Each passenger on the Costa Concordia will receive $14,400.00 each (11,000 Euros for our non-American friends )
GIGLIO, Italy -- Passengers on the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship are expected to receive a compensation lump sum of 11,000 euros ($14,400) each, the Italian Association of Tour Operators said in a statement Friday.
The decision was reached during a meeting between Costa Cruises and consumer groups, the association said.
The massive liner struck rocks and rolled over onto its side in shallow waters off an island on Italy's Tuscan coast on January 13, leading to a panicked overnight evacuation and a number of deaths.
A 16th body was found by divers searching the ship Tuesday. Sixteen others are missing from the roughly 4,200 people aboard the cruise liner -- 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members -- at the time of the collision.
The compensation will be paid to each passenger regardless of age, the Italian Association of Tour Operators said, and covers damage to and loss of property and any psychological distress suffered.
The payout will include reimbursement for the cost of the cruise and additional travel expenses. Costa will also set up a psychological counseling program for those passengers who request it, the statement said.
Separate agreements will be reached with those passengers who were injured and needed treatment at the scene, and with the families of those who died, the statement added.
The captain of the ill-fated cruise ship is under house arrest and faces possible charges of manslaughter, shipwreck and abandoning ship.
Both Costa Cruises and the Italian authorities have criticized Capt. Francesco Schettino's behavior.
In answers to prosecutors, defense attorneys and a judge, Schettino has admitted he had made a "mistake" in colliding with the rocks off the island of Giglio.
"I hit this projection of rock, that seems almost stuck into the ship, but this was my mistake," Schettino said in the 126-page transcript. "... There isn't anything I can say, as I was convinced that passing within .28 of a mile there wouldn't be any problem.
The captain also brushed aside suggestions that at 15 knots, he was going too fast, as alleged by prosecutors.
"There isn't a speed limit," he said. "... We had more or less the speed needed to reach Savona on time."
According to the transcript, Schettino maintained he ran the ship aground to keep it from sinking. "This is what allowed me to limit the tilting," he said.
Schettino's defense attorney, Bruno Leporatti, filed an appeal Wednesday of a judge's decision to place the captain on house arrest, Leporatti's office said in a statement.
Both the prosecution and the defense are appealing the decision -- prosecutors because they believe Schettino should be in custody, and the defense because it believes he should have been released with no restrictions on his movements.
Cruise ship passengers described a scene of panic and confusion as they rushed for lifeboats. Some said the crew seemed overwhelmed and did not have accurate information on what was taking place.
Ugh why isnt this post showing :rage:
...oh nevermind its right above me
haha. Did you forget your coffee this morning?
$14,400 seems like a great prize for the people who were on the ship and escaped easily. I'm certain I would have been one of the ones to survive (and might have even saved the day!), but it might have included me pushing elderly women and children out of the way.
How much is the average cruise ticket? $4k? I've never been on one.
It depends on how many days the cruise was and where they were going.
Ive read this story a million times and missed that part
I guess i do need coffee
Never understood why people die when ships sink. Climb overboard into the water and swim away toward another boat or land. Fill your lungs with air and float on your back if you get tired of swimming. If you want to save your own life, it WILL require that you do something. You can't just sit there and wait till the water makes you dead. That's not a winning survival strategy.
I wear caps with flat brims and sunglasses with white frames. I...DROOL...
Watch out for the sharks while you are floating on your back
When massive objects start to sink, don't they pull you under with them?
And affirmative action is a very nice term for racial discrimination against better-qualified white people in jobs, employment, promotions and scholarships, and college admittance.
the average, approx. $1000pp for a 7/8 day cruise. it can go as low as $500pp with an inside cabin, NEVER take an inside cabin. A balcony stateroom is usually $1500pp. in my opinion a cruise is the best bang for the buck for a 7 day trip. cruises are the SHIT yo! you should take your lady on one, she will love it!
Several things, people drown in my lake every year because the underestimate the dangers of water. The first rule of boating is you stay with the boat or ship for as long as possible, period.
