The Wreck of the Costa Concordia | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. too and we're just sailing. along uh hopefully we're not going to. stop. abruptly uh for this episode of stuff. you should know yeah you know we were. actually developing a a robust Suite of. Maritime disasters.

well there's plenty to talk about for. sure so this is I mean we're probably. midsweet at best not I mean depending on. which ones you cover we could be uh no. pun intended just the tip of the iceberg. oh that was pretty good though and it's. funny you bring up the iceberg which. everybody knows is associated with the. Titanic because I have seen according to. Maritime lore that I found on the. internet written by maritime lawyers um. that this this um shipwreck essentially.

that we're going to talk about is a new. Touchstone for the next like hundred. years just like the Titanic was for the. h hundred or so years after it it was. just that much of a. cluster um luckily not anywhere near as. many people died but it's as not maybe. not as interesting a story but it's a. pretty gosh darn totin interesting story. if you ask me yeah I mean I think the. main thing that stood out to me about. the the wreck of the cost to Concordia.

mhm is that and you know when you see. little documentary footage and stuff. like that of interviews of people uh. many of the passengers are remarking. like you know we we just couldn't. believe like something like this is. happening in. 2012 right like uh the fact that it's a. modern disaster Allah the Titanic like. that kind of thing shouldn't be. happening these days yeah and I saw. somebody who compared the two described. it as um where the Titanic was kind of.

like a um an ironic twist of fate. brought on by hubris yeah this was just. brought on by incompetence that's what. it really boils down to yeah I mean. that's that's how something like this. can happen in a modern age where. everything is there to prevent something. like this from happening exactly but you. can never count out human incompetence. no no and you said Modern Age and it was. pretty modern so on the night of uh.

Friday the 13th January in. 2012 not that long ago just over a. decade um that ship the Costa Concordia. was sailing around the Mediterranean. which it normally did um I think it was. launched in. 2005 yeah by the ca crocher also known. as Costa crues line um and at the time. it was the largest ship in the. Mediterranean it boasted the nicest Spa. took up two full decks uh and it was.

just nice it looked if you look at the. pictures of what it um looked like when. it was launched it looks like. 1998 Vegas came along and threw up in it. and just shipped it out to sea yeah not. like the super classy ones these days. right but this one struck me as I mean. definitely along that same line I mean a. cruise ship has a certain look to it no. matter what they try to do yeah there's. going to be brass this one this one. really like pulled out all the stops as.

our organ playing friends sometimes say. yeah absolutely I mean this was sort of. the pride of Italy was their largest. cruise ship at 950 plus feet long and. held almost 3,800 passengers along with. just over a thousand crew members for a. total on this day or on this U launch at. least of. 4,229 total people uh Captain by uh. Franchesco scatino yeah who had been um.

he was a veteran he had been working. just for this Cruise Company for 11. years yeah uh I think he was fairly new. to the Concordia but like their ships. were similar enough that this was not I. mean sure yeah he was totally able and. capable to Captain a ship you'd think. yeah so 3 hours after the Concordia set. sail for its 7-Day cruise around the. Mediterranean which was that's just what. it did it stopped in the same places.

yeah 3-hour tour um it it was passing by. an island off of Tuscany called. gilio um which you can't help but just. think of that Ben Affleck movie that's. what I thought of and um Captain scatino. did something that in retrospect people. are like what wait what did you do but. once you start to dig into it you're. like apparently that's a thing like. cruise ships sometimes do this it's.

called the sail bu he decided to do a. sail bu of the island of gilio and gilio. is a seafaring fishing island of like. Hardy sea people and then very wealthy. people who like to hang out around Hardy. sea people um and not many though 1500. people total right around the whole. island multiple towns the whole. population of the island was 1500 so um. Captain scatino decided to do a sail Buy. of gilio and a sail bu is where you sail.

like preposterously close to land to do. a couple of things it Thrills the. passengers on board but it also Thrills. the people wherever you're passing by. it's pretty neat like it's just so close. and the ships always lit up very pretty. and all that stuff it's just something. to see but if you stop and think about. it it's incredibly Reckless I mean to do. the Sail by he had to deviate from his. course so much that he had to turn off. like the the tracking.

um software like just turn it off so. that he could maneuver the ship by hand. off course that. drastically yeah and you know what I'm. going to go ahead and say I mean this is. like a flyby that airplanes might do uh. and those have resulted in accidents. here and there I'm I'm just going to go. ahead and throw it out there that no. more sail buys or flybys just keep all. of the dangerous uh heavy machinery and. vehicular. vehicular sure sure well away from.

