dateline cruise ship sinking

'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.

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'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.”

Dateline Survivor: Miracle on the Wild Coast

• Episode aired May 23, 2010

A harrowing, dramatic story of heroism at sea after a cruise ship starts to take on water and sink with nearly 600 people on board. Almost every moment of the crisis was captured on home vid... Read all A harrowing, dramatic story of heroism at sea after a cruise ship starts to take on water and sink with nearly 600 people on board. Almost every moment of the crisis was captured on home video. How did the passengers survive after some crew members abandoned ship? A harrowing, dramatic story of heroism at sea after a cruise ship starts to take on water and sink with nearly 600 people on board. Almost every moment of the crisis was captured on home video. How did the passengers survive after some crew members abandoned ship?

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Costa Concordia Shipwreck Survivor Tales On Dateline

by 2Paragraphs in Culture | March 1, 2015

On January 13, 2012 the Costa Concordia was wrecked off the coast of Isola del Giglio. The ship, under command of Captain Francesco Schettino , struck a rock in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The wreck tore a gash on her hull which caused flooding in the engine room, resulting in power loss. “International maritime law requires all passengers to be evacuated within 30 minutes of an order to abandon ship,” but in the case of the Costa Concordia it took more than 6 hours and not all passengers were evacuated. There were 4,252 people on the ship. About 300 passengers were left on board after the evacuation, most of whom were rescued by helicopter or motorboats in the area. 32 people died. Captain Schettino left the ship prematurely.

[ Guilty Costa Concordia Captain Schettino Remains Free ]

On 11 February 2015, Schettino was found guilty of manslaughter of 32 passengers and was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Now six of the survivors of the Costa Corcordia shipwreck are talking about their experiences with American TV network NBC. The three-part documentary series, Escape , will air Sunday, March 1 at 9pm on NBC’s Dateline.

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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. 

Read a chapter from Benji's memoir of his escape from the Concordia

Abandoned Ship

An intimate account of the costa concordia shipwreck, by benji smith, chapter one.

The stars were beautiful that night.

Though, of course, we didn’t notice the stars at all until much later.

On January 13, 2012, at about 9:45 in the evening, the Costa Concordia cruise ship crashed into a reef and sank just off the coast of Giglio, a tiny island in the Mediterranean Sea.Emily and I were passengers on that ship. It was our honeymoon.Both of us wore lightweight jackets — much too thin for the coldness of the winter wind blowing across the hull of the ship — and neither of us had any socks.

It hadn't occurred to us at the beginning of the disaster that the ship would really sink, or that we’d have to wait five hours to be rescued. In our minds, it was probably just a drill, or maybe a temporary glitch, so we didn’t dress for the occasion orgather up any of our belongings. We thought we’d spend fifteen minutes at our emergency “musterstation” and then return to our cabin to enjoy the rest of our voyage.But this was no drill. It was the real thing.And we didn’t escape on the lifeboats.

The ship had listed too severely to one side, and our own lifeboat couldn’t be lowered to the water without getting stuck, or flipping over, or crashing into the side of the cruise liner.Or maybe the crew just didn’t know how to deploy it. We couldn’t tell the difference, and it didn’t really matter anyhow. They seemed just as scared and confused as the rest of us. Eventually they gave up trying, and we all got back on the ship.We had been abandoned. Left behind to die.By that point, all the working lifeboats had long since gone, and with them most of the passengers and crew.

The ship was sinking. Fast.

We could feel it moving beneath us, being sucked into the sea at an accelerating pace, as though pulled toward its doom by some enormous undersea monster with ten thousand tentacles and a voracious appetite. The starboard side flooded first, and the ship leaned hard to the right. Tables and chairs overturned,leaving broken glass everywhere, and the walls became floors. As the staircases flooded with water, we stayed on the outside of the ship along the perimeter, searching for safety.Ultimately, we climbed over the railing and used a sequence of ropes to lower ourselves down the outer hull of the ship.

The windows of the cabins on the lower decks gave us footholds until we got down tothe lowest part of the hull, the part that would usually be underwater if the ship had been upright.It was at this point, with nowhere further to go, that we waited for the ship to finally finish sinking.

I told Emily that I loved her. She kissed me. I sang her a song. We cried a little.

