All language subtitles for Inside Costa Concordia Voices Of Disaster (2012)

Inside Costa Concordia Voices Of Disaster

Every holidaymaker
captures their memories.

But this time,
their images shocked the world.

And all I could see
was the boat coming down.

If you've seen Titanic the film,

when they're getting on the lifeboats,
that's what it was like,

but it wasn't women and children first.

I was in free fall
for four or five meters.

I imagined
our death would be mentioned

in a couple of lines in the corner
of some newspaper in Korea.

These are Costa Concordia's
voices of disaster.

The cruise ship
Costa Concordia has been damaged

near the island of Giglio
due to a technical problem.

The ship is taking on water.

Five hours earlier,

the Costa Concordia
is docked at the port of Civitavecchia.

It was absolutely huge.
It was like we were standing on the port

actually looking up at the ship
and down either side of it.

It's hard because it's not a building,

so it's different to being
on a tenth floor of a building,

but that's how high it was--
ten stories high on a building.

It was enormous and wonderful.

It was all shiny and magnificent.

You wanted for nothing onboard.

The Concordia departs
carrying 1,023 crew and 3,208 passengers.

Living what everyone says
is the dream lifestyle

of cruising around the world

is doing what everyone
always says they want to do.

We took the cruise and the holiday

to get us back together
because we actually split up

probably 11 months ago.

We split up for a little while,
and sort of things had been tense since,

and I said, "We need a holiday.

We do everything for everyone else,
and it's about time we had some us time."

I expected our honeymoon

to be very comfortable from then on.

I was excited as a little girl.

Oh, my God!

Feel the warmth of the sun.

Luigi, come out and see.

To me, it was a dream.

I fell in love with the ship.

Are you taking pictures of everything?

Tomorrow morning,
I will get up early while you sleep

and I will go take more photos.

I don't like boats.

She dragged me along
to this cruise and said,

"It's in the Mediterranean.
There's no storms. It'll just be nice."

This is the story
of the Costa Concordia

told by the people who were there.

Thank you for staying

on the Costa Concordia
on your holiday at sea.

We are confident that our hospitality

and our friendly
and welcoming atmosphere on board

will help transform your stay
into an unforgettable experience.

The commander
called me to the bridge

and invited me to come
and see his salute of Giglio.

It was a wonderful evening.

The sea was calm, and it was
an ordinary, normal crossing.

We were a bit too close to the shore.

Costa Concordia
enters shallow waters.

I heard a blow.

The ship hit something.

The ship start leaning
on the left side,

and it's, like, push us into the chairs,

and, like, second later,
all the lights went... poof.

There was this boom,
boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,

and I looked at Trace, and I just went,
"Trace, we've just run aground."

And she looked at me
and she said, "No, no, no."

300 meters from shore,
the Concordia hits rocks...

ripping a 50-meter scar in her side.

I have been at sea for 37 years,

and not once in my life did I ever imagine
that something like that would happen.

Ladies and gentlemen,
I speak on behalf of the captain.

Your attention, please.

We have experienced an electrical fault
in one of the generators,

but the situation is under control,

and our technicians are able
to rectify the situation at this time.

So please remain calm,
and we'll keep you informed

as we have more news to inform you.
Thank you for your attention.

We went running
back to our cabin on the eighth deck.

We were really scared.

We could not find our room-- 3848, 8834.

There was so much agitation,
so much confusion.

We have an electrical problem.

The situation is under control...
Please keep calm...

Look at our room.

It seems like
we just got hit by a hurricane.

My first reaction, of course,
was to go down to Bridge Zero

to go to the place where,
more or less, the ship had struck

and inspect the damage that had been done.

I ran into the chief engineer and
his second who told me that it was serious

and that the water
had begun to rise rapidly.

We heard the signal for a leak,

which is two short blasts
followed by alternate tones.

Then we went back to our cabins

and waited and stood there

and were talking to people
like it was just--

it was gonna be over soon,
and they're gonna fix the leak,

and we're gonna be uprighted.

At first, we thought that
the water was only in two compartments,

and by law, with two compartments flooded,
the ship can continue its navigation

as if nothing happened,
but maybe it was not actually like that.

The ship is listing.

