Italian cruise ship passenger says grandmother survived Titanic

Agence France-Presse

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ROME // Valentina Capuano could not believe it when the luxury cruise ship she was on began to sink — she only hoped that she would be saved like her grandmother, who survived the Titanic disaster, 100 years ago.

"It was like reliving history, it was horrible, I was really shocked," said Ms Capuano, who managed to escape when the giant Costa Concordia hit a rock and tipped over off the north-west Italian coast on Friday.

Her grandmother survived when the Titanic passenger liner sank on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in 1912. Her brother Giovanni did not.

Giovanni, who had been working as a waiter on the Titanic and hoped to begin a new life in America, was one of the 1,517 people who died in the disaster.

"I am still shaken up and get very upset when I think about what I've been through, I have heart palpitations," said Ms Capuana, who escaped the sinking vessel along with her fiance, her brother and his girlfriend.

A century after the Titanic struck an iceberg, the Costa Concordia — which had over 3,000 passengers on board and around 1,000 crew — hit a rock which tore a huge hole in its side, leaving at least 11 dead and around two dozen missing.

Around 60 people were injured as they jumped from the listing ship into lifeboats or the cold sea.

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Valentina Capuano, who was rescued from the Costa Concordia off the Italian coast said her grandmother was on the Titanic, when it sank in 1912.

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Air Arabia Welcomes Onboard 20 Millionth Passenger

 Air Arabia’s first flight took off from Sharjah, UAE, to Manama, Bahrain, on October 28, 2003, marking the introduction of the LCC concept to the Middle East. At the time, the carrier served five regional destinations. By the end of its first 12 months of operations, the pioneering airline carried 500,000 passengers to 16 different destinations.

Twenty million passengers later, the airline has expanded its reach to serve 66 destinations from three hubs in the UAE, Morocco and Egypt, winning countless accolades along the way. The airline served nearly 4.5 million passengers last year alone, and currently operates a global fleet of 27 new Airbus A320 aircraft.

Averaging 2.5 million passengers annually, 20 million passengers would fill 123,000 Air Arabia aircraft. Lined up nose to tail, those aircraft would stretch nearly 5,000 kilometres.

"Eight years ago - when our first flight took off from Sharjah International Airport, at a time when the low-cost model was just introduced to the region - few of us could have imagined the day when we would cross the 20-million passenger mark," said Adel Ali, Group Chief Executive Officer, Air Arabia.

"The tremendous growth of Air Arabia since then is testament to our single-minded focus on providing our passengers with a growing range of destinations, great service and value-for-money fares. Today, despite serving over 20 million passengers, we remain a young company committed to further expanding our horizons," he said. "On behalf of everyone at Air Arabia, I would like to thank the 20 million people who have chosen to fly with us - and I look forward to welcoming onboard the next 20 million in the years to come," he concluded.

Entering its eighth successful year of operations, Air Arabia’s legacy has shaped the philosophy of air travel in the region and redefined the way residents and visitors travel in the Middle East, while creating a niche market for intra-regional air transport.

Air travel today is a commercial commodity, driven by low fares, convenience and destinations of choice. 

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