More Bodies Recovered From Costa Concordia As Questions Pile Up

Five more bodies were recovered from the Costa Concordia as rescue crews blasted holes in the hull of the ship to better gain access to areas of the ship that were previously hard to access.

New reports from Italian media outlets show that the captain, Francesco Schettino, did abandon ship before the passengers were safely rescued and that he refused to return to the ship even as he was ordered to; he's been charged in connection with those actions. In fact, Italian Coast Guard officials swore at Schettino to remain on board, and appeared to be exasperated with his actions:

Authorities in the port of Livorno seemed to believe the captain had abandoned ship with passengers still on board, a report in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra suggests.

"You get on board! This is an order!" the Coast Guard official instructed Capt. Francesco Schettino.

"You have declared 'Abandon ship.' Now I'm in charge. You get on board -- is that clear?" the port official said.

Schettino says at one point that he wants to go back on board, then refers to "other rescuers" and says something about a lifeboat being stuck.

Italian prosecutors confirmed that the quotes match ones in a transcript they were using in their investigation.

It still doesn't quite explain why the ship was so close to the coast and why it was off-course compared to the normal Costa routes. There were some reports claiming that the captain was making a close approach to the island on behalf of some member of the crew, but that still doesn't explain why they got that close - did the sonar function properly and did the crew use it to chart the course?

Some reports, unconfirmed as they are, claim that passengers saw the captain drinking prior to the accident. I have to think that the Italian authorities carry out some form of drug testing, but I haven't seen reports to confirm that. However, if there were delays in when any of that testing was done, it would reduce the chances that they'd find that he was indeed DUI.

At the same time of the desperate search and rescue operations, crews are looking to prevent an oil spill. The Costa Concordia carries 2,300 tons of fuel, and if it leaked, it would damage Europe's largest marine sanctuary.

Costa Crociere SpA, which operated the stricken Costa Concordia, has hired Smit Salvage, a unit of Royal Boskalis Westminster NV, to remove the fuel. Smit personnel and equipment have begun to arrive in the area and company divers hope to inspect the ship in the coming days, said Martin Schuttevaer, director of investor relations for Boskalis. The company plans a conference call today to brief the press on their plans.

Time is critical to removing the 500,000 gallons of fuel as deteriorating weather and shifts in the boat’s position increase the risk of a spill. Search and rescue operations had to be suspended for four hours yesterday after the Costa Concordia moved position in rising seas off the Italian island of Giglio.

“Ill weather is the greatest risk to the environment right now because high waves might move or break the ship causing fuel to leak,” Alessandro Gianni, campaign director of Greenpeace Italy operations, said in a phone interview. “Containment barriers that have been placed around the ship don’t work in high waves.”

Weather conditions since the accident have been calm, though a storm front is forecast to move into the area on Thursday.

The ship struck a reef off the island of Giglio on Jan. 13 after the captain overrode a pre-programmed route to sail close to the island, hours after the vessel left a port near Rome with 4,000 passengers and crew for a Mediterranean cruise. Six people are confirmed dead and rescue workers are still searching for survivors in the partially submerged cruise liner.

Costa Concordia Likely To be Scrapped Following Deadly Shipwreck

Rescue crews continue searching the ruin of the Costa Concordia off the coast of Italy for survivors or casualties. The death toll has risen as another victim was found inside the stricken ship.

There are also increasing concerns that any further movement of the wreck could cause some of the 500,000 gallons of fuel on board to leak into the pristine waters off Giglio. The waters are a protected dolphin sanctuary.

The confirmed death toll rose to six after searchers found the body of a male passenger wearing a life vest in the corridor of the above-water portion of the ship. Sixteen people are unaccounted for, including two Americans, identified as Gerald and Barbara Heil of White Bear Lake, Minn.

Chances that they would be found alive three days after the ship was speared by the reef and toppled to one side are growing slimmer.

The chairman and CEO of the cruise line said the captain made an unauthorized change-of-course that led to the deadly crash against a reef.

