Captain told coastguard ‘it’s just a blackout’

A NEW audiotape has emerged of the captain of the stricken cruise ship Costa Concordia insisting that the vessel only had a blackout a full 30 minutes after it had rammed into a reef.

The recording emerged as police were poised to question a mystery blonde woman who may be a key witness to the chain of events that led to the vessel smashing into the rocks

The tape is of the first contact between Livorno port officials and Captain Francesco Schettino.

The captain, who left the ship before everyone was safely evacuated, is under house arrest, facing possible charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship.

The Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into well-charted rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio after Schettino made an unauthorised diversion last Friday. The ship then keeled over on its side.

Eleven people have been confirmed dead and 21 others are still missing.

The recording between Schettino and port officials began at 10.12pm on Friday, 30 minutes after the ship violently hit a reef and panicked passengers had fled the dining room to get their lifejackets.

Recordings of Schettino’s conversations with coastguard officials after the ship capsized on its side have shown how he resisted repeated orders to return on board to oversee the evacuation.

In the newly released recording, the first communication between the ship and Livorno port authorities, Schettino is heard assuring the officer that he was checking out the reasons for the blackout. But he does not say that the ship had hit a reef.

Rather, the port officer tells Schettino that his agency had heard from a relative of one of the ship’s sailors that “during dinner everything fell on their heads”.

Passengers in the dining area reported plates and glasses slamming down onto diners.

“We are verifying the conditions on board,” Schettino replies. Asked if passengers had been told to put on life jackets, he responds: “Correct.”

Crew members and passengers alike have complained about the chaotic evacuation and the lack of direction from the ship’s management.

Divers, meanwhile, restarted the search yesterday for those still missing, but a forecast of rough seas added uncertainty to the operation and to plans to begin pumping fuel from the stranded vessel.

The divers were focusing on an evacuation route on the fourth level, about 18 metres below the water’s surface, where five bodies were found earlier this week.

Crew members returning home have begun speaking out about the chaotic evacuation, saying the captain sounded the alarm too late and did not give orders or instructions about how to evacuate passengers. Eventually, crew members started lowering lifeboats on their own.

Among the missing are an Italian father and 5-year-old daughter. The girl’s mother issued a fresh appeal to speed the search and for passengers who saw the pair to come forward to help determine where they were last seen. “Don’t stop, bring home my daughter. Get her out,” Susy Albertini, 28, said after meeting with government and port officials in Tuscany.

Meanwhile, police are expected to question a mystery Moldovan woman who says she was with the captain of the Concordia cruise ship after it rammed into the reef. The 25-year-old blonde, identified as Domnica Cemortan, was invited onto the bridge as the cruise liner sailed perilously close to Giglio.

Several media outlets have reported she was not on the official passenger list but was drinking and chatting with Schettino on Friday evening, a few hours before the Costa Concordia ran aground. It was reported the woman may have been working as a passenger rep.

Reports speculated she may have been on the bridge because Schettino was trying to impress her.

Investigators believe she could be a key witness to the events leading up to the accident.

She has defended his actions on the night of the grounding. Cemortan says in a Facebook post that she was with Schettino on deck, along with other officers and the cruise director. She defended Schettino, telling Moldovan TV that “he did a great thing, he saved over 3,000 lives”.

According to her Facebook page Cemortan was born in Chisinau, Moldova, and lives in Bucharest, Romania.

Francesco Verusio, the chief prosecutor in the case, was not available for comment but a spokesman said he “could not confirm or deny” that Cemortan was being sought for questioning.

The ship’s operator, Crociere Costa SpA, has accused Schettino of causing the wreck by making the unapproved detour, and the captain has acknowledged carrying out what he called a “tourist navigation” that brought the ship closer to Giglio.