Pierette Simpson » Blog

Travel safety tips: a must read for your next trip

pierette — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:43:59 +0000

Excellent travel safety tips: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/my-money/2012/01/19/5-

SOUTH Australian woman Elyse Faehrmann fought for survival aboard the stricken cruise ship Costa Concordia.

pierette — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:07:28 +0000

0:00 / 0:51

Divers search stricken cruise ship

Divers search for bodies underwater around the Costa Concordia, the cruise ship that sank off the Italian coast on January 13. Rough cut (n…

29 January 2012Reuters

0:00 / 1:38

Brother of missing passenger hopes for a miracle

Divers hurled deck chairs aside as they did a room by room search for missing passengers from the Costa Concordia. Deborah Gembara reports.

29 January 2012Reuters

WATCH MORE VIDEO

Ms Faehrmann, 23, and a friend, were sitting down for dinner on their last night of a six night cruise on the luxury ship when it struck rocks off the island of Giglio on Friday, January 13, Adelaide Now reports.

“We were on deck three at the back of the boat in a restaurant,” Ms Faehrmann said yesterday, as she shared her story publicly for the first time since returning from the doomed voyage.

“There was a sudden stop and it felt like (the captain) had put the ship in reverse.

“A few plates smashed and then you could sense the ship tipping … tables rattled and then I saw a rack of plates fall towards a waiter.

“I remember turning to (my friend) and saying, we have to get out of here.

“It was chaos. Our priority was to get to our room and get life jackets and then get on to the deck.” Ms Faehrmann said she saw none of the ship’s crew or officials throughout the terrifying minutes that followed but the pair were helped by staff from the shops and restaurants on the ship.

The women ignored orders to return to their cabin – an order now considered to have cost some passengers their lives. Yesterday, retrieval crews recovered the body of a 17th victim.

“The ship had started to tip and they didn’t deploy the lifeboats for ages,” Ms Faehrmann said. “As soon as they started loading people into the lifeboats, we were just pushed back.

“You could hear screams and crashes and bangs … they were piling into the lifeboats so quickly and overloading them (so) the ropes were snapping.”

The women missed out on being rescued in the first wave of life rafts and were forced to cling to rails as the ship tipped further. They were ushered to a lower deck as the lifeboats returned.

“The cabin staff made a human chain to help us to the lifeboats,” she said.

“When we got to them, the railing on Deck 3 was underwater.”

However Ms Faehrmann said the ordeal was not over.

“The boat got hooked up on the ship as the ship was sinking and I thought that was going to be the end for us,” she said.

Her parents, Roger and Julie Faehrmann, had an anxious wait for news their daughter was safe after seeing the news and contacting the Australian Embassy.

“It was just surreal,” Mr Faehrmann said.

“I was watching the cricket and it broke to the news … It was a frantic two hours, then we got the call to say that she was safe and warm.”

Costa Concordia sinking: Birmingham survivor’s ancestor was violinist on the Titanic

pierette — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 03:02:00 +0000

A BIRMINGHAM singer who is among survivors of the Costa Concordia sinking has revealed that one of her family had been a musician on the Titanic.

Amelia Leon said her ancestor had been one of the violinists who carried on playing when the Titanic sank 100 years ago this April.

The eight-piece band on board the doomed liner – led by Wallace Hartley – had kept on playing to calm passengers after the ship hit an iceberg on April 15, 1912.

Survivors said Hartley shouted “Gentlemen, I bid you farewell” as he disappeared below the waves 400 miles off Newfoundland, Canada.

Hartley is buried in Colne, Lancashire, where a 10-foot monument featuring a carved violin was put up in his memory. A memorial to the Titanic’s band, none of whom survived, was built in Southampton, where the ship had sailed from.

For Amelia Leon, she almost found history repeating itself when she was among 4,000 passengers on the Costa Concordia as it keeled over off the Italian coast on Friday night.

But the 22-year-old, from Edgbaston, displayed nerves of steel – and even called her mum Imelda from a lifeboat to say she was fine.

“I have nothing with me because I was in my pyjamas,” Amelia said. “I have lost everything but I don’t care because I’m just happy I’m alive and off the boat.”

Amelia had spent a week aboard the Concordia with her Italian boyfriend, crew member Claudio Losito.

He ended up taking the helm of the lifeboat that carried her and other passengers to safety.

At least five people died in the disaster and rescue helicopters yesterday hovered over the liner to winch others from the craft.

But all 35 British passengers and crew were confirmed as safe by Foreign Secretary William Hague.

What will Costa Lines have to pay out?

pierette — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:37:30 +0000

This article from Risk and Insurance.com has some very reliable information. It’s time to think about whether the structure of cruise liners is balanced with the greed factor.

http://www.riskandinsurance.com/story.jsp?storyId=533344672

My comment to BBC article

pierette — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:03:05 +0000

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16823955

After reading your article, I’m appalled at many things: the flagrant behavior of cruise companies, flag states who refuse to comply in a timely manner to their responsibilities, Costa’s track record. As an author and world authority on the Andrea Doria collision (I’m also one of its survivors), I’m angry that safety of life at sea is still taken lightly. We have SOLAS, IMO, several regulatory agencies, yet progress is slow or non-existent as proven by the Costa Concordia incident. How many more lives have to be sacrificed before we have an international regulatory agency who oversees commercial and private companies–one that has the legal authority to hold criminal those who are in non-compliance? By not having such an agency, we will never feel that our lives our valued when they sail on our seas.

