Some lessons have already being learned. Costa is introducing new rules about safety briefings

As they closed in, the giant scale of the cruise ship became clear. It was like taking a look at an apartment block lying in the sea: a ship, yes, but everything about its orientation was wrong. They lay on her side, the hull obscenely exposed to our widening eyes. The ferry passed within a couple hundred feet as they entered the main port of Giglio Island and the sizable chunk of rock, the size of a automobile, could clearly be seen embedded in her hull.
Over the next weeks, I spent a giant part of every day staring at the wreck -- and yet still it surprised me. Each morning my crew and I would descend the vertiginous road from our hotel, round a sharp bend and there was this colossal ship on her side. From the top of the island, the Costa Concordia looked exactly like a bath-time toy, carelessly capsized by a kid's hand. But this surreal tableau was etched in epic proportions.
Now that the frantic first reports of what happened are behind us, CNN has built up a way more comprehensive view of what went wrong, thanks to documents, congressional testimony and interviews with dozens of specialists, crew members, witnesses and passengers.


What they found will be unsettling for somebody who has taken or is thinking of taking a cruise: allegations of inadequate safety briefings & chaos in the minutes after the collision; a captain who failed to sound a general alarm for  an hour, meaning vital, lifesaving assemblies at lifeboat stations did not take place; & a crew that felt unable to act without clear orders from their captain.
In some cases, lifeboats were unable to be launched because by the time the general alarm finally sounded at ten:48 p.m., the ship was leaning over far to permit the lifeboats to launch.


Computers that monitor the ship's stability were also compromised. CNN's documentary team obtained outstanding footage from the ship's bridge that exposed Captain Francesco Schettino grappling with a situation that was already out of control. His ship had a hole below the waterline the width of a footy field.
They also found compelling facts that Schettino's decision to "salute" the island of Giglio by sailing riskily close caused the accident, but also that this wasn't the first time the Costa Concordia had sailed within a few hundred yards of the rocks.
Schettino is still awaiting trial on multiple charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship. Schettino escaped the ship on a lifeboat while the ship was capsizing. A transcript of his tense exchange with Port Authority officials can be read here, including their order to him to "Get on board, damn it!"
Perhaps the most chilling account of the night in CNN's documentary comes from a relatives on board - Californians Dean and Georgia Ananias and their daughters Valerie and Cindy.