With one hand each,we held onto the rope. And with the other hand, we held each other.And then we waited.We didn’t know whether the ship would finish sinking before we could be rescued, but we felt in our hearts that either our rescue or our demise was imminent. Beneath us, the ship lurched and moaned,collapsing into the gaping mouth of the sea. Things were moving so quickly, there was so much adrenaline, so much movement, and water all around us…And then nothing happened.

An hour passed. Then another hour.The ship stopped sinking. The rescue boats didn’t rescue anyone.We waited.And while we waited, we noticed the stars. The cloudless nighttime sky was bright with starlight, and under that illumination, we looked into each other’s faces and saw some measure of hope. We sang songs in the moonlight. We cried a little, out of relief and hope and exhaustion and despair.We told jokes. Crazy morbid jokes.

And we held onto the rope.This book tells the story of our escape from that sinking ship.But I’m also going to tell the story of the institutions that failed us. The cruise company. The Italian police. The U.S. and Chinese Embassies. The major news networks. The United States Congress.In every case, they ignored and dismissed us. One after another, they shrugged their shoulders at our safety and turned their backs on our well being.We entrusted them with our lives and with our stories and with the pursuit of justice, and one after another, they broke that trust and left us to fend for ourselves.

And we did fend for ourselves.Not just Emily and me, but also our family and friends, and the four thousand strangers who became our brothers and sisters in the midst of this tragedy. We fought hard to escape, and now we’re fighting hard to tell our story. When the news media edited our story into sound bites and ignored the institutional failures, we vowed to take the story back from them and tell it ourselves. This book is my humble attempt.But this is also a spiritual book. Not because it’s a religious book — we’re not religious people — but because the characters and events in this story represent a microcosm of humanity. A morality play on the sea. Probably more than anything else, this is a book about islands of compassion in a sea of indifference. Finally, this is a story about an astonishing journey. A journey that took us someplace unexpected —like all important journeys do — and then changed our lives forever.

Sometimes a physical journey becomes a spiritual journey. Sometimes you visit a place, and it changes you. But a ll spiritual journeys are physical journeys, because you can’t get outside yourself unless you leave the house first.Sometimes you embark upon a journey deliberately, but most of the time, the journey is thrust upon you.

This is our journey.

You can purchase the rest of 'Abandoned Ship' on Amazon , Barnes & Noble , and iBooks .

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Dateline: Unforgettable: Where Was Micki Kanesaki’s Body Found?

Dateline: Unforgettable will chronicle Micki Kanesaki’s tragic murder case while she was on a cruise. The episode is titled “Open Water” and it will air on Oxygen this Wednesday, November 22, 2023, at 8 p.m. ET .

The official synopsis says, “A Mediterranean cruise meant to rekindle the love between a woman and her ex-husband leads to her disappearance; the investigation reveals secret recordings and an undercover hitman; Josh Mankiewicz reflects on the cold-blooded crime.”

In May 2006, Micki Kanesaki went on a cruise with her ex-husband, Lonnie Kocontes, but she strangely went missing. The duo was reportedly reconnecting at the time. Two days later, a research vessel crew found her body floating off the coast of Paola, Italy, in the Mediterranean Sea. A subsequent autopsy revealed that the 53-year-old died of strangulation.

Micki Kanesaki’s killer: Who murdered her and why?

According to Sportskeeda, Micki Kanesaki boarded the cruise ship with her ex-husband and former Irvine lawyer Lonnie Kocontes on May 21, 2006. She went missing in the early hours of May 26. Kocontes claimed they spent the night together before he took a sleeping pill and went to sleep. He even suggested that she might have fallen overboard.

U.S. Sun reported that as per NBC Los Angeles, a research vessel crew found Kanesaki’s body in the Mediterranean Sea near Italy on May 28. The 52-year-old’s cause of death was later declared to be strangulation. Moreover, the autopsy stated that her lungs “were completely free of water” and she had “severe hemorrhaging around her neck, consistent with strangulation.”

The outlet further reported that the ex-husband, Lonnie Kocontes, “strangled the victim before throwing her overboard.” This was confirmed by Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. He further mentioned that “there was no way for her lungs to fill up with water.” Hence, “the body floated instead of sinking, allowing it to be found.”

According to NBC Los Angeles , Kanesaki and Kocontes had divorced in 2002 but were disputing over the sale of their Ladera Ranch home. Senior Deputy District Attorney Susan Price alleged that before the murder, “Kocontes then had new wills drawn up for himself and Kanesaki.” He was the executor of the victim’s estate when she died.

