Cruise liner captain faces house arrest over shipwreck
The Italian news agency Ansa quoted captain Francesco Schettino’s defence lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, as saying a judge turned down prosecutors’ request to keep him in jail. But, the lawyer said, the judge also rejected a defence bid to set Schettino free.
The Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 people when it hit a reef off the Tuscan island of Giglio on Friday night when Schettino made an unauthorised deviation from the cruise ship’s programmed course.
Prosecutors have accused Schettino of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship before all passengers were evacuated.
The death toll in the Costa Concordia tragedy rose to 11 yesterday when five bodies — four men and one woman — were recovered from the submerged portion of the ship, which ran into a reef, then capsized.
Rescuers are continuing to search the partially submerged ship for about two dozen people who are still missing.
Meanwhile, the captain’s decision to flee as it was sinking and his refusal to return and control the chaotic situation has been exposed in an audio tape.
Schettino was heard making excuses as an Italian coast guard officer repeatedly ordered him to take charge of the passenger evacuation.
Schettino has insisted he stayed aboard until the ship was evacuated, but the recording of his conversation with Italian coastguard captain Gregorio De Falco indicates he fled before all passengers were off — and then resisted De Falco’s repeated orders to return.
“You go on board and then you will tell me how many people there are. Is that clear?” De Falco shouted in the audio tape.
Schettino resisted, saying the ship was tipping and that it was dark. At the time, he was in a lifeboat and said he was co-ordinating the rescue from there.
De Falco shouted back: “And so what? You want go home, Schettino? It is dark and you want to go home?” !
Schettino was finally heard agreeing to reboard, but it is unclear whether he did so.
Prior to the discovery of the five bodies, the coast guard had raised the number of missing to 25 passengers and four crew. Italian officials gave the breakdown as 14 Germans, six Italians, four French, two Americans, one Hungarian, one Indian and one Peruvian.
But there was still confusion over the numbers. The German foreign ministry listed 12 Germans as confirmed missing.
Schettino has worked for 11 years for the ship’s owner and was made captain in 2006. He hails from Meta di Sorrento in the Naples region, which produces many of Italy’s ferry and cruise boat captains. He attended the Nino Bixio merchant marine school near Sorrento.
He could face up to 12 years in prison on the abandoning ship charge alone.
Earlier yesterday, Italian naval divers exploded holes in the hull of the cruise ship, trying to speed up the search for the missing while seas were still calm. Navy spokesman Alessandro Busonero told Sky TV 24 that the holes would help divers enter the wreck more easily.
“The hope is that the ship is empty and that the people are somewhere else, or if they are inside that they found a safe place to await rescue,” coastguard spokesman Filippo Marini told Sky TV 24.
Mediterranean waters in the area were relatively calm yesterday, but waves were expected to reach nearly 6 feet today, according to meteorological forecasts.
A Dutch shipwreck salvage firm, meanwhile, said it would take its engineers and divers between two and four weeks to extract the 500,000 gallons of fuel aboard the ship.
The safe removal of the fuel has become a priority second only to finding the missing, as the wreckage site lies in a maritime sanctuary for dolphins, porpoises and whales.
Smit, a Rotterdam-based salvage company, said no fuel had leaked and that the tanks appeared intact. The ship has been relatively stable perched on top of rocks near Giglio’s port.
This is an abridged transcript of the conversation between Francesco Schettino and Gregorio De Falco of the Italian coastguard.
De Falco: “Listen Schettino. There are people trapped on board. There is a pilot ladder. You will climb that ladder and go on board. You go on board and then you will tell me how many people there are. Is that clear? I’m recording this conversation, Cmdr Schettino...” ! Schettino: “In this moment, the boat is tipping...” DF: “I understand that... get on that ship and tell me how many people are still on board. And what they need. Is that clear? Listen Schettino, that you saved yourself from the sea, but I am going to... I’m going to make sure you get in trouble... I am going to make you pay for this...!” S: “Commander, please...” DF “No please. You now get up and go on board. They are telling me that on board there are still...” S: “I am here with the rescue boats, I am here, I am not going anywhere, I am here...” DF: “What are you doing, commander?” S: “I am here to co-ordinate the rescue...” DF: “What are you co-ordinating there? Go on board! Co-ordinate the rescue from aboard the ship. Are you refusing?” S: “No, I am not refusing.”DF: “Are you refusing to go aboard commander? Can you tell me the reason why you are not going?” S: “I am not going because the other lifeboat is stopped.” DF: “You go aboard. It is an order. Don’t make any more excuses. You have declared ‘abandon ship’. Now I am in charge. You go on board! Is that clear? Do you hear me? Go, and call me when you are aboard. My air rescue crew is there.”S: “Where are your rescuers?”DF: “My air rescue is on the prow. Go. There are already bodies.” S: “How many bodies are there?” DF: “I don’t know. I have heard of one. You are the one who has to tell me how many there are.” S: “But do you realise it is dark and here we can’t see anything...”DF: “And so what? You want to go home, Schettino? It is dark and you want to go home? Get on that prow of the boat using the pilot ladder and tell me what can be done, how many people there are and what their needs are. Now!” S: “... I am with my second-in-command.” DF: “ ... You and your second go on board now. Is that clear?” S: “Commander, I want to go on board, but it is simply that the other boat here ... there are other rescuers. It has stopped and is waiting...” DF: “It has been an hour that you have been telling me the same thing. Now, go on board...! and then tell me immediately how many people there are there.” S: “OK, Commander” DF: “Go, immediately!”
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