Solving abnormality in Costa Concordia picture

First I would like to express my condolences to all of those affected by this terrible tragedy.

I do have a question that ATS members might be able to shed some light on.

Yesterday ( 1-14-12 ) I was reading an article about the event at

www.dailymail.co.uk...
While scrolling through the images I noticed something Odd about one of them.

Image

If you guys look IN THE WATER left hand side of the image is what appears to be some kinda of Seafloor disturbance that has created what looks like a Large Air Pocket reaching the surface.

I can only think that the seafloor had been disturbed and is releasing trapped air.

What you you guys think ?

JG

i cannot see what you are pointing out.
could you describe more specific what you see or edit the photo ?

Looks like a small vessel moving away from direction the photo was taken, possibly a lifeboat or other small "dinghy" type boat.

You can see the V-shaped waves coming from the sides of it too.

Guess I am not seeing what you are describing.

Center shot are all boats, I see nothing to the left.

However, I find it extremely hard to believe that the ship just happened to run aground.

This ship and its crew have sailed this very same course more times than they can count, the ship is equipped with all types of technology that would warn of possible grounding.

What was everybody just asleep at the wheel during dinner ?

Strange, very, very strange.

I don’t think we are getting the real story on this one.

reply to post by icepack


If you go directly up from the yellow smoke stack from the liner .. there looks like a huge bubble breaking on the surface of the water.

When I zoom in ( I dont have cool photo editors that can clear the image up that zoomed in ) it looks like a large amount of air coming up from the water.

Every other vessel in the picture looks crystal clear accept for this Thing. I guess it could be another ship..but I really can not tell.

JG

really...? wake from a boat



cmon now

went ahead and circled the what I believe the OP wants us to look @

My opinion ...smaller water craft moving away, making a sharp turn to the right...?

Last night as I laid in bed trying to sleep I thought about this tragedy. The Captain has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter, as they are reporting that he may have done this on purpose. Then they reported that this cowardly Captain was the first one to abandon ship. This is one explanation.

My next thought was what if the power had gone out on the ship? Now this could have been a malfunction, or possibly an EMP, weapon or natural occurence. Let's not forget that last year a cruise ship completely lost power and drifted "blindly". If the ship did lose power they would have no navigational equipment and almost no way to steer the ship.

Finally, I thought, this Captain has sailed through this very spot many, many times before without incident. Then I thought, as the OP stated regarding the bubbles, could there have been some type of activity that caused the sea floor to raise and this is why this ship ran aground?

None of us knows for sure at this point and all we can do is wait. In the meantime, my thoughts are with those affected by this tragedy.

Its a low driving zodiac, looks pretty common to me as I´m a diver and have seen plenty of them. They normaly have their engines outside and most of them have two engines so its pretty plausable that this would be a zodiac.
think of the baywatch ones...

(zodiac is a brand name and is a inflatable boat with motor)

Originally posted by spoonbender
went ahead and circled the what I believe the OP wants us to look @

My opinion ...smaller water craft moving away, making a sharp turn to the right...?

Yes Yes .. that was what I was talking about Thank You !

Its just that it looked as large as some of those other "larger" vessels but not a clear shot at it.

Thanks guys

The captain sounds like a class act

Authorities were holding the captain, Francesco Schettino, for suspected manslaughter among other possible charges and a prosecutor on Sunday confirmed they are investigating allegations the captain abandoned the stricken liner before all the passengers had escaped.

all the locals
say the ship was to close...

"This was too close, too close," said Italo Arienti, a 54-year-old sailor who has worked on the Maregigilo ferry service that runs between the island and the mainland for more than a decade. A now-retired Costa commander used to occasionally do "fly-bys" on the route, nearing a bit and sounding the siren in a special salute for his hometown, he said. Such a fly-by was staged last August, but there was no incident, he said. He said the cruise ship always stayed more than five to six nautical miles offshore, well beyond the reach of the "Le Scole" reefs, which are popular with scuba divers.

apparently there is a reef right there
look out

Its a twin engine boat (I'd guess it would be in the 30 - 50ft range ) that powered ('steamed' for the yachties) away and then backed off the power. You can see the remainder of the bow wave making a nice little triangle pointing away from the Costa Concordia.

Thanks guys for the posts.

After further review ( and a better/larger monitor ) I can see this as being another vessel in the area that moved out of the Area quickly. I dont think it was a 16-18' zodiac though.

As far as the Captain being "arrested" or "detained" ..that is standard issue in Maritime Law. ( I was captain 2 times ). I'm gonna assume they will go through His log book(s) first.

I would suggest that the Captain would also be "contained" from the public ASAP.

I DO think that "whoever" was in charge of directing the vessel that close to land was in the right frame of mind to save lives. You do not "hit" something and sail off to sea.

Im gonna leave it at that..

JG.

My brother used to have a tiny little flat bottom boat, which he would insanely take out into Pensacola Bay, even at night. It had a 40 HP motor, and it was all he could do to battle the waves and wind just on the bay waters.

But, one night, he and a friend were traveling along and all of a sudden the water started rising up underneath their boat. He turned into the swell, still in the bay mind you, but his little boat couldn't climb it, so he turned away from it, and basically surfed down the side of the swell trying to get away, and hoping a wave didn't break over his boat, but he realized the rest of the bay was calm, and the wind was light. The swell slowly dropped back down, and that is when he realized there was a noise associated with it, and he suddenly realized it wasn't a swell, it was a craft! He is convinced it was a submarine attempting to surface in Pensacola Bay, directly adjacent to the Pensacola Naval Air Station, and his little boat was not seen by the crew on the sub. No speculation about whether or not it was a US Sub, or someone else's sub. He never say actually saw it.

Anyhow, was this "sandbar" the cruise ship hit in clear weather, and an established waterway actually a sub? The US has surfaced subs under fishing vessels and hit other subs and caused plenty of crashes. Could this accident be military related in the ramp up to the war with Iran?

reply to post by jaduguru


it is the wake of a RIB / speedboat / tender / jetski [ delete as appropriate ]

Originally posted by brokedown
What was everybody just asleep at the wheel during dinner ?

Possibly... they may have had it on auto pilot and went to dinner Happens a lot just google it

Similar pic

Check the picture in the link above, similar vantage point, no boat. There is however definately something in the water that appears to be in the same place as the OP points out.
What do you think??