Tag Archives: cruise safety revisited

Prosecutors request manslaughter charge against Concordia captain

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Prosecutors request manslaughter charge against Concordia captain

By Phil Davies

Prosecutors request manslaughter charge against Concordia captain Italian prosecutors have formally requested a manslaughter indictment against Costa Concordia captain Francesco Schettino following last year’s disaster in which 32 people died.

Prosecutors in Grosseto, Tuscany, are also seeking the trial of Schettino on charges of causing a shipwreck and abandoning the vessel during the frantic and confused evacuation of passengers and crew.

The prosecutors said Costa Concordia was conducting a publicity stunt off the coast of the island of Giglio on the night of January 13 when the ship ran into a jagged reef, which left a 70-metre-long gash in the hull.

The vessel quickly took on water and capsized, ending up on its side near the island’s port.

Prosecutors also requested the indictment of five other crew members, including two officers who were on the bridge that night.

The proposed charges against them vary, but all are accused of manslaughter, according to theAssociated Press.

Chief prosecutor Francesco Verusio said that after a sophisticated scientific and technological investigation, “the determining cause of the events of the shipwreck, deaths and injuries, is, unfortunately, dramatically due to the human factor”.

Prosecutors said ship owner Costa Crociere has asked for a plea bargain agreement. If accepted, this could see the Italian line pay a €1 million (£877,000) fine. The company has blamed Schettino for the incident.

Schettino has repeatedly claimed it was his clever steering after the collision that allowed the ship to move closer to the port and help save lives. He has also said the reef was not marked on the ship’s navigational charts.

Concordia captain ‘treated worse than Bin Laden’

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Concordia captain ‘treated worse than Bin Laden’

Just days before the first anniversary of the Costa Concordia tragedy the ship’s captain, who is currently awaiting trial on charges of

multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship, has hit out at the public reaction to his actions.

Back on January 13th 2012, 32 people were killed when the liner carrying them hit rocks off the coast of the island of Giglio on the Tuscan coast.

It was alleged that the collision had been as a result of 52-year-old captain Francesco Schettino’s insistence on carrying out a sail by salute.

In the aftermath of the incident, a series of reports also suggested Mr Schettino had fled his post and escaped on a lifeboat, despite the fact that many of the ship’s passengers remained stuck onboard.

Regardless of this damning evidence, the cruise ship captain remains bitter about the public reaction to the incident.

Speaking in an extraordinary interview with La Stampa newspaper, he claimed: “I’ve been treated worse than Bin Laden.”

“I reject the image that has been attached to myself, it ridicules not only 30 years of my work but my experience worldwide,” he added.

Mr Schettino is due to stand trial later this year.

CEO says media ‘massacre’ could destroy Costa brand

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CEO says media ‘massacre’ could destroy Costa brand

By Donna Tunney

Costa Cruises’ bookings are down 35% year over year since the Costa Concordia accident in Italy on Jan. 13, the line’s chairman and CEO, Pier Luigi Foschi, told Italian newspaper La Stampa earlier this month.

The Foschi interview raised a specter that has not been openly discussed: that all the negative publicity surrounding the Concordia incident could ultimately sink the Costa brand.

“Our brand has been massacred by the media,” Foschi said, and even though “the company is solid, with a net worth of several billion euros,” Costa Cruises “could fail as a [brand].”

In an annual filing last month with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, parent company Carnival Corp. stated that booking volume across its brands had dropped by 20% in the immediate aftermath of the Concordia incident. But that figure did not include Costa Cruises itself. In its filing, Carnival Corp. said only that Costa’s bookings were down significantly.

In a follow-up to Foschi’s statements to La Stampa, Costa issued a statement explaining, “Our chairman and CEO replied to a question regarding the possibility of bankruptcy of our company. He actually replied that although the company is financially very strong and the company will not go bankrupt, there is no certainty about the brand.

“This declaration was caused by the enormous attack of the mass media on Costa Crociere, most of it unfair and unverified. However, it is necessary to clarify that this is a remote possibility because it is our intention to work hard to do everything in our power to save the brand and to restore our credibility.”

The Concordia hit a rocky reef as it sailed north from Civitavecchia and quickly took on water. The half-submerged ship remains off the coast of the island of Giglio, where salvage crews are trying to remove its 500,000 gallons of fuel.

Twenty-one people have so far been confirmed dead in the incident, and at least 11 remain missing.