In collaboration with our company, Fabrice Amedeo – journalist at French newspaper Le Figaro – published an article analyzing the navigation charts available in the tragedy’s area.

The study of the mapping is essential to understand this shipwreck. The commander of the Costa Concordia, Francesco Schettino, had the following comments: “While we were sailing in cruising speed, we hit a rock. According to the nautical chart, there should have been sufficient water below us. ”

However, this claim was quickly checked and disproved by the Italian Coast Guard, which prompted us to investigate the area using the different MapMedia charts available, in order to have a better understanding of the accident.

The Bay of Giglio Porto, southeast of the island of Giglio off Tuscany, was the site of the accident:

Zooming on the Raster MapMedia mm3d chart – based on the Italian hydrographic services information. The depth is about 10 meters: the draft of the Costa Concordia is 8.50 meters, so it was particularly risky to operate the ship in this area:

With PhotoFusion function, which allows to overlay satellite information transparently on the same chart, we can appreciate how shallow is the water in this area:

MapMedia mm3d C-MAP by Jeppesen data has exactly the same information in the area called “Isole Le Scole”:

Finally, the 3D display of this MapMedia information confirms this particular shallow water environment:

MaxSea International is deeply saddened after this terrible accident and expresses its sincere condolences to the families of the victims.