everything yeah you know it's always. like oh the people love it this would be. impressive until there's an accident and. it's like oh wait a minute well people. can die doing this so let's just stop. with this stuff yeah and no more car. surfing like they didn't Teen Wolf for. foot loose none of that stuff. either yeah but the but the one thing. the game of chicken and foot loose just. full steam ahead with that that's a. pretty great thing to do okay so so the.

sail bu again this is an enormous ship. 1,000 ft long basically. 114,000 tons it's a ginormous ship and. it's passing by this tiny little island. and it was doing it for a couple of. reasons one of the reasons why um gilio. used to get sale buys fairly frequently. apparently they' done it just the week. before um was that there is a retired. captain from the Costa um Cruise Line I. guess he'd been there for like ever and. retired and now lived on gelo so they.

would do sail Buys in like in part in to. salute him that was one swing by and. toot the horn basically um there was. also a matred on board named Antonello. tiev he was from gilio and he had family. there so apparently the captain was. doing this as a favor or an honor to to. the matri and then um thirdly the. passengers love that kind of thing too. they're just dazzled by how close the. the land is like you could just Reach. Out And Touch It kind of thing yeah and.

and this is later in court what scatina. would say like these were the three. reasons uh there was and you know I. don't super remember this for some. reason uh or I didn't at least until uh. we got to this point which was there was. an affair going on between captain. scatino and a woman Nam uh Dominica and. how do you pronounce that last name I'd. say sim simmeron siman or something like. that CE m o r t an yes she was moven uh.

who had worked on the ship the month. before like a short-term thing uh. evidently had met Captain scatino they. started this affair she was on board she. was 26 years old and was on board uh for. this Cruise as a passenger as an unpaid. passenger kind of like you know come on. that's my guest type of deal right. because we're having an affair and so. prosecutors would say Hey you wanted to. impress your uh your girlfriend that you. were having an affair with so that. that's why you did it and this is when.

it all kind of clicked I kind of. remembered all of a sudden that became a. big deal in the trial and the News was. the kind of the public uh outing of this. relationship and you know cruise ship. crashes because uh Captain's trying to. impress his young girlfriend yes and she. was on the bridge at the time during. this incident um and like I said they. had done a sale by the week before of. jilio Captain scatino did uh again to. honor ananello tev the matri and after.

that last one he had set some some crew. members to the task of figuring out an. even closer Sail by Route yeah this was. the one they were testing out so they. had Sail by gilio before but apparently. this is a brand new even closer route. and I guess they had gotten that retired. sea captain on the phone to tell him. about the Sail by they were doing and. found out that he wasn't even on the. island he was back on the mainland at. his winter house and as they were so now.

you're down to two reasons right exactly. and as they're on the phone Captain. scatino is like say um let me ask you a. little bit about the Rocks around gilio. that we're driving past right now and I. guess the captain didn't even get um any. kind of reply out before the line went. dead and they think that at that moment. the line hadn't actually gone dead but. that Captain scatino had hung up because. he realized that they were about to hit. a rock on their port side Port is left. the easiest way to remember that is left.

has four four letters and Port has four. letters and they both end in t two great. ways to remember that starboard right. you know Port left it's just two things. to remember though it's not that hard so. um I always have trouble with it do you. really yeah okay so they're driving by. Julio and they're they're keeping away. from these rocks on their starboard side. on the right side what they didn't. realize is that they're actually driving. through two outcroppings of rocks and. the one on the left side the port side.

got them yeah these are called the skull. rocks SE o e uh and you know they're all. over the place and you can't necessarily. see them all sticking out of the water. and at you know uh the last moment. basically he orders a course correction. SK scatino does the Helmsman at the time. was an Indonesian man named Jacob rusley. Ben and went the wrong way because there. was a language issue uh put a pin in. that cuz will come back up later in.

court uh and the stern collided at 9:45. and the timeline's pretty important here. so 9:45 p.m. is when they first make. contact and tear a. 174 ft gash in the port side of that. ship yeah uh it later on as as we'll see. in court uh there were um experts that. basically said Hey listen there was no. course correction at that point that. would have mattered they were just too. close yeah so it wasn't the fact that. this guy went the wrong way it's not.

like all Jacob Ben's uh fault uh so that. would come out later but immediately. 174t tear in the side of the ship is an. immediate disaster as far as how much. water this thing is taking on very very. fast yeah and I mean just to put it in. sports terms that's like half the length. of a soccer pitch or uh an American. football field like that's a really long. tear and it was really deep and it ran. so hard into the Rocks Chuck an 80 ton.

