gCaptain’s Capt. John Konrad recaps Costa Concordia’s approach to Giglio island at a fast 15.5 knots and the ship’s late turn, which sent it crunching onto rocks. He chronicles how Capt. Francesco Schettino then maneuvered the damaged vessel closer to shore after losing steering control in the subsequent blackout. His use of the bow thrusters and the impact of wind and current are all detailed.
It’s a fascinating 14-minute analysis in which Konrad recounts the speed and course of the vessel, what he sees as Schettino’s mistakes and appropriate actions, and how factors like centrifugal force and momentum affected the ship’s movements.
The reconstruction even shows the tracks of rescue vessels streaming toward Costa Concordia as it comes to rest on a rocky shelf.
Konrad, co-founder and ceo of Unofficial Networks and editor-in-chief of gCaptain.com, is a US Coast Guard licensed master mariner of unlimited tonnage who has sailed a variety of ships from ports around the world since graduating from SUNY Maritime College.
For the Costa Concordia analysis, he used a nautical chart overlaid with AIS data that he said was captured by someone with an antenna on Giglio and processed via QPS Maritime Software.
In a disclaimer, Konrad notes that the exact details of what happened in the deadly disaster will not be known until the Voyage Data Recorder, or ‘black box,’ information is made public.
The analysis is at http://gcaptain.com/gcaptains-john-konrad-narrates-the-final-maneuvers-of-the-costa-concordia-video/?37941.
