Damning Evidence Mounts Against Costa Concordia Captain

nydailynew.com photo

Transcripts published in two Italian newspapers contain damning evidence against Captain Francesco Schettino whom the operating company Costa Crociere blames for the death of passengers and a delay in evacuating passengers from the ill-fated Costa Concordia last Friday, the 13th of January.

Newspaper Corriere della Sera released a recording of ship-to-shore radio communications that it claimed captured coast guards emphatically ordering Captain Schettino to return to the ship. One coast guard is heard saying, "Listen Schettino, perhaps you have saved yourself from the sea, but I will make you look very bad. I will make you pay for this. Dammit, go back on board!" (from a Reuters report by Antonio Denti and Gavin Jones).

Il Fatto Quotidiano, another Italian newspaper, provided this account of what transpired. Quoting a local fire brigade commander, ten minutes after the Coast Guard asked Captain Schettino how many people remained on board, they called again to check the evacuation's progress. By then, he had left his ship and was on the rocks at Punta Gabbianara. Schettino replied that he had called the ship owners who said that 40 people remained. 

"So few? How is that possible?" asked the coast guard, before adding: "But you're on board?"

"No. I'm not on board because the bows of the ship are coming up. We've abandoned her."

"What do you mean? You've abandoned ship?"

"No. No way have I abandoned ship. I'm here," Schettino replied.

Later, the transcript reveals the most strident of the conversations from the coast guard.

"Captain, This is an order. Now I am in command. You have declared the abandoning of a ship and are going to co-ordinate the rescue from the bridge. There are already dead bodies."

"How many?"

"You're the one who should be telling me that! What do you want to do? Go home? Now, go back up and tell me what can be done, how many people there are, and what they need."

"All right, I'm going."


Tuesday, rescue divers used explosives to blast through the hull of the ship and found five more bodies in the ship's stern. The search for 24 people who remain on the list of missing people continues.