It's a bit tilted. Try to walk!

On board, confusion sets in.

Do you speak Spanish?

No, a little.

Why are you wearing
a life jacket if everything is okay?

Crew was not panicking at all.

They was just cleaning, and then boom.

You know, it get black again.

It's tilted, right?

Yes, isn't it?

The passengers obviously wanted to know

much more than we actually knew.

In that case,
we were really all in the same boat.

We still hadn't heard the abandon ship.

We have an announcement
on behalf of our captain.

Please go back to your cabin,
or if you wish, stay around the hall.

We have finished repairing
the generator problem.

Everyone, please stay calm.

Passengers are not buying it.

What do you know about the Concordia?

Now the lights are back on
and the boat is listing to the right.

I don't know anything.
No one is telling us anything.

I want to know if you could tell me
what's happening.

The Concordia turns
towards the island of Giglio.

The tilt was growing and growing,

and we were slowly
getting higher and higher,

and you could see on everyone's faces

that they've started
to get more and more worried.

The ship hits a shallow reef,
sealing her fate.

Inside the ship,
there was no footing anymore.

You could sense the ship tilting
more and more.

I guess I really knew we were in trouble
when the ship starting listing

to the starboard side.

You could actually feel it
going and going,

and the angle was getting worse,
and I'm thinking,

"Right, yep, unless we get off this soon,
we're gonna be swimming."

I told my daughter
if the ship really has a problem

and is going to sink and you can't walk,

and I am 72 years old,
we don't stand much of a chance.

The Concordia
is dangerously unstable.

And then this alarm went off.
Pew, pew, pew.

So they start pulling
the tarp out of the boat,

and people just, like...

...zooming into the gates.

And that's when the mayhem started.

People were just pushing, shoving.

Men pushing women away--
pregnant women, kids.

I was mortified
just to see that happening.

You could just feel your adrenaline.

You know what I mean?
Your natural adrenaline just--

And your heart was pumping,
and, you know, when you--

That feeling of panic,
you don't feel it often,

but when you feel
the adrenaline kicking in,

it's something you'll never forget.

We were on level three,
and we started going down to level two.

Like, "No, everybody up.
Everybody up to four.

Everybody up to four."

Go! Go!

And we also noticed around that time

the water that was coming into the carpets
on the fourth floor.

So I tapped
the carpet with my foot,

and then I kind of poked
my husband and said,

"Look at the water on the floor."

I heard someone come
into our room and say something to us.

It must have been an employee of the ship

who unlocked the door to talk to us.

He must have issued an order
to evacuate in English,

but we were deep in sleep, and plus
the person was speaking in English,

so we didn't understand
what he was saying.

That's why we fell back to sleep.

They told us to come down to
Bridge 4 which was on the fourth floor,

and we were on the 11th floor.

So I said to my daughter,
"I'll get you out

into the corridor
and then into the wheelchair,

but we really can't get down,
and there is no lift."

I really could not go downstairs

with a walking frame,
and there were no lights.

I was going to get stranded here.

Then somebody from the crew came along.

He picks her up like this.

He took off his life jacket

and hoisted me up like a sack of potatoes,

and he carried me with my waist here
and my head hanging down.

I lost the walking frame,
and he took me downstairs.

There were many people.

There was a whole stream of people
on the stairs to Deck 4.

You are requested
to gather at your muster station,

at the meeting point of Bridge 4.

Fifty meters from the shore,
the ship is sinking.

And then somebody
on the stairs simply yelled in English,

"Abandon ship! Abandon ship!"

Abandon ship.

Abandon ship. Abandon ship.

Keep calm. Keep calm.

Children were crying.

Women fell into the arms
of their friends and husbands,

and everybody was in panic and desperate.

They all asked themselves
why they could not move on,

why the staff
didn't let them go downstairs.

Everybody was trying to figure out
how to get out of this situation.

Could we jump in the water?

Please go to the meeting point

on Bridge 4 with your life jacket.

I repeat, put on your life jacket.
Go to the muster station.

We are calmly embarking on the lifeboats.
We are in front of the island of Giglio.

We could see that little part
of the rocky shore all the time.

This is why I stopped him
from jumping into the sea.