In June 2020, the case against Kocontes resulted in his conviction “with a special-circumstance allegation of murder for financial gain.” That same year, in September, he received a life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole. The New York Post stated that he committed the crime to inherit up to $1 million, as per the Orange County DA Office.

The post Dateline: Unforgettable: Where Was Micki Kanesaki’s Body Found? appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More .

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10 years later, Costa Concordia disaster vivid for survivors

FILE — The luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia lays on its starboard side after it ran aground off the coast of the Isola del Giglio island, Italy on Jan. 13, 2012. Italy is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Giuseppe Modesti)

FILE— The grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia is seen through a window on the Isola del Giglio island, Italy, Friday, Feb. 3, 2012. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

FILE— Oil removal ships near the cruise ship Costa Concordia leaning on its side Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, after running aground near the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, last Friday night. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

FILE— The Costa Concordia ship lies on its side on the Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, Italy, Monday, Sept. 16, 2013. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

FILE— A sunbather gets her tan on a rock during the operations to refloat the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia on the tiny Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, Italy, Saturday, July 19, 2014. Once the ship has refloated it will be towed to Genoa’s port, about 200 nautical miles (320 kilometers), where it will be dismantled. 30 months ago it struck a reef and capsized, killing 32 people. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

FILE— The wrecked hulk of the Costa Concordia cruise ship is towed along the Tyrrhenian Sea, 30 miles off the coast of Viareggio, Italy, Friday, July 25, 2014. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Fabio Muzzi)

FILE— A view of the previously submerged side of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, off the coast of the Tuscan Island of Giglio, Italy, Monday, Jan. 13, 2014. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

FILE— A passenger from South Korea, center, walks with Italian Firefighters, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012, after being rescued from the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia which ran aground on the tiny Italian island of Isola del Giglio. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

FILE— A woman hangs her laundry as the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia is seen in the background, off the Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap.(AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

FILE— In this photo taken on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012, Francesco Schettino, right, the captain of the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia, which ran aground off the tiny Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, is taken into custody by Carabinieri in Porto Santo Stefano, Italy. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Giacomo Aprili)

Experts aboard a sea platform carry oil recovery equipment, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, as they return to the port of the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, where the cruise ship Costa Concordia, visible in background, ran aground on Ja. 13, 2012. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

FILE— Seagulls fly in front of the grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia off the Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, Italy, Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

FILE— Italian firefighters conduct search operations on the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia that ran aground the tiny Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Italy on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, is marking the 10th anniversary of the Concordia disaster with a daylong commemoration, honoring the 32 people who died but also the extraordinary response by the residents of Giglio who took in the 4,200 passengers and crew from the ship on that rainy Friday night and then lived with the Concordia carcass for another two years before it was hauled away for scrap. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

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GIGLIO, Italy (AP) — 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.

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.

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.

Ortelli was later on hand when, in September 2013, the 115,000-ton, 300-meter (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.”

Winfield reported from Rome.

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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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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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Former Attorney Lures Ex-Wife onto Cruise, Then Throws Her Body Overboard

She thought it was the vacation of a lifetime, but  Micki Kanesaki would never survive the Italian cruise with her ex-husband. 

When Micki Kanesaki boarded the Island Escape for a breathtaking Italian cruise, she believed she was rekindling her romance with ex-husband Lonnie Kocontes . 

How to Watch

Catch up on Dateline: Unforgettable on Peacock or the Oxygen App .

But the trip would cost her life. 

Micki disappeared from the boat on May 26, 2006, according to Oxygen’s Dateline: Unforgettable . It could have been a tragic accident or a decision by Micki to take her own life, but after her body was discovered the next day floating in the Mediterranean Sea, a medical examiner would reach a chilling conclusion: The 52-year-old had been murdered. 

To bring the murderer to justice, however, would take years and involve an investigation that used undercover tactics and relied on help from some unexpected sources. 

Who was Micki Kanesaki?

Micki Kanesaki’s trip on another boat decades earlier had completely transformed her life. In 1960, Micki traveled from Japan with her family to their new home in the United States.

RELATED: "He Swept Me Off My Feet": Debra Newell Describes Falling for "Dirty John" Conman

“Micki was maybe 5 or 6 and I was 8,” her brother Toshi Kanesaki recalled. “I think when you’re that young, we’re here in this strange country, but it’s kind of fun and exciting.” 

