The last voyage of the ship "Costa Concordia" (11 photos)

The Costa Concordia is the largest sunken passenger ship in history. It crashed on the night of January 13-14, 2012, killing 33 people. Recently, photos of the once luxurious ship appeared online, showing it being dismantled for scrap.





These photographs are a sad reminder that nothing lasts forever in this world: and even the most luxurious things sometimes turn out to be a useless piece of iron. The cruise ship Costa Concordia sank on the night of January 13-14, 2012 off the Italian island of Giglio. 33 people died. This is the largest shipwreck in world history. After the disaster, the airliner lay “on its side” for a long time, and only in September 2013 the hull of the airliner was brought into a vertical position and placed on a special platform. A few months later it was transported to Genoa for disposal.



The footage shows how the once luxurious ship, worth 450 million euros, is dismantled for scrap. Work to dismantle the hull of the airliner took as long as 22 months; it was completely dismantled only by July 7, 2017. Introduced in 2004, the Costa Concordia was one of the most luxurious cruise ships of its time, and the largest ever built in Italy at the time of its service. Surprisingly, during the ship's christening ceremony in 2005, supermodel Eva Herzigova, Concordia's godmother, failed to break a bottle of champagne on her hull - which is considered a bad omen.





The cause of the Concordia crash was crew error. Captain Francesco Schettino decided to deviate from the set course, as a result of which the ship skidded onto the rocks and partially sank. The rocks made a 53-meter hole in the hull, after which important components and assemblies failed. Schettino was one of the first to jump from the sinking ship to save his life and leave his passengers to die. Coast Guard personnel arrived on the scene shortly after the incident to rescue the 4,252 people on board, including 1,023 crew members. After a six-hour rescue operation, most people were brought ashore.



33 people tragically died during the rescue operation - including 27 passengers, five crew members and one rescue team member. Captain Schettino was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years in prison.







Costa Concordia before and after the crash