Schettino was repeatedly refusing to return to the sinking vessel
A frantic Coast Guard officer berated the captain of the capsized Costa Concordia as he sat safe in a life raft, refusing to return to his ship and direct the evacuation order.
“You go on board! Is that clear? Do you hear me?” the Coast Guard officer shouted at Capt. Francesco Schettino.
“It is an order. Don’t make any more excuses. You have declared ‘Abandon ship.’ Now I am in charge.”
A damning recording of Coast Guard Capt. Gregorio De Falco shouting at Schettino to return to the ship was posted online Tuesday by Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra. The Coast Guard authenticated the recording.
In the radio exchange, Schettino can be heard repeatedly refusing to return to the sinking vessel from a lifeboat to help co-ordinate the frantic evacuation.
“I am here with the rescue boats. I am here. I am not going anywhere. I am here,” he said. “I am here to co-ordinate the rescue.”
“What are you co-ordinating there? Go on board! Coordinate the rescue from aboard the ship. Are you refusing?” came the response from De Falco.
“You go on board and then you will tell me how many people there are. Is that clear?” De Falco shouted in the audio tape.
Schettino resisted, saying the ship was tipping and that it was dark.
De Falco yelled back: “And so what? You want go home, Schettino? It is dark and you want to go home? Get on that prow of the boat using the pilot ladder and tell me what can be done, how many people there are and what their needs are. Now!”
The recording ends with Schettino agreeing to board the ship, but the Coast Guard said he never did.
The death toll rose to 11 Tuesday, as divers pulled the bodies of five people – four men and one woman, all wearing life vests and in their 50s or 60s – from the wreckage.
Schettino has been jailed on suspicion of manslaughter and abandoning the vessel before all passengers were evacuated. He has been placed on house arrest.
The grim discovery of additional victims came after rescue crews expressed a “glimmer of hope” that some of the missing passengers and crew could be found alive. Twenty-four people are still unaccounted for.
The Costa Concordia luxury cruise liner, with 4,200 people aboard, ran aground near the tiny island of Giglio Friday night.
Schettino has been accused of deviating off course and performing a dangerous “fly by” manoeuvre to get close to Giglio as a favour to the ship’s chief waiter, whose family lives on the island.
Prosecutors were preparing to question the captain Tuesday before a judge decides if he should remain in jail. Prosecutor Francesco Verusio called Schettino’s conduct “reckless” and “inexcusable.”
Four days after the cruise smashed into rocks and capsized, divers blasted holes in the hull of the vessel Tuesday in hopes of finding survivors inside. The 12 Canadians on board made it out safely.
Brett Rivkind, an experienced maritime lawyer from Miami, told CTV’s Canada AM the cruise ship’s owner, Costa Crociere, will probably admit liability in the disaster and work out a settlement with victims’ lawyers.
Costa Crociere CEO Pier Luigi Foschi has admitted that Schettino broke the rules and made an unauthorized move before tragedy struck.
“I don’t think (passengers) will have to prove negligence,” Rivkind said.
“The question here, I think, is: ‘Was there gross negligence?'” he added, referring to potential manslaughter charges against Schettino.
Meanwhile, Italy’s environment minister is warning of a potential ecological crisis if some 1.9 million litres of fuel from the cruise ship start leaking into pristine waters around Giglio, home to dolphins and whales.
A Dutch extraction firm has been hired to safely remove the oil from the wreckage, but says that could take between two to four weeks. The search for the missing takes priority, officials said.
Click here to see relative video.
Source: AP