As an adult, Micki went on to work as a secretary at a high-powered law firm in Los Angeles. 

”Micki was smart, beautiful, had a great sense of humor,” her coworker Susan White recalled.  

It was at the law firm that Micki met “fireball” attorney Lonnie Kocontes and a romance blossomed. The couple bought a house together in Orange County, California and got married in 1995. 

“He was charming. She definitely thought that,” her niece Julie Saranita told Dateline reporter Josh Mankiewicz . “I think she liked that he had similar interests, that he was a hard worker and she appreciated that.” 

But not long after the couple tied the knot, the marriage began to crumble. Micki told coworkers Lonnie was controlling, especially when it came to the couple’s finances. Six years after they said “I do,” the couple got divorced and Lonnie moved to a downtown apartment near his office.

How did Micki Kanesaki die?

But in 2006, the pair were hoping to give their relationship another shot. 

“He said he was going to change, he was going to work less, and things were going to be better,” Sanarita said. “She was just so happy.” 

RELATED: "What Do You Feel Like Today?" Serial Killers Trolled California Streets Together for Next Victim

Lonnie even purchased tickets for a Mediterranean cruise. They had been planning to make the voyage with another couple, their close friends Bill Price and Susan McQueen, but when Susan’s mom needed a sudden surgery their guests were forced to drop out of the vacation. 

Just two days into the cruise, Micki vanished. Lonnie would later tell the FBI that he and Micki had enjoyed some wine back in their room, before she left to go find some herbal tea. He took an Ambien and went to sleep and when he woke up around 4:30 a.m. on May 26, 2006, Micki still hadn’t returned. 

“He was alarmed, so he went looking for her,” FBI agent Rick Simpson said. 

The crew on the boat were notified and searched the vessel but there was no sign of Micki anywhere. The Italian Coast Guard began to search the open water for any sign of the missing 52-year-old. 

“Such a search is very challenging and very difficult because when a person disappears in open waters it’s very difficult to find a body,” Italian journalist Marco Grasso explained.

The  cruise ship docked in Naples and was scheduled to head out later that night. Lonnie packed his suitcase and Micki’s belongings and disembarked from the ship. He called his close friends Bill Price and Susan McQueen, who happened to run their own private investigations firm. They said he seemed scared and panicked on the phone.

“He was claiming that he was being treated unjustly, that no one spoke English and that everyone was just being mean to him, treating him as if he had done something wrong,” McQueen remembered. “He was a disheveled mess and he was acting fearful.” 

They decided it might be best for Lonnie to leave the country and Price booked him a ticket back to the United States less than 48 hours after his ex-wife disappeared. 

By the afternoon of May 27, 2008, Lonnie had already flown home when a scientific research boat discovered Micki’s body floating in the Mediterranean Sea. 

RELATED: Was Tracey Roberts a Heroic Mom Who Saved Her Kids From Intruders or a Cold-Blooded Killer?

The autopsy, conducted on June 16, concluded that Micki had been murdered. Her body was badly bruised, especially at the base of her neck, suggesting she had been strangled. Even more telling, there was no water discovered in her lungs, meaning that Micki was already dead before she entered the water.

Who killed Micki Kanesaki?

From the beginning suspicion fell on Lonnie, who had been the last known person to see his ex-wife alive. Since the crime happened to an American citizen overseas, it automatically came under the jurisdiction of the FBI to investigate. 

The FBI asked Micki’s niece to secretly record her phone conversations with Lonnie and she noticed something disturbing. Lonnie repeatedly referred to his ex-wife as “the body” during their talks, rather than use her name or call her his wife. 

“He was fixated on the condition of the body, he said multiple times, ‘I need to see the body, I need the condition of the body, I don’t know what’s going on with the body,’” Saranita recalled. 

Price, a former police officer from Washington D.C., and McQueen had been staunch supporters of their close friend from the beginning, but there were several details of the case that troubled them. 

Price learned that after Micki disappeared, Lonnie flew home to California and immediately went to visit a girlfriend — who had also once been married to him — Amy Nguyen. 

When they arranged for him to take a lie detector test to clear his name, Lonnie failed it. But it was a conversation they had with Nguyen in January 2009 that would remove any doubt about their suspicions.

RELATED: Who Really Killed Teresa Halbach? Dateline Dives into the Controversial Steven Avery Case

Nguyen, whose relationship with Lonnie had soured, told the couple that Lonnie had planned to kill his ex-wife on the cruise ship. 