Boulder became embedded in that tear in. the ship and was there for forever. permanently apparently they later on. removed it and are using it as part of a. memorial but it was this huge bowler was. a huge huge tear and it also was in a. terrible place it it hit some watertight. compartments tore clean into them so now. these watertight compartments are. starting to take on water not good for. any ship but one of those compartments. was also the engine room and in very. very short order uh the engine room.

started to flood and they lost power. very very quickly it was very clear. right at the outset that they had a huge. problem going on yeah and when you say. lost power like they lost electricity. but they also lost you know engine power. the engine was off the rudder wasn't. operable uh all the lights went out so. now they're in the dark uh they can't uh. do anything engine wise to try and you. know pry thems off or anything like that. that uh scatino did it seem like uh do a.

fairly decent job uh steering it I guess. gliding it in just steering it on uh. inertia or whatever toward the port side. to at least get it a little closer which. they say might have helped save some. lives but uh it caused the ship to tip. even more and that was a big uh big. factor in how many people ended up dying. was the fact that this boat started it. it turned on its side basically uh not.

completely on its side what was the. degree in the end 70 degrees Yeah I mean. that's pretty close to uh to 90 yeah I. mean 0 degrees is upright 90 degrees is. completely on its side this was ended up. listing to 70 de so yeah for all intents. and purposes if you r on that ship it. was basically on its side right yeah and. the the idea that scatino managed to. navigate the ship so the ship was still. it was still moving they just didn't. have any power it was moving under. momentum when the power went out and it.

was the scary thing was Chuck it was. starting to head out to sea with 174 ft. gash in the side taking on water and had. it kept going out to sea it would have. sunk and possibly a lot more people died. yeah for sure the bone of contention is. whether scatino did anything or not some. Maritime experts later on said he didn't. do a thing that Rudder got stuck in the. perfect position and managed to do yes. it did 180° turn thanks to the wind and.

the rudder and miraculously turned. around and came back to land rather than. deep water where it kind of wedged. itself against the Rocks he probably. didn't have anything to do with it. although he tried to claim that because. they're like that probably saved lives. well I will say this if scatino said it. was me that did it then I'm immediately. inclined to not believe it that is a. good rule of thumb with this guy yeah uh. shall we take a break yeah we should all. right that's a good setup uh this cruise.

ship is taking on water it's listing. with everyone on board and we're going. to come back and tell you what happened. right after. this stuff you should. know. [Music]. and stuff you should. know.

[Music]. all right so remember I said to pay. attention to the timeline this thing. again hits those rocks at 9:45 p.m. uh. what I would do if I was a captain and I. know nothing about captaining a cruise. ship or or anything larger than a. pontoon boat you. don't no I I would have immediately. called for help uh but that didn't. happen scatino did not call for help. immediately I think he knew that he had. really screwed up yeah and I I'm not.

sure if he immediately knew just how bad. things were I I would say the the. listing of the boat would have been a. real key indicator that it's much worse. than like anyone could have imagined he. also got word almost immediately that. the engine room was flooding yeah so he. knew how how bad it was pretty quickly. uh the reason that the authorities on. land you know even knew this was. happening is cuz you know they're right. there off the shore so people on the. ship are calling to Shore and people. people on land like see this happening.

and they're like hey this cruise ship is. there only 1500 people but it was it was. a big thing and I imagine it made tons. of noise they talked about the sound of. uh the the scraping like how loud it was. and how like scary sounding it was so. the long and short of it is uh search. and rescue called them at 10 p.m. 15. minutes later and scatino kind of. downplayed it a little bit Yeah at first. he was probably like let it ring just. let it ring they'll go away however. because this is modern times and one of.

the great things about something like. this happening in modern times is you. have recordings of phone calls and stuff. that you can go to you can't just you. know it's not like the Titanic days when. you could lie about something and maybe. get away with it right you know so they. recorded this call uh between crisis. coordinator Roberto fer ferini from. Costa cruises in scatino where he. finally admits I've made a mess and. practically the whole ship is. flooding uh yet still at 10:10 this is.

almost 30 minutes later uh the Coast. Guard is calling again and they finally. learn that it's taking on water almost a. half hour later yeah because the guy he. admitted it to like you said it was he. worked for Costa Cruzes he's like the. guy you call when when everything has. just hit the fan and so he he didn't. like the first call they were like no. just tell them it's a blackout and. that's what they told the Coast Guard it. wasn't for till that second were like. yeah we're taking it on water why don't.

you send us a tugboat one Tugboat that's. all they requested luckily people on. Shore had gotten word that there was. something weird going on and they. started to move down yeah basically they. started to move down toward the rack and. um it became immediately clear that. there was a huge problem the ship was. starting to tilt it was way closer to. land than it should be apparently it. came to rest 1,000 ft from Land that's. how close it was was it looked even. closer when you see the the wreck.

