costa concordia - captain showing off

Costa Concordia captain's detour to please waiter flagged on Facebook

by: NewsCore, AFP
From: AFP, NewsCore
January 17, 201212:00AM


UPDATE 10.05am: RESCUERS are racing against time in the hunt for more survivors in the hulk of a submerged giant cruise ship off the coast of Italy, smashing windows and swimming through water-logged corridors as fears grow for the 29 still missing.

While the human drama unfolded inside the Costa Concordia's wrecked remains, crews outside installed anti-spill booms to prevent a possible ecological disaster resulting from the fully-fueled ship hitting rocks near the island of Giglio and then slumping on its side.

The confirmed death toll currently stands at six.

The coast guard said yesterday four crewmen and 25 passengers remain unaccounted for, revising upward an earlier estimate of 16 missing.

What caused the 17-deck behemoth carrying more than 4000 passengers and crew to veer into the barrier Friday night has not been positively determined.

But the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that the captain, Francesco Schettino, allegedly performed a 'sail-by' close to Giglio's rocky shores to please his head waiter, Antonello Tievoli, 46, who comes from the island.

The (UK) Daily Telegraph reported that the waiter's sister posted an entry on her Facebook page saying she had been told the ship was “going to pass really close”, and sending “a big hello to my brother”.

Mr Tievoli is said to be “tormented by a sense of guilt” over the tragedy, his family said, even though he did not ask the captain to perform the sail-by.

Meanwhile, according to a taped telephone conversation released overnight, Mr Schettino did not respond to an order to return on board to oversee rescue operations.

ANSA news agency said Mr Schettino was evasive when ordered by a port official to supervise the rescue hours after the disaster Friday while several hundred people were still trapped on board.

"Now you go to the bow, you climb up the emergency ladder and coordinate the evacuation," the official tells him, according to the transcript of the conversation recorded on one of the ship's "black boxes".

"You must tell us how many people, children, women and passengers are there and the exact number of each category," he said.

"What are you doing? Are you abandoning the rescue? Captain, this is an order, I am the one in charge now. You have declared abandoning ship," he said, adding, "There are already bodies."

"How many?" Mr Schettino says, prompting the cutting reply, "That is for you to tell me, what are you doing? Do you want to go home?"

Earlier, Mr Schettino said in another telephone call that we "cannot get on board because the rear of the ship is keeling over."

ANSA also said there was a kind of "mutiny" among the crew which decided on an evacuation before being given formal orders by the captain.

The head of the company that owns the vessel said it hit a rock as a result of an "inexplicable" error by the captain, who was arrested along with first officer Ciro Ambrosio.

"He carried out a manoeuver which had not been approved by us and we disassociate ourselves from such behavior," said Pier Luigi Foschi, the boss of Costa Crociere, Europe's largest cruise operator.

Italian prosecutors have said the two could face charges of multiple homicide and abandoning ship before all the passengers were rescued.

'I wouldn't like to be captain of the Titanic'

Mr Schettino told a newspaper in a 2010 interview that he never wanted to face a scenario like the Titanic, which sank in 1912 on the way to New York, resulting in the loss of 1517 lives.

"I wouldn't like to be in the role of the captain of the Titanic, having to sail in an ocean of icebergs," he said in the December 2010 interview with the Czech daily, Dnes.

"But I think that thanks to preparation, you can handle any situation and deal with potential problems," he told a reporter from the paper who happened to be on a cruise with him.

"Passenger security is paramount."

The captain defended himself Sunday, telling Sky Italia TG24 that the ship struck a rock that was not shown on nautical charts.

AFP reported Mr Schettino was being held under special surveillance in Grossetto, the main town in the area.

"He has not shown any suicidal tendencies but it is clear that he is going through a very delicate period which requires special attention," a prison official said.

Choppy seas hamper rescue

Rescuers returned to the scene yesterday after being temporarily pulled off when choppy seas caused the hulk to slip on a rocky shelf.

"The conditions inside are disastrous. It's very difficult. The corridors are cluttered and it's hard for the divers to swim through," Rodolfo Raiteri, head of the coast guard's diving team, told AFP.

Photos from the scene showed divers struggling through water-logged interiors almost completely filled with barricades of furniture and other debris.

But the local mayor said there were still hopes of finding more people alive.

"You never know in the labyrinth of that ship, an air pocket could have allowed people to survive a few days," Sergio Ortelli told AFP.

'Ecological timebomb'

But Mr Ortelli also warned the stricken vessel was an "ecological timebomb" in the pristine waters of a marine nature reserve off the west coast of Italy.

He added there were 2380 tons of fuel aboard the ship, which had begun its Mediterranean cruise only hours earlier.

"This is the second worry after human lives," he said, as crews began putting down anti-spill booms.

"I hope that the fuel can be taken off the ship soon and maybe the ship can be removed too because it is hampering navigation.

"We are monitoring constantly but there has been no spill so far."

However, Rodolfo Raiteri, the head of the coastguard diving teams searching for survivors, said the ship had shifted 9cm and the divers had been called off for the time being.

Famous for its sandy beaches and rustic charm, Giglio is a major holiday destination in the summer when the population swells from around 800 permanent residents to some 5000 people and is dotted with exclusive villas.

The island is also a major marine sanctuary and popular for whale-spotting.

Local officials are calling for new rules imposing strict limits on navigation in the area and in particular an end to the practice of "showboating" when cruise ships file past close to the island.

The Italian news agency ANSA reported helicopters overflying the area had noticed patches of leaking fluid from the ship that resembled diesel fuel or waste water.

Italy's Ministry for the Environment has begun constructing a containment barrier spanning a 100m radius, ANSA said.

Experts from two ship salvage companies, US-based Titan Salvage and Netherlands-based Smit, were reported on site waiting to assess the ship.

Environment Minister Corrado Clini said a state of emergency would be declared at the next cabinet meeting tomorrow - or earlier if possible - to raise funds and beef up rescue and cleanup operations in case of an environmental disaster, AFP reported.

"That's enough, we have to stop treating these ships like they were simple vaporetti," said Clini, referring to the boats that ply the canals of Venice.

The death toll from the disaster rose to six yesterday, with the discovery of another body, believed to be an Italian passenger, on the second deck in an unsubmerged part of the ship, ANSA reported.

Among those reportedly still unaccounted for are a Minnesota couple, Gerald and Barbara Heil, aged 69 and 70, of White Bear Lake north of Minneapolis-St. Paul.

In Washington, the State Department asked anyone with information their whereabouts to come forward.

Meanwhile, Carnival PLC, the parent company of Costa Crociere, saw its shares tumble nearly 17 percent in London trading Monday as the company said it expects a hit of up to $95 million to 2012 earnings.

Carnival also said it was likely the ship would remain out of service for the duration of the financial year, if not longer.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/i-wouldnt-like-titanic-role-captain/story-e6frf7lf-1226245930161