NINE DAYS after it sank off the Tuscan coast, the cruise liner Costa Concordiacontinues to be at the centre of bitter debate.
The continuing battle of words between the ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, and the cruise operator, Costa Cruise, heated up yesterday when media sources reported the captain’s claim that the company was fully aware of the inchino (taking a bow) practice of sailing close to land.
This is believed to have prompted the disaster.
Not surprisingly, rescue workers found no survivors over the weekend, rather they found two more victims, bringing the death toll to 13. The sobering reality of this tragedy is that the search for survivors has yielded only three people – a South Korean couple found on the morning after the sinking and a ship’s petty-officer, found 36 hours later. At this point, 19-20 people are still missing.
At a news conference yesterday, the head of Civil Protection Franco Gabrielli, who since last Friday is in overall charge of the emergency operations, explained that the confusion about missing numbers is in part due to the fact there may have been a number of “clandestine” or unregistered passengers on the ship.
His predecessor at Civil Protection, Guido Bertolaso, was yesterday critical of the co-ordination of the rescue operation, pointing out that Mr Gabrielli had been handicapped by legal constraints.
Meanwhile, environmentalists are concerned about the slow pace of the operation to recover the ship’s 2,400 tonnes of fuel. Weather permitting, the fuel recovery operation is expected to begin in earnest today.
Thus far, predictions of rough weather off the island of Giglio have proved mistaken, meaning that various preparations for the extraction of the fuel have already been made. Ministry of environment official Luigi Alcaro said again that the extraction of the fuel, the semi-solid IFO 380, could take up to four weeks.
Rescue authorities are still considering the feasibility of some form of anchorage of the stricken liner in order to hold it fast in its current precarious position. However, Smit International, the Dutch fuel recovery team, told The Irish Times that the fuel could still be extracted even if the ship moved and sank completely.
On the legal front, some of the first shots in what is sure to be lengthy and difficult litigation were apparently fired by Capt Schettino, the man who stands accused of manslaughter, shipwreck and of having abandoned his ship.
Rome daily La Repubblica yesterday reported his claims, made during questioning by Grosseto public prosecutors last week, that the Costa Cruise company was not only aware of the “sail-by” practice but that it encouraged it, for PR reasons.
Furthermore, Capt Schettino not only says that the company was aware that the Costa Concordiawould be sailing close to Giglio on the night of Friday, January 13th, but also that he kept it fully informed of the emergency in the moments immediately after the crash on the rocks.
Capt Schettino appears to imply that the crucial, perhaps fatal, 75-minute delay between the collision and the order to abandon ship had the approval of the Costa company.
La Repubblica also speculates that the reluctance to sound the order to abandon ship might also have had an economic side to it, since the 3,000-plus passengers who were forced to abandon ship, could still claim heavy compensation – even in the event of a false alarm.