Netflix subscribers have been left "horrified" by Shipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea, a new documentary about the 2012 Costa Concordia disaster. According to Netflix, the film retraces the events that made the luxury cruise ship sink, using eyewitness accounts from survivors, cell phone footage taken on the night of the tragedy and translations of the ship's black box recordings, which expose dangerous decisions made by the captain.
Viewers on Reddit are 'horrified'
"This documentary absolutely horrified me. The one takeaway I had was to always map out a route to the emergency exit/lifeboats whenever I travel or stay in a hotel. You could find yourself in the pitch black needing to find your way to safety," wrote one viewer.
"I just watched this recently, also. It was horrifying and tragic how terribly the captain and, therefore, the crew handled the situation," noted a second. "It seems somehow worse that they were so close to shore, like you could see safety, but you couldn't get there because the captain refused to admit that there was a problem."
"The captain was a disgusting coward in my opinion. When he left on a lifeboat and was being ordered back and refused, that's what sealed it for me. Horrible man," remarked a third.
The night the Costa Concordia sank
More than 4,000 people boarded the Costa Concordia in Civitavecchia, Italy, on January 13, 2012. Captain Francesco Schettino had promised to orchestrate a sail-by salute for a crew member's family and took a detour that would prove detrimental to everyone on board.
The luxury cruise ship crashed into a rock reef off the coast of the island of Giglio. Schettino and the bridge crew initially downplayed the dangers and refused assistance from the coastguard. More than an hour later, the ship had flooded with water and began to tilt. An emergency evacuation was eventually ordered, and while some passengers managed to escape, 32 people tragically lost their lives.
Conviction and sentence
Schettino was later sentenced to 16 years in prison for manslaughter, causing a maritime accident and abandoning ship.
Shipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea is available to stream on Netflix.