footage for sure like it's really really. close to land and um that there were. plenty of people on board so they. started rushing to the the accident. scene in boats and uh eventually by. helicopters and calling in the people. they needed and again the the ship is. not asking for this stuff other people. are being like you guys need this stuff. we're we're coming because um scatino. was trying to downplay it to save his. reputation and the ch cordney were was. trying to save the company's.

reputation yeah so rescue boats uh. finally arrive at 1040 this is almost. this 55 minutes later almost an hour. after this thing hits these rocks you. finally get rescue boats and scatino. finally uh gives the order to abandon. ship uh some people had already taken. upon themselves to get the lifeboats. going cuz you know they they the riding. was on the wall uh and then something. happened that is uh. really hard to believe that a he did it.

and B he thought he could get away with. it yeah but at. 1120. scatino abandoned ship the captain of. the ship the captain. is the oath well I don't know if they. take an oath but they probably do let's. just say it's at least figurative the. oath of the the captain is supposed to. go down with the ship and be like the. last person off you know they're in. charge they're the ones that are. supposed to make sure everything is uh. is least chaotic as it can be right and.

scatino skattles at. 11:20 uh and in court later he basically. got laughed at uh said that he had. fallen off the ship and landed in a. Lifeboat yeah and they're like well why. didn't you get back off he's like I. don't know I didn't want to yeah I was. in there yeah they remarked that when he. made it to land that he wasn't even wet. but just to get across like how how. badly he abandoned the ship he said.

abandoned ship at 11: and was off within. 20 minutes himself the the local. authorities didn't mark the evacuation. as complete until about 500 a.m. yeah. that's how that's how he abandoned. almost everybody on that ship just left. and what's crazy is his crew like the. higher up crew left with him they didn't. leave anyone in charge there was a total. power vacuum and there was a really big. too that they they had so at the time.

under maritime law if you had a cruise. ship within 24 hours of departing you. had to run through your emergency. evacuation drill with the passengers and. the crew have you ever been on a cruise. ship I've been on one cruise and it's. it's a total buzz kill but the very. first thing you do is to gather everyone. in this huge room and go over all that. stuff yes it's aain you got pass mustard. it's the last thing you want to do when. you first get on a cruise ship but. before I guess they kind of acknowledged. that and said just sometime within the.

first 24 hours after the Costa Concordia. they're like you have to do that before. you even set sale now but they before. you have your first rum punch exactly. they hadn't even done that yet so not. only did the passengers not know what. was going on Not only was there. literally no one in charge but much of. the crew was reported to have basically. been throwing elbows to get on lifeboats. themselves ones that were stepping up. and trying to lower lifeboats clearly. didn't know how to do it apparently.

there was a retired sailor who was on. board as a passenger who basically. shoved one of the crew members out of. the way to lower the Lifeboat himself. cuz the crew member was so incompetent. at it yeah so from top to bottom from. Captain to passenger no one essentially. knew what to do they just knew that this. ship was tilting at some really scary. angles and water was starting to come up. and all of a sudden what you used to be. the walls were now the floor what used.

to be the other wall is now the ceiling. and what used to be the floor and the. ceiling are now walls that's how how. much the the the ship had tilted I can. keep going I can tell you like the. carpeting went from the floor to the. wall if you keep going This ship's going. to be upright again so they need they. needed you there just to explain things. that brass railing you used as a hand. rail you could dangle from it it's at. the ceiling fireman's pole exactly so. yeah and the other the other really. scary thing about it is aside from that. that you're lucky if you're in a deck.

that's just like that there's also. corridors that go from one side of the. ship to the other those are now vertical. shafts I saw it put um there was a. really yeah essentially that you could. fall into and all of a sudden you're. falling to the other side of the ship it. was like the Poseidon Adventure halfway. it's like whatever TV show you were. watching all of a sudden was almost. upside down right you would have to. dangle from the floor which is now the. ceiling to watch the TV appropriately.

that's right so after midnight uh the. Coast Guard Captain there uh Gregorio. DeFalco called scatino and again these. are recorded phone calls which is great. um and at that point scatino was is in. that Lifeboat and there was a a very. dramatic conversation that they had and. which was played later on where DeFalco. says you got to return to that vessel. pal you're the captain and you oversee.

this evacuation it's chaos and you. should be up there in charge and he. became sort of a local folk hero in. Italy and uh there was a line that he. had uh which Livia helped us with this. so she puts it kind of nicely a PJ a PG. translation is uh get back on the board. damn it uh and this was printed on. t-shirts and it was sold in Italy it. became a very big part of the trial uh. scatino didn't do it. uh he was like nope not going back on um.

by 12:40 so this is almost 3 hours later. uh there were 25 Patrol boats 14. Merchant vessels and those helicopters. on the scene and uh I I think by you. know by this time the ship was uh listed. so severely that they'd lost like all of. the Portside lifeboats they couldn't. even launch those so you're dealing now. with half the lifeboats as well yeah the. floors now walls. but the reason why you couldn't do the.

