On 13 January 2012, the eight-year-old Costa Cruises vessel Costa Concordia was on the first leg of a cruise around the Mediterranean Sea when she deviated from her planned route at Isola del Giglio, Tuscany, sailed closer to the island, and struck a rock formation on the sea floor.

The Costa Concordia disaster in 2012 was caused by a series of catastrophic human errors and a failure of command. The primary cause was a "sail-past" salute—an unauthorized maneuver where Captain Francesco Schettino brought the massive ship too close to the island of Giglio to impress residents and a former colleague. The ship struck an underwater rock, which tore a 50-meter gash in the hull, flooding the engine rooms and causing a total loss of power. What turned a mechanical accident into a tragedy was the delayed evacuation; the Captain waited over an hour to sound the "abandon ship" signal, even as the vessel began to list heavily, making it impossible to launch many of the lifeboats. Furthermore, Schettino famously abandoned the ship while hundreds of passengers were still on board, a severe breach of maritime law. In 2026, the maritime industry still uses the Concordia as a primary case study for "Bridge Resource Management" training, emphasizing that the disaster was not a failure of technology, but a failure of leadership and a total breakdown in safety culture and emergency communication.