You don't know how close
the rocks are underwater.

When you fall on a rock,
you are gone as well.

Oh! They are crushing me!

They didn't lower the boat
for another ten minutes,

so I was sitting in a boat,
and I was shooting video

for, like, probably 15 minutes.

We was just sitting up,
and we can see, like,

people is coming,
like, begging to take them into the boat.

Begging, you know, to take--
"I'm the only one.

Only one person. Please take me, take me."

Yeah, it seemed to me
like feeding time at the zoo.

You throw-- Or even for seagulls.

You throw a handful of chips
out for seagulls,

and they're all just going,
whoosh, onto it.

That's what the lifeboat was.

It was food for these people to go to,
and they were just running, pushing.

Stop it! We are capsizing!

We are going to flip over! Stop it!

But then,
they finally start lowering the boat.

Because, I guess,
they're not using these cranes

often enough, it was, like, rusted
or something's stuck,

so they really cannot pull this rail,

so they tried to unlock it, you know,
but it's just not working.

Do not move! Nobody move!

But even when
the crane pulled the boat

a little bit out of the ship,
now they start lowering.

And they're going
a little slow, slow, slow.

And then it's just dropped, like whoosh.

Hey, no, no!

The boat who was next to us
was directly beneath us,

and what happened
when they were lowering our boat,

it touched their roof,

and people said, "Stop!" You know?
Like, "Stop, stop, stop, stop!"

No!
Stop!

You know, it's scraping. They're touching.

But they stopped it just in time,

so that boat has get away,
and they continue lowering us,

and that's when, you know,
the boat is kept to the side,

and it starts tipping.

Well, your stomach drops.
You're thinking, "What is going--

Are we gonna fall into the water?"

Okay, okay, get it. Okay, sit down!

We had to go down the next level,

so we're going down the steps
'cause the boats had gone,

and then they'd come back again,

so they were picking up
more people on our side.

Water levels rise
as the Concordia tips further.

I was going from side to side

trying to take the passengers
and bring them to the stairs.

Then they only had to go down
and get to Deck 3.

Survivors arrive on Giglio.

Just meters away,
the Concordia continues to sink.

Because the ship,
she would have been on 50, 55,

- maybe even 60 degrees at the time.
- Yeah.

And I had crew members, though,

at each side of us, and they were actually
holding us to go down,

and so that walkway was sort of half--

that was down to level three,
and half that walkway

was actually underwater.

Poor baby! It's barefoot!

Then we got to the
point that there were no lifeboats left,

and the ship was listing even more.

The tilt was getting
a little more and more drastic.

And we went,
"Okay, we've got to be faster."

And I went back up to see
if there was any more people,

and I looked left. There was no one there.

Looked right, and on this lifeboat

that was stuck on Deck 3
were people trying to climb down.

I could see behind me
children, women, old people

with their heads out
of the windows of the lifeboat.

And beneath them, they had the sea,

and if they didn't hang on tightly,
they would have fallen off.

I put one hand on the lifeboat
and one hand on the side of the ship,

and they climbed down one by one,

first by putting their feet
on my shoulders

and then climbing down me.

Where are we?

They know! Please, my love, keep calm!

While islanders
help the survivors,

Giglio's deputy mayor heads to the boat
to assist its evacuation.

I boarded the ship using the
ladder that I keep calling a rope ladder.

That was at the bow of the ship
on the starboard side.

It's not very easy,
but it's also not impossible.

The first thing I looked
for was an official,

a bridge officer who could tell me
what was going on.

I spent the first 20 minutes
going around looking for one,

and given that it was impossible
to find someone,

I started to help people get off the boat.

Unbelievable, that is, really.

We started going up,
and we all lined up on the edge

from where we could jump directly
into the sea.

We were about 80 people
hanging onto this banister.

We were two meters away from the water.

It was jump or wait for the sea
to reach the banister.

I jumped in with both feet,

and in front of me I saw lights
50 or 60 meters away.

After swimming for 10 or 15 meters,

I turned around
because I could hear a metallic noise.

The ship was clearly sinking further,
making a noise.

And then the boat tilted.

Here it is!
Where?

It has sank!