Lifeboat shook is because on the port. side rather than being the side of the. ship that was now Skyward that was like. the top of the ship how are you going to. lower a Lifeboat like that you can't do. it luckily they got apparently 23 of the. 26 lifeboats launched before it just. became impossible to launch the last. three but which should be enough for all. the people right they have it should. have and I think it was but the the the. whole thing was done so disorderly. people were from one place to another. yeah of course and 32 people ended up.

dying and most of them I should say most. of the drowning deaths deaths apparently. occurred around the same moment and that. is so the ship was listed at 20° you can. work with that but your dishes are. sliding off of your tables and stuff. like that nothing you want to really. deal with but you can manage and it. started a list it made it to about 50°. now it's a real problem I think about. then they couldn't launch any of the. boats but then from 50 Dees it started. to list to 70 degrees that where it's.

almost completely on its side and that. happened quickly enough that people who. had been on the starboard side and said. nope life boat's full go to the port. side were actually caught in between the. two inside interior rooms and now all of. a sudden water's coming up from the the. walls and the floor and you're trapped. inside a room that you can't swim out of. and I guess I think like 11 or 16 people. died that way just getting caught when. the when the ship listed and the water.

started to come up and it happened. almost all at once so you can make a. really good case that had they not. delayed this rescue had they initially. called for help immediately they. probably would have gotten everybody off. of that ship before it listed to 70° and. all those people who drowned in the in. the center of the ship um almost. certainly would have lived yeah. absolutely uh you know we talked about. all of the um upper tier crew. getting off on the lifeboats with uh.

with a captain uh that left and Livia. helped us with this and she found some. pretty great examples uh of of Heroes of. this situation that left and some of. them actually did uh rescue people that. left musicians and waiters and. bartenders um to help these are these. are not crew members that are trained. you know to run the cruise ship these. are people serving you food and drinks. uh or playing the drums that was a oh. yeah uh a drummer uh jeppi uh jamo he.

was 30 years old he uh had a spot on. that last Lifeboat but he gave it up for. a family with two kids uh he perished a. bartender named Erica uh fonnie Soria. Molina uh gave up her life jacket to an. elderly man and uh perished you know. once this thing is moving around and. like the currents around something like. this uh you know before it's stationary. are are vast and I imagine once that is. even is stationary um just all the the.

transfer of of air and and and a vacuum. of water being sucked in like it's very. perilous water that you're getting into. so a lot of these people uh died by you. know jumping in the water to try to swim. to shore but they were just kind of. sucked under and kept there yeah and. they may have made it had they kept. their life jackets but for one reason or. another they gave their life jackets. away to save other people um so yeah. that was extraordinarily sad there was a. lot of uh Valiant efforts including from.

people who survived too um one of the. heroes of the story was the deputy mayor. of uh jilio Porto I think the main town. on it yeah he yeah he was the one who. basically filled that power vacuum he. went um and was working side by side. with the I think the chief Navigator a. guy named Simone canessa who was the one. who was ordered to lie to the uh Coast. Guard when they first called those two. worked to get like a couple hundred.

people off of the ship that were that. were stuck on it when it listed to 70. degre and they were doing things like. they they found an aluminum ladder truck. and you basically had to climb it to get. to the railing of one of the decks. because again it's at 70° and don't get. me started about what's a wall and. what's a floor but they were basically. using this ladder in the exact opposite. direction that you normally would and. when you would get up to the top of the. ladder you had to climb over the deck. railing and now you were on the port.

side hole of the ship and you had to. scoot down tens and tens of feet using a. rope ladder and then jump the last three. to five feet onto a waiting um rescue. boat and like 110 people managed to. survive by using this exit that um that. uh Kessa and the deputy mayor managed to. organize yeah I mean to drive it home. this deputy mayor who was you know.

probably just easing in for a late. dinner on his cozy Island MH as scatino. is bailing off this ship this guy is. getting aboard the ship he was the he. was the first one from that Island to. get out there and say I'm getting on. board that ship to help people as the. captain has has bailed in a Lifeboat. yeah it's a really great point out for. sure they may have even passed one. another uh yeah uh so you said 150 uh. I'm sorry 32 people died 150 people uh.