The shore always looks closer than it is, people swim for shit and they don't make it. If you don't have a PFD on you will likely drowned. Even in 70 degree water, hypothermia is a huge factor. At night it can be hard to figure out where shore is and people can get lost easily. Never mind any currents or sea state that was happening.
As an aside, my lake almost claimed two more this weekend. This ramp is about 200 yards from where I dock my boat. They are so lucky that a sheriff happened to be patrolling the ramps. http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?se...rld&id=8523324
Last edited by PCP777; 01-30-2012 at 06:27 AM.
Cruising is dangerous business these days.
They just had a guy jump off the balcony inside a ship inthe Bahamas and kill himself.
Talk about ruining people's vacation.
I'll start a thread onthis dumbass if I get his name
Dude was obviously doing it for the spectacle or he was piss drunk.
Either way he gets no sympathy from me.
I'd be pissed if I paid for that cruise
not this lady. being stuck out at sea on a giant floating object with a bunch of assholes and not having the option to bounce when you want to? i'd rather stay home. i dislike all-inclusive resorts too. what's the point of traveling if you don't experience the local food and culture? it's like showing up in nyc, with 800,000,000,000 food choices and eating at the olive garden times square. also, it doesn't matter how many hundreds of people join you on the trip, you still end up running into the same people over and over and it's never like cool people, it's always that obnoxious couple that ends up on your rotation.
you'd still be tipping at a non-inclusive. what's the problem here?
also, planning and executing your death is a little different than accidentally killing yourself, no?
i dunno ron, i got the picture that he commited suicide from this line.They just had a guy jump off the balcony inside a ship inthe Bahamas and kill himself.
Bad grammar choice? I wasn't sure, like I said. I saw that like, just like you did. I didn't know if it was horseplay, or suicide. But the lack of sympathy threw me a bit either way.
The problem with still tipping is that I feel like I paid already, hence the 'all-inclusive." I dunno, pet peeve maybe?
I like the fact that in Europe we didn't hav to tip cause the establishments actually paid people. And anything you left was extra.
/off-topic rant.
Re: the lack of culture thing, Wahckjob, that's always been what alienated me about going on a cruise, but now I think I would go on one just because it would be good for me to be forced to do nothing but relax and limbo and drink mai tais for a week somewhere tropical. My adventures are always fun but never relaxing.
I can understand that a suicide on your cruise might put a bit of a downer on your holiday but it doesn't sound like the jumper was having an amazing time either. I don't really understand having zero sympathy for someone who feels that they have to end it all like that.
From Shipwreck in Italy, Treasure Now Beckons
ROME ? In the chaotic evacuation of the Costa Concordia, passengers and crew abandoned almost everything on board the cruise ship: jewels, cash, champagne, antiques, 19th century Bohemian crystal glassware, thousands of art objects including 300-year-old woodblock prints by a Japanese master. In other words, a veritable treasure now lies beneath the pristine Italian waters where the luxury liner ran aground last month.
Though some objects are bound to disintegrate, there is still hoard enough to tempt treasure seekers ? just as the Titanic and countless shipwrecks before have lured seekers of gold, armaments and other riches for as far back as mankind can remember. It may be just a matter of time before treasure hunters set their sights on the sunken spoils of the Costa Concordia, which had more than 4,200 people on board.
"As long as there are bodies in there, it's considered off base to everybody because it's a grave," said Robert Marx, a veteran diver and the author of numerous books on maritime history and underwater archaeology and treasure hunting. "But when all the bodies are out, there will be a mad dash for the valuables."
The Mafia, he said, even has underwater teams that specialize in going after sunken booty.
The Costa Concordia was essentially a floating luxury hotel and many of the passengers embarked on the ill-fated cruise with their finest clothes and jewels so they could parade them in casinos and at gala dinners beneath towering chandeliered ceilings.
On top of that was massive wealth belonging to the ship itself: elegant shops stocked with jewelry, more than 6,000 works of art decorating walls and a wellness spa containing a collection of 300-year-old woodblock prints by Katsushika Hokusai, a Japanese artist most famous for his work of a giant wave framing Mount Fuji in the distance.
