The captain took a cruise ship close to the rocks to salute an island. The bridge team let him.
On the evening of 13 January 2012 the cruise ship Costa Concordia, with more than 4,000 people on board, struck rocks off the island of Giglio, Italy, during a deliberate close pass of the coast. She lost power, drifted, grounded and capsized against the shore. 32 people died.
Words in this case
- passage plan
- The planned route, courses and dangers for the voyage.
- helm order
- The command to the helmsman: "port ten", "hard-a-starboard", "midships".
- general emergency alarm
- Seven short blasts and one long: go to your muster station.
- muster
- To gather at the assigned station; the count that follows.
- abandon ship
- The order to leave the vessel in survival craft, given by the master.
More words like these in the glossary and in listening practice.
What happened
The master decided to pass very close to Giglio as a salute, at night, at about 16 knots, steering by eye. The bridge team knew the plan and did not challenge it; the position was not being monitored with the care that a pass a few hundred metres from rocks required. The ship struck a rock that opened her port side over a length of about 50 metres; the engine rooms flooded and she lost propulsion and power.
For more than an hour the passengers were told that there was an electrical problem and to return to their cabins, while the ship drifted, listed and grounded again close to the shore. The general emergency alarm and the order to abandon ship came late, when the list was already making the boats on one side impossible to launch. Many people got ashore by lifeboat, by raft or by being rescued from the tilted hull through the night. 32 died.
The Italian investigation found the decision to sail close to the coast and the poor navigation the direct causes, and the delay of the evacuation and the weak organisation on the bridge the reasons the accident became a disaster. The master left the ship before the evacuation was complete and was later convicted.
Why it happened
- A deliberate close pass of a rocky coast at night at speed, navigated by eye without a proper plan.
- Nobody on the bridge challenged the master; the bridge team functioned as spectators.
- The emergency alarm and the abandon ship order came more than an hour after the impact; the list then prevented launching the boats on one side.
- Passengers were given false reassurance instead of instructions.
- In the last seconds before the impact a helm order was misunderstood by the helmsman, whose English was limited, and carried out late; the investigators judged that by then the rocks could probably no longer be avoided, but it shows what weak English at the wheel means at the worst moment.
What to remember on board
- Any deviation from the passage plan close to danger is planned, briefed and monitored, or it does not happen.
- Challenge and response is a duty of every officer on the bridge, in plain words: "Captain, this is too close."
- After a serious impact, assume flooding: sound the alarm, muster, and prepare the boats while the ship is upright.
- Tell passengers what to do, not what you hope is true.
What changed afterwards
Cruise operators and the IMO tightened rules on passage planning, muster drills before departure and bridge access; the case is now taught worldwide as a failure of bridge resource management and emergency leadership.
Three questions
The kind of questions a knowledge test asks about this case. Keys 1 to 4 answer, Enter goes on.
Read more
Source: Cruise ship Costa Concordia, marine casualty on 13 January 2012, report on the safety technical investigation, Ministry of Infrastructures and Transports, Italy, Marine Casualties Investigative Body, 2013.
On this site: Passenger ships ยท Muster list.
Plain-English summary of an official investigation report. Facts and findings are the investigators'; the wording is ours. Nothing here is legal advice or a substitute for the report itself.