Italian Cruise Ship Disaster

Cruise captain claims he 'fell into lifeboat'
Europe correspondent Rachael Brown and staff
January 19, 2012

The captain who ran his cruise ship onto rocks off the Italian coast has reportedly told investigators he "tripped and fell into a lifeboat" as the stricken ship began to take on water.

The search for 23 people still missing after the wreck of the Costa Concordia was suspended overnight because of bad weather.

While maritime authorities begin their investigation into what went wrong, the ship's owner keeps pointing the finger of blame at captain Francesco Schettino.

Now Italian press reports say Schettino has told investigators he was not on board to direct the evacuation of hundreds of crew and passengers because he accidentally fell into a life raft.

The claim has sparked widespread anger in Italy.

Commander Cosimo Nicastro, from the Italian coast guard, says Schettino broke the golden rule.

"The captain has to be the last one to leave the ship," he said.

"This is international law, it is Italian law. When he left, there was still hundreds of people on board waiting."

Overnight an Italian judge said other crew members stayed on board for the evacuation, apparently refuting the captain's claim he had to oversee the operation from the shore.

And a shipping journal has revealed five months ago the ship passed very close to the island of Giglio on much the same track that it took last week.

The head of Costa Cruises, which owns the Costa Concordia, says the same ship did a similar stunt last August, sailing close to Giglio as the island celebrated its festival of the shooting stars.

But Costa CEO Pier Luigi Foschi said the ship had never been closer than 500 metres to the island.

However, the Lloyd's List shipping journal says its satellite tracking information puts the ship within 230 metres of the island in August - even closer than the accident site.

"I think what we've discovered with this data is that the company's account of what happened, of the rogue master taking a bad decision, isn't quite as black and white as they presented originally," editor Richard Meade said.

"This ship took a very similar route only a few months previously and the master would have known that.

"Now the master's account of the thing is that there were no rocks in his way, this was a perfectly safe route, the ship had done this before, and this evidence really does stack that up."

Schettino's lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, says the captain is devastated by the incident, in which 11 people have been confirmed dead so far.

"The captain is disturbed and indeed heartbroken by what happened, so let's move away from the negative profile that's been portrayed," he said.

"He's not only shaken for the loss of his ship, which for a marine captain is a serious thing, but above all for what happened and the loss of human life.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-19/captain-claims-he-fell-into-lifeboat/3781876

Quote:

captain was not doing his duty the CG should have airlifted to the ship someone who was able to take charge of the operation.

Once more where was the rest of the bridge officers as I see it there should had been no need to airlifted anyone else as the first officer should had taken charge then the second and then the third officer.............

in a crisis the most able authority must be in charge, and a lot of the time that is the government.

You make some interesting points, Hawk. All we hear about the Italian Coast Guard so far is their giving orders to everybody, including the captain. Has anyone seen a reference to the CG actually participating in the rescue efforts, let alone taking charge which, imo, is what they should have done as soon as the captain left his post?

Were they? All I read is the transcrpt of how they were ordering the return of the captain and shouting and carrying on.

In the Coast Guards defense it appears that one of the many failures of this corporation was that they waited hours to alert the CG at all,

I'd be interested in learning if it is just this one company that has been okay to "bowing to people on shore" or if it is done by others and in what circumstances, as shores do vary re rocks or lack of rocks.

If they did not know that this was done they should have known, and if they knew then they should have taken action against the captain who put so many people and such an expensive ship at risk

They waited hours?

9:30pm: The ship strikes a rocky outcrop just off the Tuscan island of Giglio.

- 9:35pm: The electricity goes off. Many passengers begin to panic.

- 9:45pm: A first alarm is sounded: two long whistles and one short, informing the crew of a problem.

- 9:50 pm: The ship begins to list. In the restaurants, dinnerware crashes off tables. Some passengers rush to their cabins for their life vests.

- 10pm: Some passengers gather on the fourth deck where the lifeboats are located, as the captain tries to manoeuvre the vessel closer to shore.

- 10:10pm: The "abandon ship" signal is given: seven short whistles and one long. Lifeboats begin their deployment.

- 10:20pm: The coastguard launches rescue operations with the help of speedboats and helicopters. Giglio's 800-strong population turns out in force to help transfer passengers to shore. Many passengers jump into the chilly waters instead of boarding lifeboats.

It was the Captain, not "the corporation" who should have sent out a distress call