Costa Cordia: Cruise company offers €11,000 compensation to passengers
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Woman's body found on Costa Concordia
The woman, who was wearing a life jacket, was found by divers on the fourth deck of the Costa Concordia. Twenty people are still missing after the ship, with 4,200 people on board, struck a rock in shallow waters on 13 January off Tuscany's Giglio island.
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ITALIAN consumer groups have signed an agreement with Costa Cruises to offer about €11,000 to each of the more than 3,000 passengers aboard the Costa Concordia when it hit a rock and capsized near the Italian island of Giglio.
It has agreed to make the money available for items lost and any psychological damages to each passenger who suffered no physical injuries. In addition, the cost of the cruise and all transportation will be covered. Passengers injured while abandoning the ship will be dealt with individually.
Those who accept the offer must agree to drop all future legal actions against Costa Cruises, according to the agreement. Children will receive the same financial settlement as adults, and passengers will be paid within a week of accepting the offer.
Codacons, a consumer group that did not sign the agreement, recommended that passengers not accept it and urged them to undergo a check to see if they suffered any psychological trauma as a result of the shipwreck, according to Carlo Rienzi, the group's president.
Codacons is collecting names to file a class action suit in Miami against parent company Carnival, requesting €125,000 for each passenger.
Costa, a unit of cruise operator Carnival Corp, will also reimburse passengers the full costs of their cruise, travel expenses and any medical expenses sustained after the grounding.
The agreement was announced Friday after a day of negotiations between Costa representatives and Italian consumer groups representing 3,206 people from 61 countries who suffered no physical harm when the Costa Concordia hit a reef on Jan. 13.
Passengers and crew are free to pursue legal action if they aren't satisfied with the deal.
