Antonello Tonna fled to the safety of a cruise liner when he heard gunmen had just shot tourists in Tunis last week – and three years earlier he escaped from a similar ship when it sank off the Italian coast.
“It sounds like something out of a movie: in the span of three years, I was on Costa Concordia that sank off Isola del Giglio and then on Costa Fascinosa when gunmen shot down tourists at a museum in Tunis.
“I wasn’t at the museum but at a bar at the terminal during the shooting. My wife sent me a text message telling me about the tragedy, which she had just heard about on the news.
“I boarded the ship immediately,” says the Sicilian cruise liner entertainer as he sits at the Waterfront in Valletta with the Fascinosa towering behind him.
The terrorist attack killed 21 people, five of them from the Costa Fascinosa. The shooting took place at the Bardo museum, a popular excursion for cruise liner passengers stopping off for a few hours in Tunis.
It sounds like something out of a movie: in the span of three years, I was on Costa Concordia that sank and the Fascinosa when gunmen shot down tourists [at the Bardo] museum in Tunis
Wearing a shirt saying that if life gave you waves, you had to learn to surf, Mr Tonna, a pianist and singer whose father is Maltese, recalls how he sat at his piano two days after the terrorist attack. But it was only on the third day that he actually started singing again.
“I sang Lucio Dalla’s Henna, which speaks of war, and Vita by Gianni Morandi and Lucio Dalla. I felt quite emotional. We all were emotional.
“However, life goes on, and things are now back on track. What I went through – during the Concordia’s sinking and as an observer during the Tunis attack – has taught me to love life much more.
“I have always been optimistic, but now instead of drinking to health I drink to ‘super health’,” he said, smiling. “It is important to take life as it comes, one step at a time, and music helps me.”
The events of last week brought back memories of the other tragedy not far from Malta: “On that night I had just finished playing at 9.30pm and went to the saloon on the fifth floor to have a break.
“I was meant to continue playing at 10.30pm,” he says, recalling the Concordia tragedy of January of 2012 that claimed the lives of 32 people.
“We heard a loud bang but initially didn’t understand what was going on. I thought it was engine failure. After about 10 minutes there was a blackout and people started getting a bit scared. After about three blackouts, the ship started listing. We still didn’t know what was going on but I remained calm... We then heard the general emergency alarm.”
Recounting the ordeal, he gestures with his hand to explain how passengers stood in lines, five metres apart, on the stern, while others started being lifted down into the sea in lifeboats. But when the lifeboats started hitting the side of the leaning ship, some were left hanging in the air.
“There were screams and moments of fear. After half an hour, we walked, hand in hand, to the other side of the ship, which is where I saw the Isola del Giglio.
“The level of the water kept rising and we held on to each other because it was slippery... We then heard more loud bangs and grinding metal and I thought the ship was listing further.
“So I ran and jumped five metres down into the freezing sea, not knowing if there were any reefs down there.
“When I jumped I told myself I had to remain calm and swim slowly. A lifeboat that went by threw me a rope but I didn’t manage to board the boat. When I reached the shore, some 250 metres later, I huddled with other survivors as it was really cold.”
Fortunately, this “little adventure” did not cause Mr Tonna any trauma over the following three years, during which he worked in bars and clubs in Sicily.
He returned to playing music and singing on ships at the end of last year, three months before the Tunis tragedy – and he has kept faith with cruise liners, saying they are a “magical” place to work.