/Portals/2/logos/__TFMF_xnsyke55kvkltk45lwijsc45_9ac65d55-1454-41c1-8ef3-e40f17a902b9_0___Selected.jpg en-us Copyright 2008 - All Rights Reserved. Wed, 22 May 2013 09:08:51 GMT 15 By Hunter Martinez

The fall of the Concordia As the Costa Concordia ran its normal procedures, passengers were boarding in anticipation of a lovely cruise, unaware that their vacation would go horribly wrong. The ship sailed on Friday evening at 7pm from an Italian port bound for a Mediterranean cruise. On the way to its Savona port, the Concordia tragedy began to unfold. First, some U.S. citizens said this trip was different from other cruises because the crew did not inform passengers about the customary muster stations. A muster station is where a person is to report for accounting purposes in case of an emergency. Second, instead of following the proper shipping lane, the captain went off course for a pass by the island of Giglio to show off the ship to his cousin. The Concordia hit a coral reef four miles off course causing damage to the engine room. The crew was telling all the passengers to remain calm and that it was an electrical problem. At 10.30 pm the ship ran aground on the island Giglio. Before the Concordia ran aground, Captain Francesco Schettino disembarked the ship. Fifteen minutes after the ship ran aground, the crew declared an official abandon ship order. There was only one side of the ship that was operational, and because it was leaning so badly, the life boats could not deploy. Some passengers and crew had to make a life or death decision that night to jump nearly one hundred feet down into the twenty-eight-degree sea or else die on board. Water at that temperature can cause hypothermia in less than five minutes. However more than all the left over passengers jumped in swimming to land even though the ship was only a few hundred feet away. After several weeks of searching, it is still unclear how many people died or are still missing. The Concordia’s captain is currently awaiting trial for violation of maritime law that requires the captain to organize and facilitate rescue operations while staying with the crew and passengers. (source: ]]> Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:58:46 GMT