So there was
this kind of scurry

of people who were coming
through the doors

like spiders who ran back to reclaim
their spot on the wall which was inclining

and avoid falling through the doors
that led to the other deck.

You don't have
the sense that the ship is listing.

You don't understand what is happening.

You also feel a bit helpless
in this corridor.

Fear takes hold of almost everyone,

and there's a sense
of not being able to walk.

I remember that well.

Initially, you would have
a sense of the world spinning.

You end up lying on what will
eventually become your floor,

but then you right yourself
and stand on a wall

which was now the floor.

Honeymooners Gi-Duk and Hye-Jin
are still in their cabin.

The sound
that I can still remember vividly

wasn't that of the people.

It was the gigantic groan of the ship
as it slowly tilted towards the water.

It almost seemed like
the gigantic cruise liner

that we were on was sobbing.

It was only after the ship

began to tilt noticeably that we woke up.

[Hye-Jin, translated] Still, until then,
I couldn't even imagine

that the ship could be sinking.

By then, most of the passengers
had evacuated the ship.

We crossed the railing
and walked down the hull of the ship.

It's a strange feeling
when you jump over a railing

and you realize that you
can actually walk down the hull

because the ship is already almost
at an angle of 90 degrees.

So we walked towards that rope ladder,

which was 20 to 30 meters away from us.

I let my wife go down the ladder first
and followed her closely.

She managed to jump onboard
the ship of the coast guard,

who had seen us come down the ladder.

She was picked up by the coast guard.

I stayed on the rope ladder

until I was picked up
maybe five or ten minutes later.

It was dangerous
to climb down the hull of the ship.

It was slippery, and there was
only one rope ladder to climb down.

There were about 500 people

to be taken off the ship
with this one ladder

without creating a panic.

A young, athletic person could walk easily
along the railing,

but there were certain elderly people
who needed 15 minutes to move one meter.

Over 3,900 people are now safe.

We realized
the danger we were in,

so we decided to get out
as soon as possible.

The floor of the hallway
was leaning severely,

so we had to walk on the wall,

but we were worried that the wall
would collapse if we stepped on it,

so instead we walked along the corner
where the wall and the floor meets

and worked our way
to the opposite end of the hallway.

But the landing of the stairs
was also tilted severely,

and there was no way we could negotiate it
without slipping and sliding.

In the end,
we realized that our escape routes

on either end of the hallway were blocked.

The ship
has tilted over 80 degrees.

I looked
at the bow of the ship,

and I saw a small group
of isolated passengers,

so I tried to reach them,
but the floor was quite slippery.

I decided to walk on the bulkhead
that had become the floor

because of the inclination of the boat.

So I put my foot on the first door,

and I saw that the door opened outwards

so I could walk on it
without any problems.

I'm sure that the others
would be the same,

but one door was in fact a manhole for me,

and I found myself falling in the darkness
without understanding why.

I fell for four or five meters.

Then I rolled down the stairs
and probably fainted.

If the ship tilted further

and the water came into the hallway,
we would be dead.

So I decided to check
the water level in the ship.

I crawled towards the end of the hallway
until I reached the edge of the stairs.

I had picked up a lipstick
on the ground in the hallway,

so I dropped the lipstick down the stairs.

The splash came sooner than I expected.

We realized that the water
was about ten meters from where we were,

and thought
that the water level was rising.

I was paralyzed with fear at that moment.

That was when it hit me that we could die.

When I woke up,
I found myself totally in water.

I realized that my left leg was broken.

At first, I had no idea where I was.

Then I realized
that I was in the restaurant,

the Milano restaurant.

I tried to get to a dry place,
but walking was very difficult.

I reached the leg of an upended table.

With lots of effort, I climbed onto it,

and I spent the night there
with my legs in the water.

Experts from the fire service
take over the rescue operation.

It was the first time
I had ever seen a ship in that position,

and the impression was similar
to what I experienced

when assisting
with the beaching of a whale.

So, immediately
one begins to mentally project

a film of what might be a possible way
into the scene of the accident.

We began to hypothesize the flood line
inside the various levels.

We also needed to understand
where to enter and how to move around.

Our colleagues inside
immediately informed us

of the physical difficulties
of moving inside a ship

that had been constructed to be
in another position altogether.

