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Title: The End of Costa Concordia
Tags: costa concordia francesco schettino cruise disaster death
Blog Entry: The Costa Concordia cruise ship was the first Concordia class ship to be made and launched for luxury cruises. Run by the Costa Crociere subsidiary, the Costa Concordia met its end in January of 2012 when it struck a rock near the coast of Italy. This collision tore a hole into the ship which flooded it with water and lead to it capsizing. The event was a complete disaster and lead to the death of 32 people. The ship was unable to be saved or recovered and is at risk of completely sinking as time goes on. Experts believe that the ship is a total loss and cannot be salvaged by any means due to its size, weight, and the extent of the damage. The captain of the ship, Captain Francesco Schettino, came under heavy criticism when he abandoned ship before anyone else had an opportunity to and later reported to the press that he had accidentally fallen into a life boat and gotten to safety; a highly unlikely story that drew the ire of everyone as a blatant lie and a show of cowardice. The crash was caused when the captain of the ship took full control nearing land but did not notice a large rock that the ship could not avert away from. The captain attempted to veer the ship away from the rock but there just was not enough time or clearance to do so, which lead to the collision and destruction of the ship. The ship is currently resting on the seabed located near Giglio Porto, Italy but it is slipping further and further away from the coast and deeper into the water, where it will eventually become fully submerged. Schettino was not entirely honest or willing to admit the degree to which the entire even was a disaster and lied to the coastguard when they began to ask what was happening. The entire evacuation process took upwards of six hours but the captain fled after the first. During the evacuation there was a shortage of life boats for the over 4,200 passengers and crewmembers. Over 300 individuals were stranded on the boat and had to be rescued by helicopters and motorboats. There was a deep concern during the entire ordeal that the ship was going to slip into a nearby trench and be fully submerged. If it had, not only would it have taken anyone still on the boat with it, the force of the ship sinking may have dragged lifeboats nearby with it.