Editorial: Seconds to terror

Reuters

SIDEWAYS: The Costa Concordia cruise ship that ran aground is seen off the west coast of Italy at Giglio island.

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OPINION: Imagine how quickly the pleasure and enjoyment turned to sheer terror.

One minute you're sitting down to a sumptuous dinner on board a swanky floating hotel, just a few hours out of port and bearing you and more than 3200 fellow passengers on to the attractions of Barcelona and Majorca; what seems like the next you're trying to decide, in panicked tones, how to negotiate your way off a massive cruise ship that is listing towards the nearby coastline, taking on water from a massive gash in its side caused by hitting a rock.

It's not immediately clear just how the 114,500-tonne Costa Concordia ended up exactly where it is now, laying almost half-submerged near to the island of Giglio off the Italian west coast. Some Italian reports, according to a story transmitted by the London-based Sunday Times News Service, suggested the vessel was three miles off course. Whereas it should have been out in the open ocean, when the ship lurched and the restaurants were plunged into darkness, it was because the luxury liner had hit a rock.

One family of five from Alaska, interviewed by American television channel CBS, found themselves trying to get to a lifeboat, a process made decidedly perilous by the fact that the ship had keeled over on to its starboard side. Putting aside their understandable panic, they negotiated a rope ladder to get into a lifeboat. Fortunately they were able to sit down with a CBS reporter afterwards with no clear signs of any damage, but it must have been a terrifying experience.

Obviously, there will be a whole string of investigations carried out now into an incident that has some vague parallels with the grounding of the Rena off Tauranga. The crucial difference in this case is the fact that there were more than 4000 passengers and crew aboard. At time of writing, at least three were confirmed dead, with several dozen still unaccounted for.

The actions of the Costa Concordia's captain, already arrested by Italian prosecutors for questioning amid allegations he abandoned ship before all the passengers were off, will plainly be a strong focus of the investigations. So too will allegations by passengers, some of whom jumped into the water and swam to shore, that some of the crew had jumped into lifeboats and made off. One passenger, in a television interview, claimed to have been on the vessel five days without any lifeboat drill being conducted, an astounding situation if it turns out to be true.

With the death toll not final, this bizarre accident could become even more tragic.

As with the Rena grounding, investigators simply must get to the bottom of it, to prevent it happening again.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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