"It's now a paradise for divers," said Hans Reinhardt, a German lawyer who represents 19 German passengers seeking compensation for their loss. He said some of his clients traveled with diamond-studded jewels and other heirlooms that had been in their families for generations.
"They lost lots of jewelry ? watches, necklaces, whatever women wear when they want to get well dressed," Reinhardt said. "They wanted to show off what they have."
The massive cruise liner itself is worth ?450 million ($590), but that doesn't take into account the value of all other objects on board, said Costa Crociere, the Italian company that operated the Costa Concordia.
Among the sunken objects are furniture, the vast art collection, computers, wine, champagne, as well as whatever valuables were locked away in safes in private cabins, the Costa Crociere press office said. The company still legally owns the ship and the passengers own their sunken objects.
"Quantifying this is impossible because unfortunately the ship has sunk," Costa Crociere said. "Until the ship is recovered there's no way to know what can be saved and what can't."
The ship ran aground off the Tuscan island of Giglio after the captain, Francesco Schettino, veered from his approved course, apparently to move closer to entertain passengers with a closer view of the island ? a common cruise ship practice. Schettino is now under house arrest, facing accusations of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship before all passengers were evacuated. Seventeen people are confirmed killed in the Jan. 13 shipwreck, with 15 more still missing.
For now, the ship's wreckage has been impounded by authorities and is surrounded by rescue workers, cleanup crews and scientists monitoring its stability on the rocky perch where it ran aground. Civil Protection, the agency that is running the rescue effort, says there is so much activity surrounding it now that authorities don't see a risk of looting yet. It also says it plans to remove the wreckage before looters can reach it.
After the ship ran aground, authorities passed a decree preventing anyone from coming within a nautical mile of the wreck, a ruling that will be valid as long as the huge liner is still in place, the Coast Guard said.
"The ship is being guarded 24 hours a day. It's not possible to even get close," said Lt. Massimo Maccheroni, a Coast Guard official.
Civil Protection director Franco Gabrielli said recently that it could take seven to 10 months to remove the 950 foot-long (290 meter-long) ship once a contract is awarded for the job. But Marx, whose 64 books include "Treasure Lost at Sea," says that divers inevitably make a dash for sunken loot, even at great risk, and that they treat shipwrecks as a free for all. He estimates that it will take about four to six months before a real treasure hunt will start ? in part because divers will want to avoid the rough winter sea. He said some divers will be put off because the ship is still shifting on the reef it collided into and is considered unstable.
But soon, treasure hunters will go.
"Bright-eyed divers will want to make a fortune," Marx said.
Even now, there are those trying to make a profit off the disaster. On eBay, all sorts of trinkets related to the shipwreck have already come up for sale, from coat hangers and medallions embossed with the cruise liner's name to a Costa Concordia desk plan. Marx said that everything that is pulled up from this now-famous ship will have value, noting that even coal brought up from the Titanic, which sank 100 years ago, has found eager buyers. "Even the dishes, the crockery inside that ship ? that's going to be worth an absolute fortune," Marx said.
Reinhardt, the German lawyer, says his clients would love nothing more than to get back their cherished valuables, which often carry emotional value. But at this point they are merely counting on a cash settlement. "They would prefer to get their original stuff," he said. "But they don't have hope."
Interesting. There are only a few things on eBay and they don't have any bids. I don't think this shipwreck swag will end up as valuable as stuff from the Titanic, but it's neat nonetheless.
The ship will be salvaged by a salvage company.
Maritime law is interesting. Let's say I'm out on my boat in the lake and my engine dies, no wind or whatever and I need help. If a good Samaritan pulls up in their boat and throws me a line to tow me in and I accept it, they now own my boat under salvage law. If I throw them a line, I'm safe.
I would imagine the cruise line will hire a salvage company for a 5.4 million dollar vessel. They will be able to repair the hull and put her back in service.
Last edited by PCP777; 02-03-2012 at 05:35 AM.
I just finished watching this documentary, thought it was pretty interesting
(The other 3 parts are on youtube)
If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eye Joe
I'd been married long time ago
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