| Passengers were enjoying their first gala evening meal aboard the Costa Concordia when they heard a "loud bang" and the lights suddenly went out. The holidaymakers were only two hours into their Mediterranean voyage - and reportedly had not even had their safety briefing. Amateur video footage showed calm scenes as passengers walked through the corridors to their rooms to fetch life jackets, unaware of the danger they were in. The crew had reassured them that it was just a generator fault. But the calmness quickly turned to chaos as the boat was flooded with water "within two to three minutes". The vessel quickly started to list dramatically to the left, sending some passengers tumbling down stairwells. The ship then righted itself before listing again, this time to the right - and that was when it started to sink. It was then - at about 10pm on Friday - that Captain Francesco Schettino gave the order to abandon the 290m-long ship with seven short whistles. Footage captured on a mobile phone showed passengers scrambling to get on lifeboats. One person filmed the chaotic scenes on their lifeboat with everyone screaming when the rope broke as the small boat was being lowered to the water. Some passengers likened scenes on the blacked-out, sinking vessel to those on the Titanic and said people ran from restaurants as crockery smashed all around them. Within hours, the boat, built in 2006, was rested on an 80 degree angle with almost half of its right side under water ... |