“Her fear told me she was telling the truth with us,” McQueen told the show.

They recorded the conversation and passed it to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, but Nguyen initially refused to cooperate with authorities. She eventually agreed to cooperate after she was given immunity for previous false testimony she had given at a grand jury.

Was Lonnie Kocontes convicted of murder? 

Lonnie was arrested and charged with Micki’s murder. 

As for a possible motive? Simpson discovered that Lonnie inherited the couple’s nearly $2 million estate upon Micki’s death.

The largely circumstantial case finally went before a jury in 2020, but was briefly delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. After a judge ruled the trial needed to continue, Lonnie took the stand himself in his own defense, describing Micki as having a volatile temper and denying harming his ex-wife.

RELATED: Graduate Student's Fatal Shooting Reveals A Secret Affair, But Who Is The Killer?

He also claimed that Nguyen had been lying and denied ever telling her he wanted to harm Micki.

But a jury wouldn’t buy his story. He was convicted of first-degree murder for financial gain and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. 

“I’ve reported on plenty of cold blooded crimes committed by husbands and wives but this murder was especially heinous because Lonnie convinced Micki that their Mediterranean cruise was going to remake their marriage, when in fact, it was going to end her life,” Mankiewicz said of what made the case unforgettable.

Dateline: Unforgettable

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Ten years on, Costa Concordia shipwreck still haunts survivors, islanders

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Philip Pullella reported from Rome; Additional reporting by Yara Nardi, writing by Philip Pullella; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise

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Georgian security forces used water cannon, tear gas and stun grenades against protesters outside parliament late on Tuesday, sharply escalating a crackdown after lawmakers debated a "foreign agents" bill which is viewed by the opposition and Western nations as authoritarian and Russian-inspired.

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MTS Oceanos: When vigilante action saved 220 souls from tragedy

Guest writer: daniel thomas.

Travellers usually relax knowing that cruise companies operate with stringent safety measures. But what if staff don’t follow protocol when disaster strikes? This is the story of MTS Oceanos. Brace yourselves

When Moss and Tracy Hills noticed the crew of MTS Oceanos hastily packing up their personal effects and slinging on their lifejackets, something was clearly – and seriously – wrong. The married couple, both musicians from Zimbabwe, had embarked upon the MTS Oceanos as cruise entertainers several days prior, where the start of an ill-fated final voyage to Durban, South Africa, had unravelled like a bad omen. An anonymous bomb threat had delayed departure from the UK’s East London port, while a seasick organist had disrupted a wedding ceremony held onboard. The bride very nearly didn’t wear white.

However, worst of all was the weather. Conditions had been grim for days, significantly worsening by August 3, with 40-knot winds and 30-foot swells assailing the French-built, Greek-owned luxury cruise liner as it put to sea. The sail-away party was moved from the open deck to the cruise lounge, while progressively harsher weather caused several accidents during dinner service. As diners grimaced upon watching their meal disappear from the waiter’s grasp and onto the thick carpet, many felt the voyage was cursed. Still, at first, it seemed that there was no cause for alarm.

The Oceanos had weathered similar conditions before and had a 250-strong crew to support its complement of 581 passengers. Yiannis Avranas, the ship’s captain, had thirty years of experience at sea, twenty of which serving as an officer.

Nobody could have predicted that it would be the Hills, among others, who would help save the lives of everyone onboard.

MTS Oceanos: Prelude to disaster

Night fell, and as the ship moved along the Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape Province, south of Coffee Bay, the Hills began noticing signs of flooding and panicked behaviour from the crew around 8.45pm.

Other eyewitnesses reported similar incidents across the ship in the subsequent half hour. Finally, at approximately 9.30pm, a muffled explosion was heard in the engine room.

In later investigations, a general condition of neglect and unaddressed technical issues emerged. More seriously, non-return valves in the waste disposal system had been scrapped but not replaced.

Worryingly, a 10-inch hole had been left in the bulkhead between the engine room and the sewerage tank. This led to rapid flooding when an unfitted pipe burst from the impact of a strong wave. The engine room flooded, and the generators shorted out, cutting power to the ship.

Worse was to come. Sea water coursed uncontrollably through the gap in the bulkhead, filling the waste tank and the lack of non-return valves sent the water up the main drainage pipes, flooding every outlet connected to the system. The ship was stricken and, once the engines stopped, she began to list alarmingly.

