The head of the cruise line
believes the ship’s course was
altered without authorisation.
SPEAKING to media in a conference call
overnight, Costa chairman and CEO Pier Luigi
Foschi did not mince his words.
“It is human error here,” he said.
“The captain did not follow the authorised
route that is used by Costa ships very
frequently.”
According to Foschi, the area where the
Concordia hit rocks and capsized on Friday
night, killing six people so far, is used by Costa
vessels more than 100 times a year, but the
official route is further out to sea.
He said he believed Captain Francesco
Schettino sailed off course to show off the ship
to residents on the Italian island of Giglio.
“The captain, of course, does have the
authority to change the approved course, but
we are not expecting him to do so unless there
are dangerous weather or sea conditions,”
Foschi said.
Local media has reported Schettino was
trying to impress a person at the port, while
other reports say he boasted about the
manoeuvre to the ship’s head waiter.
Responding to claims that this was not the
first time a Costa ship had sailed close to
Giglio’s shore, Foschi said it had happened
once last year to celebrate the island’s patron
saint day, but the route was authorised at a
safer distance from land.
Foschi defended the rest of the crew, saying
that other officers in the bridge did not have
the power to overrule the captain, and he also
praised the performance of those involved in
the evacuation of more than 4,000 people,
including 23 Australians and one New Zealander.
But he said the company would review its
much-criticised policy on conducting lifeboat
drills within 24 hours of departure, instead of
before departure.
Foschi said exact details of the incident were
not available to the company because the
ship’s “black box” data recorders had been
seized by prosecutors conducting the formal
investigation.
Meanwhile, Costa is focused on the
continuing rescue effort and avoiding a
potential oil spill after an unidentified “liquid”
was found to be leaking from the ship.
A state of emergency has been declared to
help prevent an environmental disaster.
Captain Schettino is being held in custody for
questioning on possible charges of
manslaughter, shipwreck and abandoning ship.
As of Tuesday morning, the confirmed dead
include two French passengers, an elderly
Spanish man, an Italian and a Peruvian
crewmember, with 16 people still missing and
at least 60 injured.
All 24 passengers from Australia and New
Zealand, including two Australian residents
from the UK, survived.
