[BITList] Cruise ship captain: ‘I fell into lifeboat’ | The Times
Michael Feltham
ismay at mjfeltham.plus.com
Wed Jan 18 21:54:56 GMT 2012
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Wednesday, January 18
Cruise ship captain: ‘I fell into lifeboat’
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James Bone, Giglio Island, and Philippe Naughton
Last updated January 18 2012 5:33PM
The Italian cruise captain accused of abandoning his sinking vessel with passengers still aboard is claiming that he slipped and “fell” into a lifeboat as the liner listed.
Francesco Schettino, dubbed by one newspaper “the most hated man in Italy”, has also confirmed that he made a mistake manoeuvring the 950ft Costa Concordia before she hit rocks off the Tuscan coast on Friday night.
Eleven people have been confirmed dead and a further 22 are missing aboard the ship, which is lying on her side on a rock face off the island of Giglio.
The exact numbers of people missing is still not clear. It emerged today that a German woman whose name had appeared on the list - Gertrud Georgens - had already gone back home - where she walked into a police station to confirm that she was alive.
Mr Schettino, 52, who faces multiple manslaughter charges as well as a charge of deserting his vessel, was questioned yesterday by a panel of investigating magistrates.
According to Italian press reports, he confirmed that he was performing an “inchino” - a sail-by salute - to a former colleague on the island, with whom he was speaking on the telephone.
“The route was decided at the departure in Civitavecchia, but I made a mistake on the approach to shore,” he said, according to La Repubblica newspaper.
“I was navigating by sight because I know the depths there well and I had done that manoeuvre three or four times before. But this time I ordered the change of course too late and I ended up in water that was too shallow.
“I don’t know why it happened. I was lost in my thoughts.”
Mr Schettino was arrested on Saturday but released into house arrest, returning to his home at Meta di Sorrento on the Amalfi coast near Naples.
Prosecutors are considering an appeal against the decision not to remand him in custody, especially if it becomes clear that he will be prosecuted.
Telephone recordings from the night of the shipwreck have shown a coastguard official yelling at Mr Schettino after he left his ship, telling him to “Get the f*** aboard”.
But Mr Schettino insisted at yesterday’s hearing that he had managed to save “thousands of lives”, had given his own life jacket to a customer, and ended up in a lifeboat only by accident.
“Unexpectedly, seeing that the boat was listing 60 or 70 degrees, I stumbled and ended up in one of those lifeboats,” La Repubblica quoted him as saying. “That’s why I found myself there.”
The Corriere della Sera had a slightly different version — saying that he claimed to have been propelled into a lifeboat while helping passengers to flee the boat.
“I had no intention of running away,” Mr Schettino said. “I was helping some passengers get one of the lifeboats in the sea and at a certain point the lowering mechanism got blocked and we had to force it.
“Unexpectedly, the system reactivated and I, having been knocked over, found myself inside the lifeboat together with a number of passengers.”
The newspaper noted that both Dimitri Christidis, the ship’s second officer, and Silvia Coronia, the No 3, were on the same lifeboat. “Is it possible that they also fell in by accident?” it asked.
Investigators are busy piecing together the events of the night, using the ship’s black box and the testimony of survivors.
They are reported to be focusing on a succession of telephone calls between Mr Schettino and Roberto Ferrarini, marine operations direct of the ship’s owner, Costa Cruises. The men spoke three times between 9.42pm, when the ship hit the rocks, and 10.58pm, when the captain belatedly gave the order to abandon ship.
Sergio Ortelli, the mayor of Giglio, told The Times that Mr Schettino was seen on land soon afterwards.
“My police chief told me that evening that the captain was on the rocks just in front of the boat shortly after 11pm. He was dry. He did not swim.
“There were many people still inside the boat. He’s incredible, this man.”
Rescue workers were forced to suspend the search for missing passengers and crew today after the stricken cruise ship again shifted on the rocks, prompting fears for the safety of divers and firefighters.
The £290 million vessel had more than 4,200 passengers and crew on board when she slammed into the reef off Giglio.
The bodies of five adult passengers — four men and a woman, all wearing lifejackets — were discovered in the wreckage yesterday, raising the death toll to 11.
