Safe and dry: A woman clutches a child on the island of Giglio after they escape the ship
It was every man – and crew member – for himself.
Survivors from the Costa Concordia spoke angrily yesterday of the nightmare evacuation from the stricken ship as women and children were left behind.
In the terrifying moments after the giant vessel began to list, fights even broke out to get into the lifeboats.
Men refused to prioritise women, expectant mothers and children as they pushed themselves forward to escape. Crew ignored their passengers – leaving ‘chefs and waiters’ to help out.
In heart-rending footage, recorded on mobile phones, British children could be heard shouting ‘Daddy’ and ‘Mummy’ in the melee.
As she waited for a flight home from Rome, grandmother Sandra Rogers, 62, told the Daily Mail: ‘There was no “women and children first” policy. There were big men, crew members, pushing their way past us to get into the lifeboats. It was disgusting.’
Mrs Rogers, a widow originally from Chester who has retired to Minorca, was sailing with her daughter Karen, 39, and seven-year-old twin granddaughters Emma and Chloe.
She said: ‘I want everyone to know how badly some people behaved. It was a nightmare. I lost my daughter and my grandchildren in the chaos.
‘I was standing by the lifeboats and men, big men, were banging into me and knocking the girls. It was awful. There was a total lack of organisation. There was no one telling people where to go.
‘And when we finally got into a lifeboat, people, grown men, were trying to jump into the boat. I thought, if they land in here we are going to capsize.
‘I lost my jewellery, my mother’s fur coat and my late husband Brian’s ashes. We planned to scatter them on the cruise. But now they are stuck in our cabin.
Evacuation: One of the lifeboats is made ready for launching (left) as chaotic scenes unfurl inside the vessel
Innocent child: A heroic rescue worker carries an evacuee as they arrive at Porto Santo Stefano
‘We have lost so many things that are quite literally priceless.’
John Rodford, 46, a bathroom fitter from Rochester, Kent, was with his wife Mandy celebrating their fourth wedding anniversary when the ship came to grief.
He said they first thought something was wrong during dinner when he heard a ‘crunch’ and his drink started sliding along the table.
‘The lights went out and came back on. And then the ship started going the other way, and quite a lot the other way,’ he added.
‘All the plates were coming off the tables and smashing, and it was just like bedlam.
Survivor: Dancer Rose Metcalf, 22, was one of the last people to leave the Costa Concordia. She left a message on her father's mobile phone at 3am letting him know that she was safe and well
‘Everyone was fighting to get to the lifeboats. The ship was leaning over very steeply. We had to slide through the ship to get to the lifeboats.
‘We fled with only the clothes we were standing in and my poor wife lost her shoes. We’ve lost our passports, £500 cash and my credit cards, which were all in the ship’s safe.’ Mr Rodford said the officers were no help. ‘The people who served us our dinner were the people who helped us get on the lifeboats and were manning the lifeboats. I didn’t see captains’ jackets and things like that. It was the staff who had served us dinner.
Frightening: Rosalyn Rincon, from Blackpool, was trapped in a magic box as the Costa Concordia began to sink
‘I think we’re still in shock that we survived and we can say one thing for sure – we are never going on another cruise.’
Mrs Rodford had been reluctant to go on the liner at all because she is afraid of water. Arriving back at Heathrow, she said: ‘I just thought my life was over. I thought, if I don’t die from the swimming part, I’m going to die from the shock of having to get in it.’
Giuseppe D’Avino, a pastry chef from Modena, also described scenes of mayhem.
‘There was a lot of panic, screams, children crying,’ he said. ‘Some passengers came to blows as they tried to get in the lifeboats.’
Also on the vessel was retired accountant Brian Page, 63, who had paid £860 for a seven-day cruise. He was enjoying a seven-course silver-service dinner when disaster struck. ‘Soon everything was going everywhere – glasses, plates and cutlery,’ he said. ‘I was having to grip the table to stop it sliding away. The whole ship was rocking violently from side to side.
‘People were screaming. Women and children were not getting priority at all.’ He added: ‘I have lost everything including my passport. I only have the clothes I am wearing.’
Other passengers said they had seen the crew and captain leave the ship instead of staying to help passengers.
Frenchwoman Isabelle Mougin, 38, who is five months pregnant, wept as she described her battle to get off the sinking ship with her husband. Interviewed in hospital, she said the captain refused to let them leave the vessel, even though she pleaded that she was a priority case because of her pregnancy.
‘We were stuck. He told us we couldn’t get off. I thought my baby was going to die – I thought we were all going to die. The captain just went, he just left the boat, left us there, I just cannot believe it.
Where was the chivalry? Describing the panic on board, one passenger said there were people screaming and women and children weren't given priority
With her friend on the Costa Concordia, Rose said that she was among the last to get off the vessel
‘There were huge problems with aid, no one knew what was going on or what to do. A lot of the crew and the ship’s management got away before the passengers. We just had to watch them be rescued with no idea what would happen to us. I was very afraid.’
Another Frenchwoman, Beatrice Micheaud, 58, from La Rochelle, was told to save herself by jumping into the water despite wearing only a flimsy dress.
She said she and her 61-year-old husband were in the water for more than an hour. ‘It was cold, very cold. I was only wearing evening dress. We hung on to the edge of a liferaft and kept lifting our heads to shout to ask to be taken on board but the people in the raft didn’t hear us or didn’t want to hear us. We were exhausted.’
Lucky: Amelia Leon, left, was watching a film with her boyfriend when the Costa Concordia rocked to one side. She is friends with fellow entertainer Rose Metcalf, right
She was eventually rescued by a boat but her husband was feared to have drowned after suffering a heart attack brought on by the shock of the cold water.
Of the Britons aboard, 23 were passengers and 12 crew, eight of whom were dancers.
They included Rose Metcalf, from Wimborne, Dorset, who stayed behind to help others to safety.
After she was eventually airlifted from the ship she telephoned her father at 3am on Saturday and left a message telling of her dramatic escape.
The 22-year-old blonde said: ‘Hi, Dad. Just ringing to let you know that I am alive and safe and got airlifted out of the cruise ship. I don’t know what will happen – I don’t know how many are dead. I am alive … just. I think I was the last one off.’
Terror: Survivors on board the Costa Concordia prepare to leave the vessel. Some people have told how it was a 'every man for himself' situation
Arriving back at Heathrow last night, honeymooners Ian and Janice Donoff, both in their 50s, said they were just glad to be alive.
Mr Donoff, a chartered surveyor from North-West London, said: ‘It was the most daunting thing I have ever gone through in my life and at times I didn’t think we’d make it.
‘But we are upbeat because we are alive. My wife has been a cruiser in her time but not me, this was my first experience – and the last.
‘It was a night of chaos and panic. You see all these ship disaster movies like The Poseidon Adventure and Titanic and think, “Can it really be like that?” Well, yes it can and it was.’
Relief: One survivor of the Costa Concordia arrives at the harbour in Marseille, France
Back on dry land: About 250 passengers of the Italian cruise ship which grounded on the Italian island of Giglio were taken to Marseille in France
Passengers Mandy and John Rodford, survivors from the Costa Concordia, brandish one of the ship's emergency drill cards as they arrive back at Terminal 4 at Heathrow Airport, London ( dailymail.co.uk )
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