What would you expect if you were on a cruise and in the middle of the night it began to sink, you were handed a lifejacket, told to abandon ship, forced to leave all your belongings, and then left to your own devices during 8 hours of sheer panic where you crawled in the dark to find a rescue boat or had to jump into the sea. Then a day later you discover the captain and officers got the heck off before they told you to abandon ship. What would be your expectation from the cruise line?
(Telegraph) The owners of the Costa Concordia are offering survivors of the disaster a 30 per cent discount off future cruises as they battle to stave off law suits expected to cost hundreds of millions of pounds. One British survivor of the disaster, which claimed 12 lives with 20 people still missing, branded the offer as “insulting”.
It was disclosed that in an attempt to help survivors the ship’s parent company, Carnival, has been telephoning passengers daily asking if they are suffering nightmares or sleepless nights. But that move also appeared to backfire when a psychologist said such questioning could trigger post traumatic stress rather than relieve it.
A little over a week after the ship capsized off the coast of Tuscany, it also emerged that an emergency services log showed that the Concordia’s captain, Francisco Schettino, abandoned ship more than four hours before the last passenger.
The offer for future discounts is being made by Costa Cruises, which operated the Concordia and whose parent company is Carnival, the world’s largest cruise operator.
Passengers were also being sent letters by Costa detailing how to claim for lost valuables and offering a full refund on the voyage.
Lawyers plan to sue both in the US and in Italy, with more than 100 passengers already reported to have joined a class action that is to be lodged in Miami this week.
Each is reported to be demanding between £100,000 and £1 million in compensation. A spokesman for Costa Cruises said: “The company is trying to do everything they can for those passengers directly affected.
“The company is not only going to refund everybody but they will offer a 30 per cent discount on future cruises if they want to stay loyal to the company.”
Costa’s chief executive, Pier Luigi Foschi, who estimated that the impact of the disaster on his firm was £60 million, had expressed confidence that the group would be able to “find a solution that, in the material sense, would satisfy” the passengers. (read more)