ITALY: As investigations into the cause of the Costa Concordia incident continue, head of Costa Cruises addresses an Italian Senate Committee

Record ID: 258480

  • Title: ITALY: As investigations into the cause of the Costa Concordia incident continue, head of Costa Cruises addresses an Italian Senate Committee
  • Date: 26th January 2012
  • Summary: GIGLIO, ITALY (RECENT - JANUARY 15, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CAPSIZED COSTA CONCORDIA CRUISE LINER VARIOUS OF RESCUE VESSELS NEARBY LIFEBOATS STUCK ON THE SIDE OF COSTA CONCORDIA
  • Embargoed: 10th February 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy, Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Accidents
  • Reuters ID: LVA5WFL6EX64OGB8QZ77C1KWJ4SG
  • Story Text: Pier Luigi Foschi, chief executive of Costa Cruises on Wednesday (January 25) gave testimony to the Italian Senate as investigations into the Costa Concordia incident continued.
    At least sixteen people died when the cruise ship struck a rock which tore a hole in its side and caused it to capsize off the Tuscan island of Giglio on January 13. Another sixteen people are still unaccounted for. Six bodies are as yet unidentified.
    Foschi's testimony came as the Italian daily La Repubblica published transcripts of a conversation Captain Francesco Schettino had with an unknown person identified only as Fabrizio in which he implicates an unnamed manager of the vessel's owners Costa Cruises.
    The captain of the doomed Italian liner said he was told by managers to take his ship close in to shore on the night it ran aground and capsized, according to bugged conversations leaked in the Italian newspapers.
    The transcript published by La Repubblica also suggests that Schettino abandoned ship soon after realising that the vessel was listing dangerously, in remarks which appear to contrast with other versions of how he came to leave the ship.
    During questioning by magistrates, Schettino said he fell into a lifeboat while investigating the state of the ship, which suffered an electrical blackout after it struck the rock. In the confusion, he had been unable to return to the ship.
    Schettino is currently under house arrest, blamed for causing the accident by steering too close to shore and accused of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship before the evacuation of more than 4,200 passengers and crew was complete.
    Addressing a Senate commission, Costa Cruises CEO and Chairman Foschi questioned the information Schettini was giving to the company's chief crisis unit officer Roberto Ferrarini as the events unfolded.
    "The ship at that moment, according to the captain, who seemed very calm, was moving towards the position to drop anchor and the situation was under control. This is information that Ferrarini was receiving. At 22:33, in the next update the captain informs Ferrarini of the state of the tilting, which was increasing but had not yet reached worrying proportions. The captain also states that he is already in contact with authorities on ground. At 22:35, two minutes later, the captain informs Ferrarini of the intentions to evacuate the ship, a decision later confirmed at 22:45. So, at 22:33 the situation was still under control and at 22:35 there was an intention to abandon ship," Foschi said.
    Costa Cruises, a unit of Carnival Corp, the world's largest cruise ship operator, has blamed the captain and suspended him.
    Neither the company itself or individual executives, apart from Schettino and the ship's first officer, have been placed under investigation but Schettino's lawyer has said that the probe will be extended to other parties.
    He has said Schettino is ready to accept his share of responsibility for the accident but he has says that he kept the company fully informed of events, including evacuation procedures, as they unfolded after the initial impact.
    Addressing rumours of unregistered passengers possibly having boarded the vessel and thus adding to the number of missing people, Foschi said every person entering the cruise liner was photographed and their details recorded.
    "The security services on board are very strict. It is unthinkable that Costa Cruises, with all the years of tradition, and the excellence the company has acquired in a highly difficult, competitive, global environment may ever accept or admit that there were illegal passengers on board," he said.
    In another potential threat to Costa, the daily Corriere della Sera reported that Giulia Bongiorno, one of Italy's best-known criminal lawyers, will represent around 30 passengers who are planning to file legal action against the company.
    No comment was immediately available from Bongiorno, who represented Raffaele Sollecito, when he was acquitted last year on appeal with U.S. student Amanda Knox of murdering Briton Meredith Kercher.
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