The Costa Concordia, which is operated by a subsidary of Carnival Cruise Lines, is likely to be scrapped following the deadly grounding off the Italian coast.



The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, is under serious scrutiny and he allegedly left the ship before all personnel and passengers were safely removed from the ship. Moreover, it appears that the ship deviated from the typical course though the waters off the Italian coast to get much closer to the island of Giglio. That was a fatal error in judgement, as the ship struck underwater obstacles and eventually was run aground and now lists precariously to one side.

The captain at the helm of Costa Concordia is “heartbroken” by accusations that he wrecked the luxury liner and fled in a lifeboat, his attorney said Monday.

Capt. Francesco Schettino is “dismayed, saddened by the loss of life and extremely disturbed by what happened,” lawyer Bruno Leporatti said after visiting the captain in prison.

However, he added that Schettino is “comforted by the knowledge that he maintained the clarity of mind in the emergency to bring the ship to shallow waters, saving many lives.”

Schettino, 52, faces charges of manslaughter, shipwreck and abandoning ship while his passengers were still on board.

Investigators will benefit from black boxes on board the ship to help determine actions taken leading up to the fatal incident.

Costa Concordia Runs Aground Off Italian Coast, Capsizes and Casaulties Reported

The video and photos coming in from the Italian coast are remarkable. A luxury cruise ship, the Costa Concordia, capsized after running aground, and there are at least three people dead with dozens missing. Divers are going through the ship looking for survivors and casualties.



How could the ship have possibly run aground when the ship has the latest in navigation and sonar gear that should prevent this kind of accident? Those questions will require investigations, but the more imminent question is how could the crew have done such a poor job in getting everyone off the ship safely.

The ANSA news agency, quoting the prefect’s office in the province of Grosseto, reported that the authorities have accounted for 4,165 of the 4,234 people who had boarded the liner.

By morning Saturday, the ship was lying virtually flat off Giglio’s coast, its starboard side submerged.

Passengers complained that the crew failed to give instructions on how to evacuate and once the emergency became clear, delayed lowering the lifeboats until the ship was listing too heavily for many of the boats to be released. An evacuation drill was only scheduled for Saturday afternoon, even though some passengers had already been on board for several days.

Helicopters plucked to safety some 50 people who were trapped on the ship, some survivors were rescued by boats in the area, and an official said some people jumped from the ship. Coast guard rescuers were continuing to search the ship.

“It was so unorganized, our evacuation drill was scheduled for 5 p.m.,” said Melissa Goduti, 28, of Wallingford, Conn., who had set out on the cruise of the Mediterranean hours earlier. “We had joked ‘What if something had happened today?’ ”

Another passenger, said Valerie Ananias, said, “Have you seen ‘Titanic?’ That’s exactly what it was.” Ms. Ananias, a 31-year-old teacher from Los Angeles, was traveling with her sister and parents on the first of two cruises around the Mediterranean. They all had dark red bruises on their knees from crawling along hallways and stairwells that were nearly vertical, trying to reach rescue boats.

“We were crawling up a hallway, in the dark, with only the light from the life-vest strobe flashing,” her mother, Georgia Ananias, 61, said. “We could hear plates and dishes crashing, people slamming against walls.”

She choked up as she recounted the moment when an Argentine couple handed her their 3-year-old daughter, unable to keep their balance as the ship lurched to the side and the family found themselves standing on a wall.

“He said ‘take my baby,’ ” Mrs. Ananias said, covering her mouth with her hand as she teared up. “I grabbed the baby. But then I was being pushed down. I didn’t want the baby to fall down the stairs. I gave the baby back. I couldn’t hold her.

“I thought that was the end, and I thought they should be with their baby,” she said.

There were complaints by passengers that the crew didn't know how to lower the lifeboats and that as the ship listed to one side, no one knew what to do. There are also indications that safety exercises were not conducted, despite the ship being at sea for several days under the current cruise.

UPDATE:
Fixed Headline to properly refer to the Costa Concordia; not the Contra Concordia.