There is almost no hope that anyone of the 29 missing from among the passengers of the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia is alive. The vessel that was making a cruise in the Mediterranean Seastruck rocks on Friday evening close to the Italian island Giglio. There were 3216 passengers from 62 countries on board the liner along with a crew of 1023. The coast guards discovered 7 bodies, 29 people are still unaccounted, the rest managed to escape. As reported by ABC News, some passengers jumped in life jackets into the water of 6 °C and swam about 100-150 meters to the shore. The rest were evacuated in boats on the whole showing self-control and discipline.
Italian prosecutors charged Francesco Schettino, the captain of the liner, for diverging from the designated course and leaving the ship before the passengers. Despite the fact that Schettino completely denies the accusations, the court today extended his time in custody. Interestingly, about a year ago, the current captain of Costa Concordia told in an interview to Czech reporters that giant cruise vessels will not suffer the fate of Titanic since they are equipped with modern security systems. Comparisons with the Titanic inevitably come to mind: 100 years ago – on April 14, 1912, the English liner collided with an iceberg and sank. There were 2224 passengers on board Titanic and only 711 of them escaped. In both cases, specialists were at a loss how such a perfect vessel could be wrecked.
AramAbrahamyan