were injured 65 very seriously injured. we're talking uh partial paralysis um. there was one case of blindness uh. amputations um obviously a lot of people. that suffered from PTSD. afterward uh it took to 6:00 a.m. uh the. next morning for uh. everybody everyone to be evacuated that. was still alive as as we'll see there. were um very sadly some bodies that they. would find uh in the months as far as.

like uh recovery of the Dead goes um. during the the operation to save this or. not save the ship but to to save the. environment from the ship basically yeah. that was a huge thing so they went from. rescuing people to recovering remains to. preventing a maritime environmental. catastrophe of unparalleled proportions. from happening because this ship had. 2600 I think tons of fuel um and oil and.

hydraulic lubricants and all sorts of. stuff that would love to get back in the. water yeah on board and it was just. waiting all that ship had to do was. start to crack up and it was laying. against some rocks at a 70° angle no one. knew how much pressure it was having. exerted in the middle was it going to. break in half at the Rock like The. Rock's going to be a full crumb they had. no idea they just knew that they needed. to get that oil out of that ship as fast. as possible so that was also one of the.

one things they were doing while they. were simultaneously searching for. remains yeah so not only the fuel uh and. we should point out that this is uh. gilio is inside the uh pelo Sanctuary. the largest Marine Wildlife Park in the. Mediterranean yeah uh just an amazing. place and you've got this oil and then. you have uh everything on the ship all. kinds of plastics all kinds of chemicals. all kinds of nasty stuff uh all kinds of.

food uh apparently the food spoilage. like they were right in the middle of. dinner service so not only all the food. that they were serving for dinner which. you know for a cruise ship if you've. ever been to a dinner service it's just. more food than you can ever imagine. basically yeah but all the food you know. the freezers are bursting all the food. that's on the ship it's at the very. beginning of this Cruise so it's fully. stocked and so that was an environmental. disaster attracting all kinds of sea. life uh making you know the the runoff. effect of that is you have people who.

make their living uh fishing on this. tiny Island like many many people do. that and all of a sudden their industry. is wrecked uh for a while because this. ship you know to make a long story short. ended up laying there for about two and. a half years yeah and it was a. environmental disaster and that Nova. documentary he sent me Nova did a it's. 53 minutes long and it's what what was. it called sunken sunken ship rescue mhm. uh it is if you have a PBS subscription.

it is worth your time to watch the. documentary on the Salvage operation on. this thing because it is unbelievable. what humans can think of the Ingenuity. of humans to take an unprecedented. situation like this and figure out how. to safely get that boat out of there was. just I've never seen anything like it. well let's talk about uh a couple more. things before the Salvage we'll take a. break and then come back and talk some. Salvage how about that. let's do it so in addition to like the. food that they're having to float past.

the divers who are looking for remains. and apparently also um they found three. people alive who were trapped after um. the evacuation was complete um one was. the ship's Purser who had fallen into a. restaurant because it was sideways and. he was trapped there for 36 hours and. then another was a Korean couple who. were on their honeymoon who got trapped. in their cabin so there was like wow we. we found some some live people it really. made them redouble their diving efforts.

um and it was really dangerous diving. through this stuff like there's bed. sheets that you could get wrapped up in. as a diver um there were knives floating. around coming toward you um just tons of. debris chandeliers like hanging over you. that could just drop at any minute um it. was a bad Jam as far as diving goes and. there's some really amazing footage of. Di swimming through the the wreckage um. that the Italian police um posted that.

you can go see I would strongly. recommend going to check that out but as. they're doing all this um they finally I. think cleared everybody but two people. there were two bodies that they they. just were like we can't find them right. now we need to get this Salvage. operation underway and they started to. do that all right you want to take the. break now yeah I feel like yeah yeah. we'll be right back every. everybody stuff you should.

know and. [Music]. Sh stuff you should. [Music]. know so Chuck um in I think September. 2013 uh the. almost geez this was January 2012 so.

more than a year almost two years after. the wreck the boat's just been laying. there on its side in the water um 500. people came together to get this thing. upright again and that. was like just a crazy idea because other. people are like no we're going to have. to like demolish this thing in the water. with explosives there's nothing we can. do and some people are like no we can. floated again and they did they managed. to figure out a way um using a technique.

called turnbuckl that got the ship back. upright parbuckling. parbuckling it's like turn buckling but. for giant ships yeah I mean I think. initially I mean the reason it took. almost two years is they were coming up. with a plan to do this right uh so like. when they they hit the ground running in. September 2013 uh initially they were. going to try and cut it into pieces. which is a method that's been used. before but they were like there's no way. we can do that without you know causing.

