Rios, “it was very windy,” she said.

“You can see right away the huge waves crashing over the pier and washing out the port,” she told the outlet. “Rocks and mud were entering the building.”

The couple got off the ship about 8:20 a.m. to go on a hike and headed back about noon — well before the 3:30 p.m. return-to-ship time — but realized it had left without them getting any alerts on their app.

“People were just standing around. Nobody telling you what’s going on,” Barbara told the Herald.

She said about 1,000 passengers were taken to a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house to wait.

“We had no idea where the boat was. We’re getting no information from Carnival,” Barbara said, adding that they finally “got an update at 6:30 p.m. that the boat is docked and ready to board” at another pier.

Carnival told the outlet that the passengers were never stranded.

“Our guests were not and would never be left behind,” it said, adding that passengers left ashore “were taken care of by the Carnival team and shore excursion partners.”

No one was hurt in the incident, which left the ship damaged.

The company said the Magic would depart from Jamaica on Wednesday night to continue its voyage.

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Out-of-control 700ft cruise ship crunches into dock at Turkish port

This is the moment a 700ft cruise ship crunched into a dock at a Turkish port after desperately trying to slow down. 

The Celestyal Journey cruise ship was making a routine arrival into the port in Kusadasi, Turkey last week when it hit the concrete pier with its bow bulb.

The crew miscalculated the speed and approached the pier too quickly, resulting in the collision, Cruise Hive reported.

Members of the vessel's 597-person crew reportedly lowered the anchor in a bid to slow the approach, but despite their efforts the ship still crashed into the pier.

The collision caused only minimal damage to the ship and pier. No injuries were reported onboard or on the shore.

The Celestyal Journey struck a pier at Kusadasi Cruise Port on Monday last week at 12pm local time while crew were trying to dock.

Passengers were still able to enjoy their day in Kusadasi, one of the most well-preserved Greco-Roman cities in the world, as planned, according to Cruise Hive. 

The port, which has eight berths for large ships, is the most popular cruise port in Turkey. Officials say the incident has not negatively impacted operations. 

Celestyal Cruises, which operates the vessel and two other ships, did not have to alter any routes following the incident.

The Celestyal Journey entered service in 1994 and initially sailed for Holland America Line as Ryndam. Celestyal Cruises acquired the cruise ship last year.

The cruise liner has 630 cabins, including 149 that feature balconies, and offers guests access to seven exclusive restaurants, and eight bars and lounges, Haber7.com reported. 

Celestyal Journey is currently sailing seven-night cruises in the Aegean Sea region until late October 2024. 

However, unlike a typical closed-loop route, the Celestyal Journey's round-trip sailings overlap, allowing guests to embark and debark in Kusadasi, as well as various cities in Greece.

Travellers can start their voyage in Heraklion, Crete Greece; Piraeus-Athens, Greece; or Thessaloniki, Greece. 

The ship's final journey in the Aegean Sea will embark on October 19 this year. It will be followed by a 14-day repositioning cruise from Athens to Doha, Qatar. 

Once it arrives in its new homeport in Doha, the Celestyal Journey will offer seven-night roundtrip sailings to the United Arab Emirates. 

MailOnline has approached Celestyal Cruises for comment. 

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Cruise ship runs aground off St. Maarten

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PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten (AP) -- A 74,000-ton cruise ship crashed into a reef off St. Maarten Tuesday. Fishermen and yachters helped ferry hundreds of passengers to safety.

"It was quite a drama this morning, but no one was hurt, and everyone is safe," said eyewitness Nicolaas Martina, who watched the rescue from the Holland House Beach Hotel overlooking Great Bay in St. Maarten, the Dutch side of the Caribbean island of St. Martin. The other side of the island is the French territory of St. Martin.The Monarch of the Sea, owned by Royal Caribbean International, ran aground near the harbor pier before dawn, said Martina, auditor of the Holland House.

It was not known how many passengers were on the cruise liner, but it is high season in the Caribbean, and the 6-year-old ship can hold 2,354 passengers, according to the company's Web site.

Martina said government officials found hotels for the stranded tourists.

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Giant cruise ship gets cut in half to make it bigger in unsettling process people didn't think was possible

That's one way to do that, i suppose....

Kit Roberts

People have been left stunned by a video showing a cruise ship being cut in half.

You might immediately think that this was due to striking a rock, or an iceberg, but in fact the ship was actually cut in half entirely on purpose.

There is, of course, a pretty obvious question around this bizarre process, and that is, of course, why on earth anyone would deliberately cut a ship in half?

It's all very cleverly done as well, with those carrying out the procedure clearly knowing exactly what they're doing.

In the clip, believed to be from 2018, the ship is sitting in a dry dock - that's a dock it can sail into before the water is drained out and the ship can be worked on.

Normally this might be to actually build the ship from scratch, then once the work is complete the dry dock is refilled with water and the ship can be towed out.

But in the case of this video they were carrying out some very different work on the ship indeed.

Which brings us back to the original question - why would you cut a ship in half on purpose?

Well, you might think it's for some sort of study, maybe the ship is being retired and they want to see the cross-section to see wear and year.

This, of course, is absolutely wrong.

That's because the ship is actually being cut in half in order to alter its size and make it bigger.

How it works is that the vessel is painstakingly and carefully bisected, including with the internal walls, and the two halves moved away from each other.

A new section which has been built to exactly match the two sections is then wheeled into place between the halves.

Workers then painstakingly attach the two halves to the new section of the ship, which in this case saw the ship being lengthened by 15 metres.

The ship was called Silver Spirit, which is owned and operated by company Silversea.

Some 500 skilled workers put in approximately 450,000 man hours to insert the mid section and stretch Silver Spirit from 195.8 to 210.7 metres.

The operation involved 846 tons of steel and 110,000 metres of cabling and 8,000 metres of piping.

After the work was finished the ship has had its capacity increased by about 12 percent.

Barbara Muckermann, chief marketing officer of Silversea, told CNN in a statement: “The lengthening and refurbishment of Silver Spirit will replicate the modern elegance of our latest vessel to make for a more luxurious traveling experience.

“We are eager to share the new and improved layout of our cherished ship with our valued guests.”

Topics:  News , World News , Travel , Technology

Kit joined UNILAD in 2023 as a community journalist. They have previously worked for StokeonTrentLive, the Daily Mirror, and the Daily Star.

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1 dead after shuttle bus crashes at a Honolulu cruise ship terminal

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HONOLULU (AP) — One person died and multiple people were injured when a shuttle bus collided with pedestrians and concrete barriers at a Honolulu cruise ship terminal, authorities said Friday.

The crash occurred when the shuttle bus driver mistook the gas pedal for the brake, Honolulu police said in statement.

The driver had dropped off customers at Pier 2 when bystanders noticed the bus was moving forward, police said. The driver jumped in the driver’s seat and attempted to stop the vehicle when he stepped on the gas, police said.

One pedestrian, a 68-year-old woman, died. Paramedics took four others in their 50s and 60s to the hospital in serious condition. They also took a man in his 70s to the hospital in stable condition.

Paramedics evaluated and bandaged six others who declined transportation to the hospital, said Honolulu Emergency Medical Services spokesperson Shayne Enright.

Police said speed does not appear to be a factor in the crash. It’s unknown if drugs or alcohol were involved, police said.