(CNN) -- It was one of the worst passenger ship disasters since the sinking of the Titanic a century ago. On January 13, the Costa Concordia was sailing a few hundred meters off the rocky Tuscan coastline of the island of Giglio.
The ship, nearly the length of three football fields, rammed into a bed of rocks around 9:45 p.m. Within minutes, the massive vessel began to tilt, as water rushed into the engine rooms through a gash some 50 meters long. The crippled ship, without power or propulsion, drifted onward a few miles before turning toward the small harbor on the island and coming to rest on rocks nearby.
Thirty-two people from eight countries -- both crew and passengers -- died. Many more barely escaped in the hours after the Concordia came to rest on its side, tilting ever closer to the sea. Countless survivors told CNN the same story -- they had received little or no safety training after boarding the ship, whether in Barcelona several days earlier or at a port near Rome just hours before the disaster. International guidelines at the time recommended a safety drill within 24 hours of embarkation, but the disaster came well before that period had elapsed for the 600 who stepped on board in Rome.
Multiple passengers who spoke to CNN and other media said they didn't know where to gather during the emergency. The common refrain: It was chaos, every passenger for him or herself. Some said that when they asked crew members for help, they got blank stares.
Nearly six months later, lessons learned that night have brought changes to safety and evacuation procedures in the cruise industry. Carnival, the parent line of Costa, and several other cruise lines now require safety instruction, referred to as muster drills, before leaving port. The new muster policy consists of 12 specific emergency instructions, which include providing information on when and how to don a life jacket, where to muster and what to expect if there is an evacuation of the ship.
No comments:
Post a Comment