January 17, 2012 12:00AM

A risky practice by cruise ships of passing close by to the Tuscan island of Giglio in a foghorn-blasting salute to the local population led to the sinking of the massive cruise liner Costa Concordia with the loss of up to 22 lives.

The captain, Francesco Schettino, is said to have been showing off, steering the 114,500-tonne liner just 150m from shore -- and then afterwards abandoning ship before everyone had been safely evacuated.

Before the rescue was suspended last night because of the bad weather, a sixth body was discovered in the vessel.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/costa-concordias-captain-francesco-schettino-was-showing-off/story-e6frg6so-1226245841882

On eve of Italian criminal inquest, lawyers in US and France are ready to pounce if justice does not prevail

ONE WOMAN has such a fear of water she is unable to take baths. Others report agoraphobia, panic attacks, depression and nightmares. Many suffer recurrent visions of seeing people swept away to their deaths.
 
They are the 4,220 remaining survivors of the Costa Concordia, the giant cruise ship that ran aground and sank off the coast of Tuscany on 13 January this year, leaving 32 dead and the ship's captain under arrest, besieged by rumours that he had a young mistress on board and that he had endangered passengers' lives by sailing too close to land for a lark.

The survivors are scattered across the world, all with a common painful experience, but each carrying their own unique post-traumatic burdens and pursuing different paths to justice.

LAWYERS representing families of passengers who died when the Costa Concordia cruise liner capsized a year ago this week are filing a criminal complaint against British and American directors of the ship's parent company, Carnival.

New evidence to be deposited in the long-running Costa Concordia case alleges that criminal responsibility for the fatal shipwreck doesn't stop with Captain Francesco Schettino, but goes all the way to the top.

British and American directors of both Carnival plc, and its American holding company, Carnival Corporation, are among those named in a criminal complaint being readied for filing in Grosseto, Italy, by a Milan law firm.

The complaint calls for Italian prosecutors to widen the number of persons being investigated in connection with the accident on 13 January 2012 that left 32 dead and more than 4,000 passengers and crew grounded on the small Italian island of Giglio.

Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/europe/costa-

Although I am not an expert in litigation law, in navigation, the captain is the only person responsible for disasters at sea, no matter what the instructions are. Even if encouraged to entertain the masses by skimming the shore line, the captain is responsible for making sure it is safe to do so. Imagine the instruction to the captain being to : "run aground, that will make the approach to the island a bit more fun and dramatic!"

That won't pass mustard.

Even in the case of the Titanic, despite its rivets being sub-standard, the responsibility stays with the ship's captain not to run into an iceberg.

The trial of Francesco Schettino, the captain of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia cruise liner, has been adjourned due to a lawyer strike. He faces manslaughter charges for the January 2012 crash that killed 32 people.

Captain Francesco Schettino appeared in court on Tuesday to face charges of multiple manslaughter, causing environmental damage and abandoning the Costa Concordia cruise liner that crashed of the coast of Italy in January 2012.

However, shortly after the trial began it was adjourned to July 17 due to a national lawyers' strike in Italy.

Schettino's defense team, Domenico and Francesco Pepe, have said they plan to show that "no single person was responsible" for the disaster and that the blame should be more evenly shared with other crew members as well as the ships' parent company, Costa Crociere.

Up to 450 witnesses and 250 plaintiffs may be called to give testimony during the trial. One witness scheduled to take the stand is Italian coast guard official Gregorio De Falco, whose leaked phone call to Schettino on the night of the disaster was widely broadcast in reporting about the event. De Falco ordered the captain to return to the ship to direct the evacuation, but Schettino claimed he had fallen into a lifeboat and was coordinating the rescue from the shore.

If convicted, Schettino could face up to 20 years in prison.

read more: http://www.dw.de/trial-of-costa-concordia-captain-adjourned-due-to-lawyer-strike/a-16937076

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Captain Francesco Schettino, the man accused of causing the Costa Concordia disaster, was entertaining his young lover – against the rules – on the ship’s bridge when the giant vessel struck a reef off the Italian coast, it emerged.

His former lover, the Moldavian dancer Domnica Cemortan, 26, admitted to an Italian court she was having an affair with the married 53-year-old captain, who is accused of allowing his showboating behaviour to cost the lives of 32 people after the giant vessel partially capsized off the island of Giglio in January 2012.

Prosecutors have alleged that the large number of superfluous people on the bridge at the time of the collision, particularly the presence of Ms Cemortan, “generated confusion and distraction for the captain”.

Previously, Ms Cemortan has said she had only been called up to the ship’s bridge after the accident in order to translate vital information that officers wanted to relay to Russian passengers

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/costa-concordia-trial-dancer-domnica-cemortan-admits-captain-francesco-schettino-was-her-lover-and-tells-court-she-was-on-ships-bridge-when-it-capsized-8911492.html

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The captain of the Costa Concordia, the cruise ship that ran aground off the coast of Italy in 2012 resulting in the deaths of 32 people, has been found guilty of manslaughter.

Francesco Schettino was found guilty of the most serious charges against him by an Italian court on Wednesday and sentenced to 16 years in jail.

The disgraced commander, who was dubbed “Captain Coward” after it emerged that he abandoned the sinking ship even as hundreds of panicking passengers awaited rescue, was not present for the reading of the verdict by a panel of three judges.

read more: 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/11/costa-concordia-francesco-s...

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An Italian appeals court has upheld the 16-year sentence given to the captain of the Costa Concordia which capsized in 2012 killing 32 people.

Francesco Schettino was sentenced last year after a court found him guilty of manslaughter; causing a maritime accident and abandoning ship.

He was seeking to overturn the conviction, while the prosecution wanted a longer prison term.

The cruise ship capsized after hitting rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio.

Schettino has not yet begun his sentence and has one final appeal to Italy's highest court.

read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36421474

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Kohlmann is responsible for testing and introducing modern propulsion technologies at Carnival Maritime. The Costa Concordia disaster off Giglio Island in January 2012 was a low point for the company and focusing on more sustainable technologies offered an opportunity to establish a new identity. The disposal of the wreck turned into an environmental operation of almost bizarre thoroughness. It ended up costing fully 1.5 billion euros, around three times the cost of replacing the sunken vessel.

Kohlmann has been allocating a growing budget to green technologies. Among the research projects was the use of waste heat from the cooling and exhaust systems to save energy. Here, too, says Kohlmann, natural gas and marine diesel, which is largely free of sulfur, are useful. "Clean fuels make it possible to further cool exhaust without corrosive damage," he says.

Read more:

https://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/cruise-ship-lines-look-to...

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