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People ask me the following amazing, crazy question: "Did the four Costa Concordia incidents - contact, capsize, sinking, killing people - really take place or was it only one staged, strange incident and is this Moldovan dancer real?" There are people that really ask me the above, simple question. I don't know the answers. All is a mess! Some people find everything I have explained in my 13 parts report not convincing. To start with they do not believe the events in the wheelhouse - the Master's magic steering show - prior the accidental contact with the Italian Master shouting orders to an Indonesian helmsman in English - all based on some strange voice recordings, while the Voyage Data Recorder was out of order or disconnected - in front of a small audience of admiring on-lookers including a Moldovan dancer - to do a very simple, slow, starboard change of course in the dark evening that normally would take less than two minutes. It is not difficult to steer or turn a ship. There are no real evidences that this show or these events took place as established by experts afterwards! The voyage data recorder was disconnected! The six minutes wheel house steering show is based on voice recordings and is not convincing and the 30-60-172 minutes show that followed are equally strange. If the cruise vessel really proceeded close to the shore as suggested, it should have grounded and structurally damaged the flat bottom and flooded the double bottom tanks and stopped outside Le Scole island stuck on the rocks. Ships do not fly by vertical objects underwater and do not scoop up big 100 tons stones in the vertical side! So there was no 'turning starboard show'! So there was no contact suddenly ripping open the vertical, port side, so that thousands of tons of water could up-flood three, four or five hull compartments as suggested by experts and judges, while the ship continued onwards. If it were the worst case, the ship would have capsized at once in deep water ... and all aboard would have drowned ... and the ship would have floated upside down. It didn't happen! No, after the mysterious contact the ship was floating, stable and upright. All reports of engine crew reporting water in the engine rooms are fake! So there were no underwater hull damages to the port hull side and no leakage of water into the engine rooms! But didn't we all later see the below damages with our own eyes?:
The structural damages in the port side one meter below waterline down to the top of the bilge including the impressive boulder seen later (after capsize and sinking) had apparently been arranged previously in dry-dock and the ship had been sailing around with them for several months. As they were below water all the time, they could not been seen. The inside of the ship side must have been intact. The engine crew didn't suspect anything.
No, an explanation - wild or fancyful - is that there was only a crash stop - full astern - to simulate a contact at 21.45 hrs followed later by the lights being switched off - a Black out - that all aboard observed. After the mysterious contact the ship was floating, stable and upright. Nobody had died! The intact ship was apparently steered to its final position outside Punta Gabbianara, where it anchored in perfect view from the port and shore with the bow heading towards Porto Giglio as seen on many photos. All strange simulations of the ship proceding north, turning 180° and drifting helplessly south due to wind and the hand of God and/or currents popping up on the Internet later are false. Imagine that! Crazy? The Master and senior officers apparently assembled at the Emergency Control Centre in the wheel house (deck #7 fwd) to coordinate the activities with the Moldovan dancer looking on. They decided to get rid of all passengers aboard and send them home as the ship was damaged - Black Out - and food could not be provided. Some officers and seamen should stay to await the ship being towed to a port for repairs. Noone expected the ship to capsize and sink. After a while a General
Alarm was raised aboard and the passengers and staff
(there were only <1 000 and not
>4 800 persons aboard) were told to prepare
to Abandon ship. All lifeboats should then be lowered
to embarcation deck #3. Only a handful of people aboard knew
that it was a staged event. The others were just
assisting the show! A very
reliable witness to explain an incident at
sea In the meantime
sea valves were opened to flood starboard double
bottom tanks, so the ship heeled to starboard -
towards the shore - and later more sea valves were
opened flooding aft, dry hull compartments
to trim the ship on the stern, while
stability was reduced to zero due to free water in
the hull. Illegal watertight doors were open to
allow progressive flooding of intact hull
compartments so free water spreaded. While this
happened - according to the Moldovan
dancer
- she had a romantic (!) walk with the
Master to the uppermost deck - #14? -
awaiting a helicopter to take them away!!!
They
were lovers!!! What a joke! The
emergency meeting was over. And they were going to
fly away. When about only
700 persons (not 3 500+) had left the
ship using 23 lifeboats and no life rafts,
there was a capsize to starboard at
00.32 hrs the next morning and the ship
crashed onto the shore and rocks and damaged the
starboard side. 300 persons were still on
the port upper side and rescued later to add to the
drama. The
Moldovan
dancer
apparently took a lifeboat (not a helicopter!) in
the end after dressing warm in the Master's
cabin. A couple of hours
later the ship sinking took place
outside Punta Gabbianara (due to
downflooding of all intact hull
compartments) with the port hull side above
water showing the impressive (fake, unreal)
structural damages to the world. Many people
thought they didn't look real. Part one of the
show was over. But they forgot the stabilizer
fin! Later followed part two of the show: fake reports of experts of all kind incl. some stability experts from Strathclyde university, Glasgow. Then part three: trial of the Master with the Moldovan dancer telling fairy tales in court. And part four: removal of the wreck from Isola del Giglio to Genoa. And part five: re-cycling of the wreck at Genoa. It was completed May 2017 by sinking the wreck outside Genoa! And part six: the appeal at Florence. It started 28 April 2016 and Schettino was sent to jail for 16+ years. But why would anyone arrange a fake sinking of a ship? Of course there are ship owners sinking their ships as part of insurance frauds, but it takes place at sea away from curious eyes. Drugs? Well, it seems plenty people have made a lot of money from the incidents mainly paid for by insurances. And the owners of the company are very weak. Somebody should ask the Master what he thinks about it! And the Moldovan dancer. The court awarded the poor little girl €30 000:- damages for her participation in the show! I feel more sorry for Schettino's daughter Rosella seeing daddy in jail for 16+ years. Anyway, the hypothesis of fraud could easily have been verified, when/if the wreck was finally in dry-docked at Genoa for final, complete re-cycling. It was planned to happen summer 2016 but was delayed to 2017. With the wreck in dry-dock - hull completely empty of water inside and out - it was possible to inspect the 25 illegal watertight doors, the sea valves and the inside of the alleged port side structural damages below waterline ... and ... plenty people did not like that. So it was never done! One day (night?) the wreck was towed out to sea again and was sunk May 2017! Doesn't the above sound crazy? Well, everything happens at sea and I have experienced plenty but nothing as crazy as Costa Concordia 2012-2018. Crazy shipowner, crazy senior management, crazy senior officers aboard, crazy ship, crazy authorities ashore, crazy judges, stupid media, etc, etc.
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