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What caused Costa Concordia to hit the rocks? Human error, electrical failure, uncharted obstruction, are all theories to be investigated

16 January 2012
There's a scene in the disaster movie The Towering Inferno in which Steve McQueen’s fire chief rails against architects for building office blocks higher and higher, with scant regard for public safety. What would he have made of gigantic floating hotels passing for modern cruise liners?

In the past decade, the size of passenger ships cruising the world’s oceans has doubled. Biggest of these monsters weigh more than 225,000 tons, carrying more than 6,000 passengers.

The Costa Concordia is no minnow. As the 26th largest passenger ship in the world, its 13 passenger decks are stacked on a vessel nearly 1,000 ft long and 100ft high above the water. When it set sail from Italy on Friday, it resembled a floating office block rather than a conventional ship.  For years there have been concerns within the shipping industry these ocean-going behemoths are too big, crews poorly trained, officers too reliant on electronic navigation aids.

Crucially experts have warned construction and safety standards for modern cruise ships, were designed for vessels half their size. So how did the Costa Concordia come to capsize within yards of the shore? Last night there were at least three conflicting theories.

What is certain, soon after the voyage began, passengers heard a bang as the ship was plunged into darkness. The first theory is based on the captain’s account of events: he hit an uncharted rock, reacted by bringing the vessel into safer shallow waters off the island of Giglio. There it was damaged again on rocks and rolled on to its side.

Under International Maritime Organisation rules, captains are supposed to use the ship as a ‘lifeboat,’ return to port for evacuation.

The second is, there was a massive electrical failure which affected the ship’s navigation equipment, or a computer failure sending the navigation systems haywire, causing it to go too close to shore where it hit the rocks. 

 A third theory is, it was old-fashioned human error or even recklessness which allowed the vessel to ground in shallow waters.

The investigation will look into every decision, order and event leading up to the sinking, with months to come to a conclusion. On paper, human error remains the prime suspect. 
It is the main cause of 80 per cent of shipping accidents. The crew may simply have become distracted or lost concentration early in the voyage, allowing the vessel to drift to the coast.

The Electronic Chart Display Information System computer based, which uses GPS and mapping to pinpoint a vessel’s location, should have sounded an alarm the moment the ship left its course. If it didn’t, this suggests human error was compounded by computer failure.  One clue to what happened lies in reports of an explosion and failure of the ship’s lights. This points to electrical failure, perhaps caused by a power surge which led to a malfunction in the ship’s generators.

The ship is powered by a bank of diesel engines which generate electricity to turn propellers, power lights and heating on board. The power surge could have led to an explosion in the engine room causing lights to fail, engines to shut down, and steering to stop working. 

If this happened close to shore, the ship could have run into rocks. The systems are designed to come back on but it takes time; there might not have been enough. A similar failure hit the Queen Mary 2 in September 2010 as it approached Barcelona. On that occasion, there were no hazards nearby so there was no immediate danger; engines were working again within half an hour.

Maritime safety expert Phil Anderson had experience of a power failure in the North Atlantic years ago on a cargo ship. ‘The chief engineer went to the engine room and restarted the engine, but it didn’t give us back the steering,’ he said. ‘The engine went on, revs started building up. The ship turned around sideways to the wind and waves, a highly dangerous position.’

Alternatively, maritime safety expert Alan Graveson believes the captain may have indeed have hit an uncharted rock as he claims. Although the ship would have had an echo sounder to detect unforeseen objects, warning of approaching rocks could have come to late to do anything about it.  Seismic activity has intensified on several occasions recently.

 Uncharted rocks seem unlikely in busy waters off Italy. There is a precedent. In April 2007, a cruise ship called the Sea Diamond struck a reef in Greek waters and sank, killing two passengers. A survey later found the reef was not charted correctly on official maps. Mr Graveson said: ‘If that’s what happened in this case the captain would have headed to land, might have hit more rocks as the ship approached the coast.’

A ship the size of the Costa Concordia is unable to float if water is less than 8 m or 26 ft deep, which explains why it so quickly turned on its side. If it had sunk in deep water, hundreds could have died.

Whatever the cause, Mr Graveson believes the accident highlights a widespread problem with the new generation of massive cruise ships. They may be more vulnerable when taking in water, more likely to list. They are certainly tricky to steer. Crews complain they are like trying to steer a block of flats vulnerable to side wind. They are also harder to evacuate. What little outdoor deck space is available, becomes more crowded as extra storeys of cabins are added to the design.

Surrounded by an flotilla of rescue boats, stricken Costa Concordia lists to  starboard  off the coast of  Giglio on Saturday

Ironically 100 years since Titanic, there are concerns about lifeboats. Andrew Linington of union Nautilus UK, said lifeboats on ships had barely moved since 1912.  Boats are still lowered on wires. If the vessel is listing badly, half are unusable. In contrast, oil rigs already use escape capsules or ‘free fall lifeboats,’  enclosed pods dropping into the water from a sloping ramp. They are quicker to use, do not need to be lowered on wires. Experts stress despite the weekend’s shocking events, accidents remain rare.

Cruise operator plagued by near misses

From humble beginnings as an Italian family firm, Costa has risen to become Europe’s top cruise operator.  It has been plagued by a history of accidents and scandal aboard its 15 ships. 
One collision caused deaths of three crew members, while a near-miss prompted an investigation into the company and its safety record.
In 2008, the Costa Concordia hit the dockside in Palermo, Sicily, in bad weather, causing damage to the bow, though no one was hurt. It is not known whether the same captain was sailing it. 
At the time, an unnamed maritime official blamed ‘100 per cent human error’, but Costa insisted bad weather was the cause. Later that year, power failure was blamed for the Costa Classica smashing into a cargo vessel in China’s Yangtze River, injuring three people.

The cruise line has also been plagued by reports of ineffective equipment and scandal.

In 2008, the Costa Atlantica developed steering problems. Separately, a crew member was arrested on a charge of possessing and importing child pornography. The following year, the cruise line was fined £23,000 for deceptive advertising and there was a near-mutiny on the Costa Europa over engine problems. There was also a fire on the Costa Romantica in the generator room which led to 1,429 passengers being evacuated.

 Costa’s safety record was called into question after a near-miss in the Channel in 2008. The crew of the Costa Atlantica almost collided with a car transporter and was criticised by the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch in an official report for failing to obey the waterway’s strict two-way traffic system.

Costa began as a cargo shipping firm but carried passengers from 1947. In 2000 it was bought by Carnival Corporal, the world’s largest cruise operator which also owns Cunard Line and P&O Cruises in the UK.

The firm owns a combined fleet of more than 100 ships, has a 49 per cent share of the total worldwide cruise market, made £1.3billion profit last year.