Sonar device had been off at the time of the shipwreck
The Costa Concordia cruise ship had nearly 300 Filipino crewmen on board when it capsized last January. Francesco Schettino, the captain, is accused of the manslaughter of 32 people and abandoning ship. He has admitted to making mistakes, but his lawyers say that several aspects of the incident need closer examination, including whether all the onboard safety and navigation equipment was working properly. Much of the argument presented at the hearing this week has focused on possible wider failures that may have contributed to the loss of the cruise ship after being brought too close to shore during a manoeuvre known as a “salute”.
The ship’s equipment, crew training and safety procedures have all been criticised but the liner’s operator, Costa Cruises, a unit of the U.S.-based Carnival Corp, has placed the blame on Schettino. “The size of the hole in the Concordia is enormous as was confirmed by the expert evidence which was discussed this morning,” the company’s lawyer stated. “It was also confirmed than within 40-50 seconds the ship was unmanageable because the systems went down immediately.” He said water rushed in so quickly that the company’s crisis unit, in charge of handling the response to the accident from shore, had no time to do anything before the ship was lost.
A panel of court experts told the hearing that the sonar device had been off at the time of the shipwreck, according to people present in the hearing. Data from the black box of the ship will be revealed during the hearing. Any subsequent trial is not expected to be held until 2013.
Meanwhile, the shipwreck remains in the water off the Tuscan coast. Salvage crews are working to stabilise the hulk, which is expected to be removed by spring 2013