FRANCESCO SCHETTINO, captain of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia, could have saved lives if he had given the order to "abandon ship" immediately, rather than wait for an hour and a quarter, according to an initial investigation carried out by the Italian coast guard into last Friday night's disaster.
Exasperated officers, frustrated by the captain’s procrastination, staged a de facto mutiny, evacuating passengers before Capt Schettino finally gave the abandon-ship order, the investigation found.
A judge in Grosseto has ruled that Capt Schettino should be released from jail and confined to his home near Naples under house arrest, his lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, told reporters outside the courthouse.
The confirmed death toll from the disaster has risen to 11, following the discovery of a further five bodies yesterday afternoon; 23 passengers remain unaccounted for.
Rome daily newspaper La Repubblicayesterday carried details of the key testimony of 10 officers on the Concordialast Friday night.
They argue that had the captain sounded the abandon-ship immediately, rather than waiting 75 minutes, the evacuation would have been much less dangerous. The officers say that for the first 40 minutes after the ship hit the rocks off the island of Giglio, it remained reasonably upright. By the time the order to abandon ship had been sounded, the ship had begun to list badly, making it difficult to launch the lifeboats as gravity banged them into the side of the vessel. Furthermore, the fact the Concordia ended up on its side meant almost half the lifeboats, those on the side in the water, could not be used.
In their testimony, the officers complain that, rather than taking decisive control of the situation, Capt Schettino spent the hour after the collision on his mobile phone, in animated conversation not only with the coast guard authorities but also with senior figures at the Costa company.
The investigation has reportedly concluded that the captain was so busy on his phone he constantly ignored information and pleas for instruction from his officers. When one officer reported from below that the ship’s engines and generators were out of action, completely flooded, he took no decision. Eventually, the officers took their orders from the second-in-command, Roberto Bosio, who immediately began to evacuate the ship, at 10.45pm, some 13 minutes before Capt Schettino sounded the abandon-ship.
Capt Schettino’s position was made more difficult following the release of a conversation between him and Livorno coast guard official Gregorio De Falco, as the evacuation took place. From the furious tones of De Falco, it is clear that the coast guard service had lost all faith in the captain, who, in the immediate aftermath, lied about the problem, saying it was merely an electrical failure.
In the conversation at 1.46am Capt Schettino, who had already abandoned the ship, was also ordered to get back on and resume command. Mr Schettino did not obey the order.