A 16TH body was recovered from the Costa Concordiayesterday. At this stage, 12 days after the cruise liner ran aground off the Tuscan coast, it would seem the grounded vessel will yield only dead bodies.
Franco Gabrielli, the emergency commissioner in charge of the rescue operation, said 22 people were still officially missing. The Costa Cruises company this week denied media reports that the number of those missing might be much higher because of the presence of clandestine passengers on board.
Volunteer divers, navy and fire service experts continue to risk their lives as they inspect the part of the ship that is under water.
In a curious upside-down world, where the ceiling is the floor and vice versa, they constantly risk being trapped by floating objects such as chairs, tables, lamps and even carpets. They also have to rely on a rope attached at one end to their wetsuits and at the other to dinghies on the surface to find their way out of the murky wreck, where visibility is less than two feet.
To help them enter the ship, the divers have for days now been using small amounts of explosives, even under water. Yesterday’s victim was found as a result of such an explosion, carried out near bridges four and five, two of the main “assembly” points.
As holes are blown in the ship, objects including furniture, personal effects and even money have come floating to the surface, so much so that the rescue operation has established a sort of “lost property” office for survivors.
While the search for survivors has lost much of its urgency, the threat of a potential environmental disaster has not.
Mr Gabrielli confirmed yesterday that preparations for the extraction of the ship’s 3,200 tonnes of fuel, and the positioning of a crane pontoon, were almost complete. However, the actual extraction is not due to start until Saturday.
On the legal front, the Concordiadisaster becomes more controversial by the day. Yesterday, Tuscany public prosecutor Beniamino Deidda was reported as suggesting that the media's focus on the "failings" of the ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, may have distracted attention from the culpability and/or responsibility of the Costa Cruises company.
Testimony from senior officers on the ship, widely carried in Italian media this week, suggested "inchino" (taking a bow), or sailing close to the shore, was a regular practice on the Concordia, encouraged by the company.
The officers also said there was too much confusion on the bridge at the time of the collision, while one officer said Capt Schettino went “back and forwards on the bridge in a panic”.