The Concordia's
three kilometers of corridors

are now a deadly obstacle course.

When the sun rose,
I changed position three or four times

with a lot of difficulty...

And managed to grab
a sandwich that was there.

I was hungry, but it was inedible.

Fortunately, I grabbed a couple
of soft drinks floating in the water.

I always tried to keep an eye

on the water level to understand
how the ship was moving,

if it was listing more or not.

I kept thinking, "If the ship doesn't make
strange or sharp movements,

sooner or later,
someone will take me out of here."

Inside, we found corridors

that had become wells
and were completely flooded,

doors that connected to rooms

that had become open traps
below your feet.

This was creating
a truly dangerous situation

for our colleagues inside.

I imagined our deaths would be mentioned

in a couple of lines in the corner
of some newspaper in Korea.

I thought how devastated my parents
would be to find out

that there daughter had died after
they sacrificed so much to raise her.

The team that boarded the ship

was responsible for entering
inside the ship via the corridors,

calling out in the hopes of hearing
responses or receiving signals or sounds

that could lead to eventual survivors
still trapped inside the ship.

For a long time,
we were able to hear nothing.

Then, all of a sudden,
we heard a knocking noise.

We replied to them by knocking in return.

Then they knocked back to us,
so we knocked once more.

Around 9:30 p.m.,
a colleague onboard the ship

reported that he had heard something.

He said, "There's probably someone.
We've heard something."

Well, frankly his report
was so full of emotion

because it had been many hours
that he'd been on the ship,

and there was a lot of emotion
also for us on land.

I immediately activated all the resources
we had on land at that moment--

rubber dinghies, the patrol boats--

and we all went towards the Concordia.

Then, all of a sudden,
I heard voices accompanying that sound.

The rescuers were foreigners
who were speaking in a foreign language,

so I couldn't understand
what they were saying,

but the fact that I heard human voices
made my heart skip a beat.

It was when I heard those voices
that I finally became sure

that we would be able to get out of there.

Two Korean tourists
in their twenties who had been trapped

on the cruise ship Costa Concordia
have been rescued.

They came onboard cold and frightened.

They were terrified.

We covered them up because they
had the first symptoms of hypothermia.

We headed straight to the harbor.

And they began to cry.

I slept very little
because the cold was eating me up.

The lights of the rescue boats
around the ship at night comforted me

because I thought that, sooner or later,
someone would hear me.

The ship listing
formed a kind of labyrinth

in which the walls became
the floor and vice versa.

And all lower parts were full of water.

We dived into the water
and went through this inundated section.

I heard some noises,

and I decided to shout
so they would hear my voice.

So around 3:30, a fireman spoke to me

and asked me if I could see him
since he had a flashlight.

I told him I could see him.

He told me, "Okay, we know where you are.
We'll come to get you."

After that, I never saw this man again.

We had to go through areas in which,

for instance,
there were trolleys balancing

on open doors right over our head.

So we evaluated the risk, and we decided
that it was worth it, right?

Because there was someone to be saved.

After approximately 40, 45 minutes,

the three of us
could reach the injured person.

At around 8:30, 9:00 in the morning,

I heard the sounds of the first rescuers
that were coming to get me.

Finally, I hugged my rescuer who,

with a stretcher
and a kind of inflatable sausage,

immobilized my leg,

tied me up on the stretcher,
and took me away.

After 36 hours
of loneliness, cold, and darkness,

he thought he was safe,
but we knew that it wasn't the case.

Now the most difficult part
of the whole rescue was starting

because we had to go back using
that same route that was so difficult.

Furthermore,
we had to keep him out of the water

because he would have otherwise died
of hypothermia.

This was our mission,
to move him without getting him wet.

So they tied me up
on the stretcher and told me,

"Within an hour, you'll be out,

and we promise you
you won't get wet again."

They really made a huge effort
to take me out

through the labyrinth of a ship
that was already listing by 90 degrees.

The ship was KO.

Throughout the journey,
he did not once scream in pain.

This really energized us,

but we knew very well
how serious the situation was.

I lived those three hours
like a trip to-- I don't know where.

I had the feeling
that I was slowly coming back to life.

It's like being born again.