more environmental uh mess and that's. that's the kind of thing when you when. something like this happens these days. uh the environment is takes precedent. and you have to do it in such a way that. like you said you don't blow it up and. you don't cut it into pieces and wreck. the local environment right so they had. to figure it out and they uh I mean I. suggest watching that documentary it's. amazing they ended up building these. huge platforms underwater that the boat. would sit on once they rolled it back. upright but the whole rolling it upright.

process was fraught with Peril of the. boat breaking apart uh no one knew what. exerting that kind of pressure to kind. of pull this thing back over these huge. steel cables uh would take so it was uh. it's amazing there were a lot of very. tense moments but they did manage to get. this thing upright and floating and. towed it away with tugboats yeah it was. an engineering Marvel apparently they. had lasers and microphones and. everything on all over the ship to make. sure it wasn't settling or moving at any.

point still it well it had become part. of the rock over that time too which is. a very tense moment in the Nova special. because when it was go time that's when. they realized it was like it is now. attached to the seab bed in places nut. and they were like we don't know what's. going to happen and it it dislodged and. it actually worked out but it was very. very tenuous there for a little while so. they got it upright and after that. apparently it um opened up parts of the. ship to exploration that hadn't been.

available before it was just too. dangerous and they found the remains of. the second to last missing victim Maria. graia triari triarii um she was. celebrating her 50th birthday with a. friend and her daughter um when she died. uh she and her her friend died her. daughter survived um and there was just. one last person to be found after that. and they didn't find him his name was. Russell rebello he was another hero. who gave away his uh life jacket to save.

someone else and he was a waiter I think. right he was a waiter and he was um. organizing people to get out of there. he's helping people get off of the ship. and died as a result and I once they. floated the ship and towed it back to. Genoa um for recycling they were just. turning it into scrap 144,000 tons of. scrap um the people doing that project. uh found the remains of Russell rebello. and. a cabin behind some furniture on the. eighth deck um he he had just been.

trapped there the whole time that the. the boat was underwater and they found. him after it was in the shipyard and Dry. Dock yeah uh obviously the legal Fallout. from this was pretty broad uh scatino. was dubbed Captain coward by the media. in Italy and on January 15th uh actually. two days after the prosecutor came. forward uh confirming the events as we. have detailed uh 2 days after that they.

placed uh scatino under house arrest um. obviously that um audio with DeFalco was. released very damning evidence and then. July 2013 that crisis coordinator uh. ferini uh who was on the phone with. scatino uh four members of the crew plad. guilty uh they they took a plea bar. bargain basically where they pleed. guilty to manslaughter got sentences. from one and a half years to close to. three years uh including Jacob rley Ben.

who was the Helmsman who steered the. wrong way and uh scatino says oh this. plea deal sounds like a pretty good. thing I'd like to get in on that and. they're like oh no no there's no plea. deal for you you're going to go to full. trial uh on a manslaughter charge uh. causing the wreck and abandoning ship. and they opened it up into a 1,000 seat. uh Court theater basically in Tuscany so. people could go and watch this play out.

in person it was a huge huge. International spectacle the trial was. two years basically 19 months like it's. it's pretty rare that somebody who's. like roundly vilified MH isn't in some. way like being unfairly vilified but. scatino is one of those rare people. where he totally deserved every bit of. scorn and disdain. that um that was heaped upon him and. still heaped upon him he was a a.

national embarrassment for Italy but. just a just a international snake as far. as everybody else was concerned and from. what I can tell I'm like surely there's. something this guy did that was like oh. actually he did this nope it does not. exist which is you just don't run into. that very often yeah uh he was sentenced. to 16 years he appealed that appeal was. upheld in May 2017 and he is currently. iring that sentence uh there are people. and I'm glad Livia pointed this out uh I.

don't think anyone like you said is. defending scatino but there was more. scorn heaped upon Costa cruises right as. a whole because uh they pointed out. things like you know uh I said put a pin. in the fact that there was a language. barrier between the helmsmen about which. way to steer like they're like that. shouldn't happen there shouldn't be a. language barrier between who's steering. the ship and the captain of the ship you. got to work that out uh uh there were. safety and evacuation procedures that. were uh basically either not known or.

ignored right and that's that's you know. that falls on the company to some degree. for sure and then there were a few. technical things uh there were some uh I. believe watertight doors that were left. open uh it was they were either. malfunctioning or the crew just didn't. shut them because it reduced like the. amount of work to like unseal those. doors and you know made their workflow. easier uh so you know there were a few. things that popped up uh the fact that. they the company even said like sale B.