Passengers had by this time gathered in the lounge for the evening show, but they soon began to realise that something was dangerously amiss. Ships often churn about in choppy seas, but a constant slant to one side could only spell trouble. Yet, the crew were largely mute about what was going on.

Thank God for entertainment

The crew and officers began their preparations to abandon ship, starting as they meant to continue – sloppily. Their conduct provided evidence showcasing a blatant disregard for maritime procedure. Lower deck portholes were left unsecured while many passengers were left uninformed of the flooding several hours after the ship’s doomsday had started.

In the face of this abdication of responsibility, salvation for the vessel’s passengers would come from an unlikely source – the ship’s musicians and entertainers.

Moss and Tracy began to investigate any suspected flooding, along with Julian Butler; a stage magician and comedian. Butler and Moss entered the lower decks, below the waterline, to find a sealed bulkhead door and further signs of serious flooding.

Informing Lorraine Betts, the cruise director, of what they’d seen, they watched the crew organise lifeboat departures of women, children and themselves.

Senior officers were frantically piling onto the boats, after failing to issue a general alarm. The captain maintained that the ship was not in danger of sinking.

The Hills confirmed with video evidence that the captain and officers were lying about the condition of the Oceanos, but they had no time to confront anyone. Evacuation of the lifeboats had begun while the Hills, Betts, Butler, comedian Robin Boltman, and other entertainers and cruise staff (including the primarily Filipino kitchen and cabin crew), pitched in to assist.

Amid the exodus of the crew and the absence of effective on-deck leadership, the entertainers and cooks worked hard to minimise panic and maintain order among passengers.

Leaving passengers stranded onboard

Boltman played music in the lounge to calm the passengers, alongside cabaret performer Alvin Collinson. In Collinson’s telling, at one point, he began playing “American Pie”, only to realise that his next line would be “this’ll be the day that I die” – and, with this, he hastily switched to a different song.

The evacuation proved difficult and unsafe. Besides dealing with unsecured lifeboats, the dark and the hazardous conditions hampered progress, while jammed emergency exits and a lack of trained personnel onboard made for rough going.

To make matters worse, the lifeboats that had been launched by the officers - only partially full in their hurry to abandon ship – left 220 people stranded onboard after the last boat had departed.

By this point, Betts, the Hills, and several other passengers had virtually assumed total authority on-deck. They decided to try and access the bridge. With no assistance from onboard maritime professionals, 220 souls now depended on the vigilante action of the ship’s entertainers.

Operating the radio phone, Moss managed to successfully contact nearby vessels, and a rescue effort began. Passing ships broadcast the MTS Oceanos' coordinates far and wide, while Moss coordinated with Captain Detmar of a nearby container ship - Nedlloyd Mauritius.

Upon telling Captain Detmar that he was a guitarist with zero maritime experience, Moss recalls hearing a short pause on the phone before the “extremely supportive” captain came back, relaying technical advice.

The captain bails

Three hours after trouble kicked-off, a flight of helicopters - 13 Pumas from the South African Defence Force – arrived to commence an airlift operation. Multiple eyewitnesses, including the Hills, report Captain Avranas boarding one of the first choppers, long before the vast majority of the passengers had been rescued.

The captain would later insist he’d only left to better plan the evacuation. Naturally, his claims were met with an uproar of criticism and scathing judgement.

Even with the assistance of two South African naval divers, the airlifts were no easier for the Hills than loading the lifeboats. Passengers were sent sliding across the steeply pitched deck, or worse still, injured in collisions with the ship’s hull. All the while, the Oceanos was sinking lower and lower.

At one point, an inflatable boat – crewed by Butler and a diver – was dispatched to rescue a number of frightened people who, out of sheer desperation, had jumped into the ocean. But Moss and Tracy met the task, setting up evacuation stations on both the fore and aft decks, tying ropes to make improvised handrails, strapping passengers into harnesses and organising them into queues.

Somehow, eventually, they made it. Every single passenger and crew member was evacuated by either air or sea. Despite the calamity, the Oceanos did not suffer a single casualty.

Moss and Tracy Hills were among the last to be evacuated from the ship, alongside the Filipino cooks, following one of modern maritime history’s most successful rescue operations.