Instruments attached to the ship detected movements early this morning, forcing the search to be suspended even though firefighters who spent the night searching the area above water could not detect the movement. No additional passengers or crew were found.
“As a precautionary measure, we stopped the operations this morning, in order to verify the data we retrieved from our detectors, and understand if there actually was a movement, and if there has been one, how big this was,” said Filippo Marini, the Coast Guard commander.
Officials said they hope the data from the instruments will reassure them that the ship has resettled, allowing the search to resume. The latest victims were discovered after navy divers blasted holes in the ship’s hull to allow easier access.
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Andrew M
January 18, 2012 8:14 PM
Bruce Ismay owner of the Titanic also managed to secure himself a place in a lifeboat. The public hate afterwards probably made him wish he hadn't.
I reckon this guy is going to be looking forward to a spell in prison....
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John Parker
January 18, 2012 8:13 PM
Leanora Nunn, I think you will find that in a major emergency various officials are designated as being in charge at specific points- Its quite likely that the coastguard ( or was he the harbour master?) is designated as the person in overall charge in maritime major incidents within a certain radius of the harbour. It is a pretty standard arrangement in such situations to avoid confusion. Hence his statement "I'm in command now"- it was probably technically and practically the right thing to say.
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Leanora Munn
January 18, 2012 9:13 PM
Em, if you read my comment ( I think it was actually a reply to someone else's comment, also praising the coastguard) I wasn't criticising the coastguard. It was quite the opposite; I thought he played a blinder.
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Garth Rex
January 18, 2012 7:57 PM
"Cruise ship captain: ‘I fell into lifeboat’"
That rdiculous statement will live forever in infamy!
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Martin O'Sullivan
January 18, 2012 7:50 PM
I love the Johnny Foreigner schtick.
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Charlotte Harris
January 18, 2012 7:14 PM
Is that a valid excuse? Will thieves be using it in the future?
'Sorry, I FELL in to the till and money FELL in to my pocket'
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Robert Wise
January 18, 2012 7:13 PM
The nautical version of "the dog ate my homework".
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Scott Benowitz
January 18, 2012 7:09 PM
This raises the question why would you even want to flee from this sinking ship? From the pictures that have been shown in The Times as well as on the news on television, it appears that this ship sank extremely close to the shore. It makes sense that some of the passengers would not know how to swim, but the captain of any ship would likely be a good swimmer. This makes astoundingly little sense...
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Ed T
January 18, 2012 7:02 PM
He took a dive your honour!
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mafalda
January 18, 2012 5:43 PM
Still I do pity him. Would anybody like to be in his place?
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Tom Webley
January 18, 2012 6:07 PM
The 11 people who died probably would.
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Barrie Duke
January 18, 2012 5:41 PM
He's a natural for running the EU - he might fall into the job.
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Scott Benowitz
January 18, 2012 7:23 PM
I'd sooner vote for him than some of the existing MEP's if I lived in Europe...
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Anon
January 18, 2012 5:12 PM
“I don’t know why it happened. I was lost in my thoughts.”
So what was he thinking? 10 points for the top answer???
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Central Line
January 18, 2012 5:17 PM
Cazzo!!
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Natasha Giles
January 18, 2012 6:02 PM
Limoncello and carla bruni.... bunga bunga parties with the young ladies and belusconi.... whether his mother has done his washing yet... he must remember to buy some new hair cream... ow. my toe hurts? what's that... oh a lifeboat!
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Henry Plantagenet
January 18, 2012 4:58 PM
Yes Mr Captain, and I told my boss this morning that I fell back into bed.
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The Scot
January 18, 2012 4:53 PM
Wonder what 'do you think we've got buttons on the back of our heads?' is in Italian?
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Philip Tomlinson
January 18, 2012 4:42 PM
I think much of this criticism is racist!
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John Woods
January 18, 2012 5:00 PM
i don't understand, is that a joke?
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Anon
January 18, 2012 5:08 PM
.......no, its Italian for ‘spot on’!!
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Chris DE
January 18, 2012 5:59 PM
So are you saying non-whites are abusing him?
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MCGibbo
January 18, 2012 4:08 PM
This man is really unlucky, first his ship hit a rock that wasn't supposed to be there and then he slipped and fell into a lifeboat.
Poor unfortunate fellow.
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