Australian family recounts chaos on board Costa Concordia

pierette — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:25:40 +0000

“It was every man for himself! It was like the Titanic!”

http://m.theaustralian.com.au/travel/news/aussies-reveal-cruise-terror/story-e6frg8ro-1226245416928

Costa Concordia: Another Survivor’s Experience

pierette — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:45:07 +0000

Arion

Senior Member

Cruise Maniac

Join Date: Jul 2006

Posts: 102

My experience on the Concordia

Here’s a recount of my personal experience on the Costa Concordia on the night it went down. This is from a PM I sent to someone on this forum a week or two ago, so the language is more 1:1 style, but it should have most of the ‘meat’ in it.

I decided to wait a while before posting it ( explanation in first paragraph – which I guess is now out of date ), but I think enough time has now passed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Me_via_Previously_Sent_PM

My experience was actually quite tame compared to most. I’ve shared it with people at work, and on local media here at home, but I think it might be a little insensitive to post publicly them on a forum, likely to be visited by families and friends of people who died on that ship.

I think I was actually in denial for quite a while. It was actually my first time on a cruise ( even though I’ve had ambitions about working on one for the best part of 8 years, my career grew faster than expected in a different direction ), so I didn’t realise at first when the ship listed, that this was so problematic. I saw the boarding of lifeboats as a routine precaution. After all how likely was it for there to be a serious issue on the one ship that I happened to be on.

Even on the island, I thought for many hours that they’d get whatever supposed electrical fault they were having fixed, and that we’d be back on our way. I was back in the Hotel in Rome, when ( given the length of time it took the ship to list considerably ) I was shocked to find out that people actually died.

Essentially I think a mixture of ignorance, and denial helped me keep calm. I kept a cool analytical head when I got to the muster station, and looked around for the shortest queue, joined it and got on to the first wave of lifeboats.

At this point I think Costa first of all has a lot of questions to answer, most of them beginning with the word “Why”. After all these whys are answered, Costa need to see how to ensure that in future where applicable, these questions have different answers, firstly so that this never happens again, and secondly, if something like this does happen again, that no lives are lost.

Freighter sinks off Turkish coast, 8 crew missing

pierette — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:13:58 +0000

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish Coast Guard boats, tug boats and a helicopter were searching for eight crew members after a Cambodia-flagged freighter ship sank in stormy waters off Turkey’s Black Sea coast on Tuesday,…

http://www.facebook.com/n/?permalink.php&story_fbid=336558246378623&id=134827096548099&mid=5927dd5G43bc9b26Gffb1cbG3a&bcode=mTYYxtFE&n_m=pierette%40pierettesimpson.com

Lankan survivor on board wrecked Italian vessel recounts ordeal

pierette — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:10:40 +0000

Asela Kruluwansa

Amila Danushka Kahadagamage of Gamini Pura, Hatton, the only Sri Lankan on board the Italian luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia which ran aground earlier in the month, arrived home safely last week.

Kahadagamage had been working on the cruise liner, which could accommodate up to 3,500 passengers from October 2011. The ship had hit a rock on its return voyage from France on January 13.

Kahadagamage told the Daily News that the ship started to slant towards one side. “At that time, the passengers were having dinner. Tables and plates started to topple and the people started screaming in fear. Adding to the chaos, the electricity system,” he said.

“Within one hour of the incident, the Captain informed passengers to prepare to abandon ship. Children, pregnant women, women and men boarded the lifeboats in that order of priority,” he said.

Kahadagamage managed to board a lifeboat around 1am and reached land around 4.30 am.

He said that he had to wait until January 19 to enter the country. He had lost his passport and had to pay Rs 10,000 for a replacement passport.

A heart-warming story: Parrish priest helps Costa Concordia survivors

pierette — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:17:09 +0000

Janauary 29, 2012. (Romereports.com) It’s a day that will never be forgotten. It’s was tragedy that was heard all over the world. On January 13th a disaster struck off the coast of Italy, when a cruise ship began to sink, after hitting a set of heavy rocks. It happened on the Island of Giglio. Most of the 4200 people on board survived, but the wreck left at least 15 people dead. Nearly 20 others were listed under the ‘missing’ category.

But amid the tragedy, there were also moving stories. Locals from the island, offered whatever they could to help the victims.

Fr. Lorenzo Pasquotti
Pastor, Giglio Island (Italy)
“It was a tragedy. But 4,200 people were saved. A lot of equipment was used and everyone came together. It was certainly a tragedy, but from the start, the town was ready to help.”

Many survivors came to this church to seek help. The parish is Santi Lorenzo and Mamiliano, which is just a few feet away from shore.

The pastor of the church personally helped survivors. In fact, after evacuating, many crew members came here, asking for help. Most lost all their belongings out in the water.

Fr. Lorenzo Pasquotti
Pastor, Giglio Island (Italy)
“The first to arrive were families with children, but they weren’t here too long because rescue teams found a site that was more adequate for them. I quickly headed back home to get more blankets and sweaters for the victims.”

It was here in this small church that dozens of people found refuge. The majority were Peruvians who worked on the Costa Concordia. In fact, the pastor remembers one case in particular, where one employee named Ricardo, was suffering from hypothermia after waiting to be rescued for hours out in the sea.

Fr. Lorenzo Pasquotti
Pastor, Giglio Island (Italy)
“We took him to my house. He didn’t speak. It seemed like he was freezing. We gave him dry clothes, a blanket and hot tea. He sat on the couch and stayed there all night.”

It’s just one of several stories, where Italian rescue teams and locals alike, came together to help out those who needed the most. For many of them, it was a matter of life and death.