The MTS Oceanos finally flounders

At 3.30pm on August 4, having been abandoned to her fate following the rescue of her passengers, the MTS Oceanos finally sank beneath the waves. Her stern turned to the sky amid a crucible of pounding waves and turquoise waters, coming to rest nearly 100 metres beneath the raging Agulhas Current.

Exhausted and disorientated, survivors of the doomed cruise ship stepped out blinking into the spotlight of the international press. An American news crew had captured the dramatic final moments of the Oceanos while the sinking was reported from Johannesburg to Baltimore.

The Hills were reunited with their 15-year-old daughter, Amber, and hailed by passengers and their fellow entertainers for their efforts.

Moss would briefly become something of a minor regional celebrity, the civilian musician who had helped save hundreds of lives at sea. A South African newspaper ran an editorial cartoon depicting the sinking, captioned: “Attention, attention- this is your lead guitarist speaking”.

The Hills eventually moved to Liverpool, where Moss would later become a cruise director himself.

The aftermath

Avranas, on the other hand, would be pilloried – condemned as the captain who abandoned his crew, his passengers and his ship – on the testimony of multiple unrelated eyewitnesses.

Investigated by the South African Ministry of Transport and found negligent by a Greek inquiry, the captain was never held personally liable for the disaster or charged with any crime. His employer, Epirotiki Line, later assigned him as captain of a ferry until his retirement.

The sinking of the Oceanos was certainly a disaster – but not a tragedy. For those passengers abandoned by Captain and crew , profound gratitude was offered to the South African authorities for their prompt rescue – but the heroes were undoubtedly the band of quick-thinking entertainers.

As they say, not all heroes wear capes, or – in this case – cruise uniforms.

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Sinking of the Oceanos 1991

By surf cruiser , May 23, 2010 in Royal Caribbean International

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surf cruiser

Tonight on Dateline(NBC) they are doing a special about the sinking of the Greek cruise ship, Oceanos, and the survivors from 8-4-91. Other information if you google or youtube it.

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This is an amazing story -- if they're doing a new story maybe something new has happened -- like maybe the captain will finally be prosecuted :confused:

Really is an unbelievable story this was. I cannot believe the captain left everyone there. Thats insane.

Thank you for posting this. I'll be watching tonight

BroncosFan2010

What an amazing story. It shows how important it is to do the muster drills.

Wow, I don't remember hearing about this story. Thanks for the post.

Good reminder! I just happened to see a tv commercial about it coming on and then I googled the story. Hard to believe that could happen.

bionicman97

Thanks for posting.

Thanks for posting. This is on right now. The 5 minutes I've seen so far looks to be a bit different from other shows I've seen showing the the sinking of this ship.

Wow. This is crazy.

Watching right now.

Watching right now too. Scary!

gadaboutgal

What an incredible story!!

Captain calls from shore to check in, that was nice of him. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Maybe when it was all over, all the passengers got $50 obc for the next cruise ;)

kharrison__15

Wow! I had never heard of this. It was very interesting to watch - thank you for posting! How amazing that everyone survived! :eek:

I liked when he said that an abandon ship signal does not have a timeline; if the guests want to stay on board, that is up to them. But when he says abandon ship, he's getting the heck out of dodge!

Like they're just going to hang out at the buffet for a while longer while the captain abandons them!

He also said he could lead the rescue effort better from shore. :rolleyes:

I liked when he said that an abandon ship signal does not have a timeline; if the guests want to stay on board, that is up to them. But when he says abandon ship, he's getting the heck out of dodge!   Like they're just going to hang out at the buffet for a while longer while the captain abandons them!   He also said he could lead the rescue effort better from shore. :rolleyes:

Yeah, I can't believe he says this stuff on camera. :eek:

Must be sinking ship night, on Biography channel they are currently running an "I Survived" about the crew of a ferry abandoning the boat and it's passengers as it starts to sink.

lady_cruiser

I watched it last night and it was an interesting story. And just knowing that everyone survived is a miracle, as the title says.

Watched this an what an amazing outcome. Talk about a chickens%*$ captain. Can't imagine him ever holding that position again.

. . . Can't imagine him ever holding that position again.

I sure hope he doesn't.

spencercoop

I saw this last night. It was very interesting.

I couldn't believe he said it either. The whole thing was horrible, but when he said that the hair on the back of my neck stood up. What an arrogant, coldhearted person.

It is a miracle that everyone on board survived.

The captain and crew should face the firing squad. COWARDS.

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