Survivors of capsized cruise ship say ‘it was like a scene from Titanic’

“We heard this big bang,” said passenger Maria Marmegiano Alfonsi, one

of 4,200 aboard the cruise ship when it ran aground off the coast of

Tuscany on Friday night in a tragedy that has so far claimed three lives

and left up to 40 missing at sea.

“There was a lot of panic, the tables overturned, glasses were flying

all over the place and we ran for the decks where we put on our life

vests.”

It was, said another passenger, Mara Parmegiani, “like a scene from

Titanic”. Dressed in their evening wear, diners abandoned their starters

and rushed from their tables towards the exit.

In the ship’s main theatre, passengers watching the magic show felt an

initial lurch, as if from a violent steering manoeuvre, followed a few

seconds later by a “shudder” that tipped rubbish bins over. The

subsequent listing of the ship made the theatre curtains seem like they

were standing on their side.

“And then the magician disappeared,” said Canadian survivor Laurie

Willits. Moments later, panicked audience members fled too.

Some passengers said that for almost 45 minutes they were told by crew

the lights had gone off because of a simple “technical problem”.

Seasoned cruisers, however, knew better and went to get their life

jackets from their cabins and reported to their “muster stations” - the

emergency station each passenger is assigned to.

As the ship began to list, some were forced to crawl along upended

hallways as they sought safety. “We were crawling up a hallway, in the

dark, with only the light from the life vest strobe flashing,” said

American Georgia Ananias, 61. “We could hear plates and dishes crashing

and people slamming against walls.”

But when they reached the muster stations, panic reigned. Passengers

reported seeing crew members delaying lowering the lifeboats even though

the ship was listing badly.

“We had to scream at the controllers to release the boats from the

side,” said Mike van Dijk, 54, from South Africa. “We were standing in

the corridors and they weren’t allowing us to get on to the boats. It

was a scramble, an absolute scramble.”

Some jumped into the sea. Others nearly fell. British cabaret dancer

Rose Metcalf, 22, who was performing when the incident happened and was

one of the last to be winched to safety by a helicopter, feared for her

life.

Her father Philip Metcalf, who lives near Witchampton, in Dorset, said:

“The ship rolled over on its side so they had to get a fire hose, which

they strung between the railings, to stop them falling -overboard.

“She thought she’d have to make a jump for it as it was dark and cold,

like the sinking of the Titanic, but the helicopter then winched her

off.”

Others were forced to shimmy along a rope down the -exposed side of the

ship to a waiting rescue vessel below.

But things didn’t improve for passengers once aboard the lifeboats or on

land. “No-one counted us, neither in the life boats nor on land,” said

Ophelie Gondelle, 28, a French military officer from Marseille.

The rescue operation is said to have involved five helicopters, from the

Italian coastguard, navy and air force, with many survivors taken to the

tiny island of Giglio.

There, the number of survivors far outnumbered Giglio’s 1,500 residents,

and island mayor Sergio Ortelli asked -”anyone with a roof” to open

their homes to shelter the passengers. Survivors were also taking refuge

in schools, hotels and a church on the island, which is a popular

holiday spot for Italians.

Passengers sat dazed in a school opened for them, wrapped in wool or

aluminium blankets, with some wearing their life vests and their

shoeless feet covered with aluminium foil. They were served warm tea and

bread, but confusion continued as they tried desperately to find the

right bus to begin their journey home.

Those who did make it to the mainland made for a pitiful sight.

Christine Hammer, from Germany, shivered near the harbour of Porto Santo

Stefano, on the mainland, after stepping off a ferry from Giglio. She

was wearing elegant dinner clothes with a large pair of hiking boots,

given to her by a kind islander after she lost her shoes in the scramble

to escape. Left behind in her cabin were her passport, credit cards and

phone.

Now, the search to identify the dead and missing must -begin. It is

believed about 1,000 Italian passengers were on board, as well as more

than 500 Germans, about 160 French and 25 Britons, along with about

1,000 crew members, 12 of whom are British.

Reports say one of the dead was a crew member from Peru, and the other

were two passengers from France. All Britons have been accounted for.

Last night divers were searching the submerged half of the ship for the

40 people still missing. And hopes were raised just before 1pm local

time when emergency crews managed to make contact with a man and a woman

who had survived more than 24 hours within the body of the vessel since

the accident.

The Passenger Shipping Association released a statement saying: “While

the focus should ri THE cabaret was in full swing, glasses were clinking and in the

luxurious two-storey Milano restaurant onboard the Costa Concordia ocean

liner, passengers were sitting down to a six-course dinner when they

were suddenly plunged into blackness.

