Fifteen Costa Concordia Passengers Now Confirmed Dead

Italian search teams discovered two more female bodies on the Costa Concordia cruise ship after divers set off more explosives. The death toll from the disaster now stands at 15. Chief Franco Gabrielli of the Civil Protection Agency spoke at at a press conference on Giglio Island today and said 7 of the victims have yet to be identified.

The divers searching the Costa Concordia cruise liner today revealed that the decomposing bodies inside the stricken ship have created a noxious smeell. Naval officers and firefighters confirmed that the air aboard ship makes breathing almost impossible



The number of passengers still missing presents a moving target. Some reports set the current estimate at 24, although Gabrielli said a few unregistered people might have been on board when the ship hit the reef. Silvia Coronica, one of the ship's senior officers, claims Captain Francesco Schettino was distracted by guests he had invited onto the bridge of the Costa Concordia in the crucial moments before his cruise liner rammed into rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio. She said the captain panicked after the collision and ran from one area of the ship to the other. He did not give the order to abandon ship until an hour passed.


Reports accuse Schettino of taking his computer with him when he left the ship before many passengers had safely been evacuated. An attorney from Costa Crociere allegedly took the computer from Schettino when he reached the hotel where he was arrested, but the operating company denies that any of its employees has the computer.


As evidence mounts against him, Schettino emerges as a man who did not follow the protocols set for sea captains. His eventual trial should prove a media favorite.