Costa Concordia Cruise Liner’s Company Blames Captain for Disaster

The company operating the Costa Concordia cruise liner, which ran aground off Tuscany has blamed the captain for the disaster as Italy’s environment minister declared a state of emergency and insurance analysts warned the wreck could be the biggest insured loss in maritime history.

Rescue workers have found a sixth body, a male passenger. According to a tally that has changed repeatedly over the past three days, 29 people remain missing – four crew members and 25 passengers. Amid deteriorating weather off the island, the search for survivors was suspended for several hours after the 114,500-tonne liner shifted a few centimetres, raising fears it might break up.

Pier Luigi Foschi, chairman and chief executive of Costa Cruises, said Captain Francesco Schettino had made an “unapproved, unauthorised manoeuvre” before the disaster, deviating from his route to make a “salute” to the island of Giglio.

Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper reported that the manoeuvre had been advertised on Facebook by the sister of a crew member. The paper said that the sister of Antonello Tievolli, the vessel’s chief steward, said in a Facebook post before the crash: “In a short period of time the Concordia ship will pass very close. A big greeting to my brother who will finally get to have a holiday on landing in Savona.”

Foschi’s version of events also followed a report in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera that Schettino altered his route for two reasons. One, it said, was to pay tribute to a retired Costa Cruises’ skipper who lived on the island. The other, said the paper, was to give a unique view of Giglio to the vessel’s chief steward, a native of the island.

Foschi defended the way the crew had handled the evacuation, and cast doubt on claims that Schettino had abandoned his ship before it was complete.

The environment minister, Corrado Clini, said that the ship had run aground in what was a maritime nature reserve, and was leaking liquid although it was not clear if this was fuel oil. Clini said he would declare a state of emergency which would release state funds to help prevent an environmental disaster. At an emotional press conference in Genoa, Foschi fought back tears as he apologised for the accident. “We need to acknowledge the facts, and we cannot deny human error,” he said. Speaking in English, Foschi said the captain “wanted to show the ship and to nearby [sic] this island of Giglio, and so he decided to change the course of the ship to go closer to the island and pass through in front of the little city that sits in that island”.