“We heard this big bang,” said passenger Maria Marmegiano Alfonsi, one

of 4,200 aboard the cruise ship when it ran aground off the coast of

Tuscany on Friday night in a tragedy that has so far claimed three lives

and left up to 40 missing at sea.

“There was a lot of panic, the tables overturned, glasses were flying

all over the place and we ran for the decks where we put on our life

vests.”

It was, said another passenger, Mara Parmegiani, “like a scene from

Titanic”. Dressed in their evening wear, diners abandoned their starters

and rushed from their tables towards the exit.

In the ship’s main theatre, passengers watching the magic show felt an

initial lurch, as if from a violent steering manoeuvre, followed a few

seconds later by a “shudder” that tipped rubbish bins over. The

subsequent listing of the ship made the theatre curtains seem like they

were standing on their side.

“And then the magician disappeared,” said Canadian survivor Laurie

Willits. Moments later, panicked audience members fled too.

Some passengers said that for almost 45 minutes they were told by crew

the lights had gone off because of a simple “technical problem”.

Seasoned cruisers, however, knew better and went to get their life

jackets from their cabins and reported to their “muster stations” - the

emergency station each passenger is assigned to.

As the ship began to list, some were forced to crawl along upended

hallways as they sought safety. “We were crawling up a hallway, in the

dark, with only the light from the life vest strobe flashing,” said

American Georgia Ananias, 61. “We could hear plates and dishes crashing

and people slamming against walls.”

But when they reached the muster stations, panic reigned. Passengers

reported seeing crew members delaying lowering the lifeboats even though

the ship was listing badly.

“We had to scream at the controllers to release the boats from the

side,” said Mike van Dijk, 54, from South Africa. “We were standing in

the corridors and they weren’t allowing us to get on to the boats. It

was a scramble, an absolute scramble.”

Some jumped into the sea. Others nearly fell. British cabaret dancer

Rose Metcalf, 22, who was performing when the incident happened and was

one of the last to be winched to safety by a helicopter, feared for her

life.

Her father Philip Metcalf, who lives near Witchampton, in Dorset, said:

“The ship rolled over on its side so they had to get a fire hose, which

they strung between the railings, to stop them falling -overboard.

“She thought she’d have to make a jump for it as it was dark and cold,

like the sinking of the Titanic, but the helicopter then winched her

off.”

Others were forced to shimmy along a rope down the -exposed side of the

ship to a waiting rescue vessel below.

But things didn’t improve for passengers once aboard the lifeboats or on

land. “No-one counted us, neither in the life boats nor on land,” said

Ophelie Gondelle, 28, a French military officer from Marseille.

The rescue operation is said to have involved five helicopters, from the

Italian coastguard, navy and air force, with many survivors taken to the

tiny island of Giglio.

There, the number of survivors far outnumbered Giglio’s 1,500 residents,

and island mayor Sergio Ortelli asked -”anyone with a roof” to open

their homes to shelter the passengers. Survivors were also taking refuge

in schools, hotels and a church on the island, which is a popular

holiday spot for Italians.

Passengers sat dazed in a school opened for them, wrapped in wool or

aluminium blankets, with some wearing their life vests and their

shoeless feet covered with aluminium foil. They were served warm tea and

bread, but confusion continued as they tried desperately to find the

right bus to begin their journey home.

Those who did make it to the mainland made for a pitiful sight.

Christine Hammer, from Germany, shivered near the harbour of Porto Santo

Stefano, on the mainland, after stepping off a ferry from Giglio. She

was wearing elegant dinner clothes with a large pair of hiking boots,

given to her by a kind islander after she lost her shoes in the scramble

to escape. Left behind in her cabin were her passport, credit cards and

phone.

Now, the search to identify the dead and missing must -begin. It is

believed about 1,000 Italian passengers were on board, as well as more

than 500 Germans, about 160 French and 25 Britons, along with about

1,000 crew members, 12 of whom are British.

Reports say one of the dead was a crew member from Peru, and the other

were two passengers from France. All Britons have been accounted for.

Last night divers were searching the submerged half of the ship for the

40 people still missing. And hopes were raised just before 1pm local

time when emergency crews managed to make contact with a man and a woman

who had survived more than 24 hours within the body of the vessel since

the accident.

The Passenger Shipping Association released a statement saying: “While

the focus should rightly be on attending to the immediate incident at

hand there will, of course, be a full and thorough investigation into

the causes of this event and the full co-operation of both the company

and the wider industry is assured.”

The Concordia had a previous accident in Italian waters. In 2008, when

winds buffeted Palermo, the ship banged against the Sicilian port’s dock

and suffered damage, but

no-one was injured.

Passengers onboard the ship’s final cruise said it was disorganised - 12

hours on from the accident, no roll call had yet been taken. They said

there was a lax attitude towards evacuation drills.