sale buys are fine like we we do it it's. it's something that we all do and it's. fine like all these things popped up to. put Costa cruises and hold their feet to. the fire so they ended up offering uh a. payout of. €1,000 to anyone who was on board uh. plus obviously reimbursing them for the. trip and any cost related to traveling. for the trip uh as long as you give up. the right to sue yeah and they settled. with it itself for A1 million euro fine. which kept them out of criminal um uh.

lawsuits or criminal charges as a. company they just basically shoved. scatino forward and said here everybody. have at um and again rightfully so but. they the company didn't take the the. kind of um responsibility that it should. have like you were describing and they. got off easy I mean couple million in um. settlements I mean they really inlined. the people who were affected by this but. that's not to say they got off scottf.

free as far as finances go yeah the. Salvage operation itself cost $1.2. billion that's twice the amount it cost. to build the ship in the first place. plus they lost the half a billion dollar. ship right so they lost so you're close. to $2 billion exactly so so scatino. little sale bu cost that company $2. billion it cost the world 32 lives. and some serious injuries as a result. and of course the um area around gelio.

island is not probably never going to be. the same again or won't be for a really. long time um but there was an. interesting little postcript because. somebody else lost out on this deal too. you may or may not feel bad for them but. the calabrian mafia a few years ago came. out um that the the Italian police were. recording their conversations and found. out that the calabrian. had had a bunch of cocaine aboard the. Costa Concordia and it's not clear if it.

was still there uh or if somebody swam. aboard and got it or what the deal was. but it was never like the Salvage crew. was never like we found the. cocaine. yeah pretty interesting yeah and we. should also mention too um during that. uh. the Salvage operation uh remarkably only. one person died considering how how. dangerous the work was they were doing. these industrial divers and uh one of.

them there was a Spanish diver who uh. died February 1st 2014 uh trying to. salvage this thing and help the. environment out pretty. nuts yeah uh there was one other quote. that DeFalco had that um wasn't quite as. touted in the media but I thought was. pretty ba you ready that's a spicy. meatball defal DeFalco said to scatino. on that famous phone call perhaps you. saved yourself from the sea. but I'll make you pay oh yeah that's a. good one he got him.

too wow so that's it for the Costa. Concordia and if you heard all this and. you're like this is really interesting. stuff there's a lot of stuff out there. for you to go check out totally that. Nova dock it's well worth 50 minutes. yeah I mean that alone is worth it what. was it it's. a sunken ship rescue it's a terrible. title it's really hard to get in there. also there's a a really great Vanity. Fair article called another night to. remember I don't remember who wrote it.

but like they describe the people. involved as like ruggedly handsome. receding hairline just Vanity Fair kind. of little interesting details too but. it's really coherent and well written. and really in-depth yeah for sure it's. Vanity Fair baby that's right that's. what they do yep and since Chuck said. it's Vanity Fair baby that means it's. time for listener. mail uh I'm going to call this uh hello. from grateful doc cuz that's what doc. twilling says doc twilling sounds like a.

little house in the prairie. character uh soap pop will clear that. right up hey guys my name is Chris I'm a. physician from Michigan who's been. listening for many years uh initially I. started listening to get through medical. school in those long days and it was a. relief to learn about something other. than medicine I recently started. listening to the selects on pain scales. which inspired me to write in as a. physician I'm constantly assessing pain. severity to both help make diagnoses and. monitor progress uh as the patients heal.

most of the ideas you discuss are part. of an average workday for me however you. taught me some new ideas including the. concept that elderly patients May. Express their pain differently like they. may use uh words like soreness instead. of pain to describe their discomfort uh. I was intrigued by this and researched. the idea further and I'm happy to say I. now use this approach to better treat. pain in my older adult patients uh I. love that uh doc Chris here researched. further and he would just like Josh and. Chuck said it that's right let's Barrel.

ahead yeah that means uh Dr Dr twilling. Doc twilling is doing the right thing. he's a sharp Tech uh that's right you. guys do a great job of taking. complicated subjects and making it. easier for everyone to understand uh the. explanations for medical shows you give. um such as uh on addiction diabetes and. high blood pressure help me frame my own. explanations to my patients uh. communicating complicated topics in a. way anyone can understand remains a. challenge but I feel I'm getting better. every day through listening to how you.

both do it man how about that yeah we're. saving lives here Chuck in a way so uh. doc twilling Chris twilling says if you. ever come to the Midwest I'd love to. come see you so uh put this on the books. doc twilling if we come through Michigan. or anywhere else you can get to you are. on the guest list just send us an email. from this very email that you sent and. remind us couple of weeks before the. show very nice good good thinking Chuck. uh if you want to be like Doc twilling. and get in touch with us and let us know.

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