'Titanic' theme played as ship capsized

Swiss brothers Yannic and Kevin Sgaga told a newspaper the theme from 'Titanic' was playing as the Costa Concordia capsized. Photo / Paramount Home Entertainment

The theme song from the film Titanic is said to have been playing in one of Costa Concordia's restaurants as the cruise ship began to list.

Yannic Sgaga and his brother Kevin told Swiss paper La Tribune de Geneve Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On from the hit 1997 film was playing when the accident happened off the Tuscan coast on Friday.

"Images from the film Titanic are more realistic than one might imagine. They kept coming into my head," Yannic Sgaga said.

The claim is one of several comparisons to the 1912 Titanic disaster - and the film - made by people aboard the Costa Concordia, which hit rocks near the Italian island of Giglo on Saturday.

It has also been revealed one of the survivors aboard the cruise ship is the grand-daughter of a woman who survived the Titanic disaster.

Valentina Capuano, 30, had a grandmother and great uncle aboard the Titanic, which sunk in its 1912 maiden voyage. Her great-uncle Giovanni, a waiter aboard the cruise liner, died.

'It was like re-living history, it was horrible, I was really shocked," she told Italian newspaper La Repubblica. "I am still shaken up and get very upset when I think about what I've been through, I have heart palpitations."

Fights over lifejackets and the desperation of people leaping off the side of the ship into the sea has also been compared to the ill-fated Titanic voyage.

Other passengers have compared the delay in deploying lifeboats on the Concordia, meaning the vessel was tilted too far to use them, to the lack of lifeboats aboard the Titanic.

The Titanic had lifeboats for 1,178 passengers, despite 2,223 on board for her maiden voyage. 1517 people died in the disaster.

When it was launched in 1911, the Titanic was the largest passenger ship in the world, while the 951ft, 114,500 tonne Costa Concordia is the largest Italian-built cruise ship. It was built in 2006.

- Herald Online staff